Funk Legend Sly Stone Now Homeless & Living Out of Van After Life of Excess, Substance Abuse & Financial Mismanagement Wipe Out Fortune

SHAME: Funk legend Sly Stone is homeless and now living out of a van in California. According to the NY Post, Stone's fortune was stolen by a lethal combination of excess, substance abuse and financial mismanagement.

He lays his head inside a white camper van ironically stamped with the words “Pleasure Way” on the side. The van is parked on a residential street in Crenshaw, the rough Los Angeles neighborhood where “Boyz n the Hood” was set. A retired couple makes sure he eats once a day, and Stone showers at their house. The couple’s son serves as his assistant and driver. Inside the van, the former mastermind of Sly & the Family Stone, now 68, continues to record music with the help of a laptop computer.

In his heyday, he lived at 783 Bel Air Road, a four-bedroom, 5,432-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion that once belonged to John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas. The Tudor-style house was tricked out in his signature funky black, white and red color scheme. Shag carpet. Tiffany lamps in every room. A round water bed in the master bedroom. There were parties where Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Miles Davis would drop by, where Etta James would break into “At Last” by the bar. Just four years ago, he resided in a Napa Valley house so large it could only be described as a “compound,” with a vineyard out back and multiple cars in the driveway. Source: NY Post

Sly Stone, one of the greatest figures in American music history, is just one of many, many entertainers who live a life of excess, only to end up broke and many ultimately commit suicide. Vesta Williams may have committed suicide last week after she was found dead in an El Segundo hotel room. I don't feel any pity for these people. They are their own worst enemies. I just feel so much pity for the families and friends they leave behind wondering why they chose that path.