Oh Sly, We Hardly Knew Ye

We tuned into the Grammys last week, and among the spectacles, the most bizarre had to be Sly Stone’s two minutes on stage. I have been intrigued with this iconic ’60s figure ever since I first heard that classic tune “Family Affair,” and when I saw him emerge on stage, I was glued to the set. He cut quite a figure with a platinum mohawk, a huge silver overcoat, and a belt buckle that said “SLY.” The musicians included Steven Tyler and many other stars, and they bowed down as the reclusive big man made his entrance.

The NY Post reported yesterday that after his two minutes of “barely singing and listlessly bobbing his mohawked head–drifted offstage mid-song. Our insider reports hunchbacked Stone, 62, vomited in the wings. “He was overcome with stage fright. He left the building on his own. No one saw him go out. No one knows where he went.”

I looked up Stone’s bio and found that he had been arrested for cocaine possession a few times and even did prison time in 1987, after another failed comeback attempt. Like so many of his Woodstock brethren, he succombed to drugs and wasted great talent. There won’t be another comeback, of that I am sure.