Sly Stone Is Homeless in Los Angeles
Troubled funk legend Sly Stone has been living out of a white van in Los Angeles following a long downward spiral of drug abuse and financial mismanagement. “I like my small camper,” Stone told the New York Post. “I just do not want to return to a fixed home. I cannot stand being in one place. I must keep moving.”
Stone, 68, is typically parked on a residential street in Crenshaw, a rough neighborhood in the city that is best known as the setting for Boyz N the Hood. A retired couple in the area provide the singer with food and a restroom, and their son serves as his assistant and driver. Despite his circumstances, Stone still works on music and records new material on a laptop computer. He recently released his first album in two decades, I’m Back – Friends & Family.
Stone, who sold his music publishing rights to Michael Jackson in 1984 for a reported $1 million, was forced out of his Napa Valley house in 2009 when he stopped getting royalty payments as the result of a conflict with his former manager Jerry Goldstein, who he has accused of fraud and embezzlement. A lawsuit against Goldstein is pending.
Earlier this year, Stone pleaded not guilty to possessing cocaine when his van was pulled over for a minor traffic violation in Los Angeles.