Funk legend Sly Stone passed away on June 9, but his legacy is more than musical. His life is a cautionary tale about artists signing their rights away and bad management.
As the frontman of Sly and the Family Stone, he helped redefine Black music in the 1960s and ’70s with a sound that was decades ahead of its time — one that laid the groundwork for artists like Prince and Public Enemy, according to Fan Wire.
Money Made, Money Lost
But by 1984, Stone was in financial turmoil. He sold his publishing rights to Michael Jackson for just $1 million. Adjusted for inflation, that’s around $3.1 million today — but the long-term cost of that decision would prove far greater. The deal led to legal disputes and symbolized how even icons can be exploited by the system they helped build.
Stone’s life remains both a musical triumph and a sobering reminder of what happens when artists lose control of their work.
In 1989, Stone’s then-manager, Jerry Goldstein, stopped sending the artist royalties and instead made Stone a partner of a new company. Stone had signed a contract that assigned his royalty rights to Goldstein’s company, Even St. Productions, in exchange for a 50 percent ownership stake in the company, a bad decision the funk artist said he was pressured into agreeing to.
Goldstein, through Even St. Productions, maintained strict control over Sly Stone’s finances after 1989, providing Stone with only modest weekly payments.
The arrangement made it difficult for Stone to afford stable housing, and his living conditions deteriorated over time.
After being evicted from a rented house in 2007, Stone lived in his van starting in 2009, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Throughout this period, Stone — who struggled with drug addiction — did not receive royalty payments, as Even St. Productions diverted these funds to pay off his substantial IRS debts, which the company estimated at around $10 million.
In 1980, Billboard reported that Stone had a lien on his income, having owed the IRS a multimillion-dollar debt. The money generated from Stone’s hit songs was used to collect his debt for the next 15 years.
The signing away of his royalties led him to fight it in court in 2010, suing Goldstein and 10 others for $50 million for fraud and breach of contract for unpaid royalties spanning two decades.
In January 2015, a jury awarded Stone about $5 million after its verdict concluded that Even St. Productions was taking advantage of the artist.
Even St. was ordered to pay $2.5 million and Goldstein was forced to pay $2.45 million and an associate named Glenn Stone had to pay $50,000, Rolling Stone reported.
Even St. Productions filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2013.
However, in December 2015, a California judge overturned the ruling, saying that as a part-owner of the company, he was ineligible to collect damages, The Los Angeles Times reported.
After the $5 million verdict in Sly Stone’s favor was overturned in 2015, the decision was appealed and a new trial was granted.

The parties settled in 2017 for a sum much less than $5 million.
As part of the settlement, Stone regained some intellectual property rights, including the use of his name.
The renewed control over his legacy contributed to his ability to publish a memoir in 2023 entitled “Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin” — based on one of his hits— and participate in a documentary about his life released in 2025 produced by Questlove.
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