Sly Stone Pleads Not Guilty to Cocaine Charge

Sly Stone performs at Coachella, April 18, 2010.

Charley Gallay/Getty Images

Reclusive funk legend Sly Stone has pleaded not guilty to possession of cocaine in a Los Angeles court yesterday. Stone – who has a history of drug abuse – was arrested in April after police pulled over a van he was in for a minor traffic violation. Rocks of cocaine were found in the clothing of both Stone and the driver of the vehicle.

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According to Peter Knecht, one Stone's defense attorneys, the drugs did not actually belong to the Sly and the Family Stone frontman. "A lot of musicians hang out with people who have drugs," Knecht said. "How are they supposed to know?"

Stone is set to appear in court in Van Nuys, California for a pretrial conference on July 19th. His arraignment was originally scheduled for last week, but the singer was briefly hospitalized for heart problems.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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