In Los Angeles, Wednesday February 8th 2006, an event occured that hadn’t happened for 30 years. Sly And The Family Stone performed to a captivated audience as part of a tribute to the group at the Grammys.
All original members performed at the show, minus Larry Graham, who was said to be ill. Rusty Allen once again stepped in to fill his shoes on bass.
The band performed as the climax to a 10-minute slot, which saw artists featured on the tribute album perform “Family Affair”, “If You Want Me To Stay” and “Dance To The Music”. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith then shouted “Hey Sly, show ‘em how you used to do it!” and onstage walked Sly Stone, to tbe biggest cheer of the entire evening.
Showing he had lost none of his attitude over the years, Sly’s choice of styling for the evening was a massive silver-metallic coat and foot-high blond mohawk haircut. He then went on to perform “I Want To Take You Higher” with the rest of the Family Stone, plus the tribute artists. Sly left the stage before the end of the song, whether this was planned or not is unclear.
The performance may not have been a throwback to their glory years (and was not helped by technical glitches and poor direction), but the gesture was the main thing. Sly lives!
Photo taken in 1974:
