Sly Stone has some money to bring home to the Family after a Los Angeles court ruled in his favor as part of a lawsuit against his old company, a former manager and a former attorney. The performer, once part of the legendary Sly and The Family Stone, alleged that he didn't receive royalties for more than a decade while the defendants claimed the opposite, along with their help getting him out of financial trouble (from Billboard).
Stone struggled with notorious drug abuse issues once the Family Stone fell out of the limelight. He was approached by Gerald Goldstein and Glenn Stone, his manager and attorney at the time respectively, during 1989 with the offer of working for Even St. Productions Ltd. The performer assigned his royalty rights for the company and was to receive a cut, but that's where the stories differ. Stone's current attorneys suggest that he never received a dime from '89 through 2000.
Legal counsel for the defense argued otherwise, suggesting that Stone had no royalties to steal from when he began with Even St., and that Goldstein and Glenn Stone had helped renegotiate contracts with record labels to ensure their then client got out of financial trouble, including millions in debt to the Internal Revenue Service (which they also helped him pay back). The defense claimed Stone was to record new albums during the '90s to help contribute to his own financial struggles but he did no such thing.
The court wasn't hearing any of it however, demanding that $5 million in payments be made to Stone: $2.5 million from Even St., $2.45 million from Goldstein and $50,000 from Glenn Stone. Lawyers for the defense said the order will be challenged, noting that Even St. filed for bankruptcy during 2013.
It's no secret that Stone continued to have money troubles well into the new millennium, even spending a brief spell homeless.
