Funk master and innovator Sly Stone, whose music drove a civil rights-inflected soul explosion in the 1960s, sparking influential albums but also a slide into drug addiction, has died, his family said Monday. He was 82.
The multi-instrumentalist frontman for Sly and the Family Stone -- rock's first racially integrated, mixed-gender lineup -- "passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend and his extended family," after a prolonged battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other health issues, his family said in a statement.
