Few musicians have shaped the sound of popular music as profoundly as Sly Stone. As the frontman of Sly & The Family Stone, he pioneered a revolutionary blend of funk, rock, soul, and psychedelia, creating timeless hits like “Everyday People,” “Dance to the Music,” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).” His band was one of the first racially integrated, genre-blurring groups in music history, influencing everyone from Prince to Dr. Dre. At the height of his fame in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Sly Stone was a superstar, performing to sold-out crowds, raking in millions, and living a lifestyle as extravagant as his music was groundbreaking.
But by the 2010s, the man who once headlined Woodstock and revolutionized funk was homeless, living in a van on the streets of Los Angeles. His fortune had mysteriously vanished, his royalty checks had stopped, and he was battling legal disputes over who controlled the rights to his legendary catalog. In 2015, he finally appeared to score a major victory—a $5 million lawsuit judgment against his former manager, who had allegedly withheld decades of royalties.
It should have been the moment that turned his life around.
But instead, the money never came.
What happened next is a story of legal battles, industry exploitation, and one of music’s greatest cautionary tales.
$50 Million Royalty Lawsuit
By the late 2000s, Sly Stone was in dire straits. News broke in 2011 that he was homeless, living out of a camper van parked in a rough Los Angeles neighborhood. The man who once owned multiple luxury homes was now surviving on small handouts and food from neighbors. In interviews, Stone blamed his former manager, Jerry Goldstein, for his financial downfall.
According to Stone, his royalty checks had mysteriously stopped arriving in the late 1980s. In 2010, after years of financial hardship, he filed a $50 million lawsuit against Goldstein, accusing him of fraud and breach of contract. Stone claimed that between 1989 and 2009, he had not received a single royalty payment, even as his classic songs continued to generate millions in licensing fees, record sales, and airplay.
The case went to trial in 2015, and Stone won—or so it seemed.
A Los Angeles jury ruled in his favor, awarding him $5 million in damages. The verdict found that Goldstein and his company, Even St. Productions, had essentially funneled Stone’s royalties into their own accounts, leaving the musician with nothing. The ruling was hailed as a long-overdue victory for a once-great artist who had been wronged by the industry.
For the first time in decades, it seemed like Sly Stone was about to get his financial due.
But that victory was short-lived.
Just months after the verdict, Goldstein’s legal team appealed the ruling, claiming that the jury had “gotten it completely wrong.” In December 2015, the judge overturned the $5 million award, citing a crucial technicality: Sly Stone had legally signed away his royalty rights in 1989.
According to the ruling, Stone had willingly assigned his royalties to Goldstein’s company, Even St. Productions, in exchange for a 50% ownership stake in the business. Goldstein’s lawyers argued that the arrangement had been mutually agreed upon and that Stone had, in effect, been paying himself through his stake in the company.
Despite strong evidence that the contract had been misleading or exploitative, the court ruled that Stone no longer owned the rights to his royalties—which meant he had no legal claim to the $5 million judgment.
The money was gone.
Stone’s lawyers appealed again, and in 2016, a California appellate court granted him a new trial, briefly reviving hope. But by 2017, the case was settled out of court. Stone never received the lump sum payout, though the settlement allowed him to regain control of some of his music rights, including the name “Sly & The Family Stone.”
(Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
The Michael Jackson Connection
One of the most fascinating aspects of Sly Stone’s legal and financial saga is its connection to Michael Jackson.
Ironically, it was Paul McCartney who first taught Michael about the publishing rights business. In 1982, while recording the song “Say, Say, Say” together in London, Michael briefly lived with Paul and Linda McCartney. After dinner one night, Paul retrieved a thick leather book from a shelf. The book, Paul explained, listed every song right that he had purchased in the previous decade. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, Paul bragged that in the last year alone, he had made over $40 million in royalties ($96 million in 2013 dollars) from his song rights. When Paul was done speaking, Michael looked at him and said:
“Someday, I’m gonna own your songs.”
Paul laughed and responded:
“Great, good joke!”
Michael was not joking.
Between 1982 and 1984, he invested millions of dollars buying publishing rights from a wide variety of artists. One of his first purchases? The publishing rights to Sly & The Family Stone’s catalog.
By purchasing Sly’s songwriting catalog, Jackson’s company, MIJAC Music, gained control over hits like “Family Affair,” “Dance to the Music,” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime.” This meant that every time these songs were played, covered, or licensed for a commercial, Jackson’s company (not Sly Stone) earned the publisher’s share of royalties.
Jackson used the same strategy to purchase the Beatles’ catalog in 1985, famously outbidding Paul McCartney for control of 251 Lennon-McCartney compositions. This made him one of the most powerful figures in music publishing, earning millions from classic songs he didn’t write but owned the rights to.
So, what does this have to do with Sly Stone’s lawsuit?
Sly’s lawsuit wasn’t about the publishing rights Jackson owned. It was about the writer’s share of royalties—the money Sly should have personally received for composing those songs. While MIJAC Music controlled the catalog, Sly should have still been entitled to a portion of the revenue as the original songwriter. But due to the contract he signed with Goldstein’s company in 1989, he had unknowingly signed away his own songwriter royalties.
Ironically, in 2010, when Sly Stone was struggling financially, the Jackson estate purchased his remaining catalog interests for $1 million. This means that Sly himself had to sell off more of his rights to stay afloat, ensuring that he would never regain full control of his catalog. By 2019, the Jackson estate fully secured the U.S. publishing rights to Sly’s catalog in a final legal agreement, ensuring that Sly Stone would never again control the bulk of his music rights.
In short, while Michael Jackson’s purchase of Sly’s catalog didn’t directly cause Sly’s financial troubles, it meant that by the time Sly was desperate for money, he had almost nothing left to sell.
In February 2024, Sony paid $600 million for a 50% stake in MIJAC Music. This sale actually did not invole the Beatles catalog. Long story short, as you now know, Michael bought the Beatles’ song catalog in the 1980s for around $50 million. In 1991, Sony paid Michael $100 million to form a new company called Sony/ATV, which also merged some of Sony’s music assets into the new entity. Sony/ATV was worth $1-2 billion at the time of his death, but Michael had borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars against the value to fund his lifestyle in his later years. In 2016, Sony acquired the other half from Michael’s estate for $750 million. Today, Sony/ATV controls over 2 million songs and is worth 2-4 billion.
Where Is Sly Stone Now?
Today, Sly Stone is in his early 80s and still living a modest, nomadic lifestyle. After years of health issues and financial struggles, he now receives royalty checks from his restored rights, but he never regained the vast wealth he once had.
In 2023, Stone released his memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), finally telling his own story after decades of legal battles and industry exploitation. In 2025, Questlove directed a documentary on his life, bringing renewed attention to his unparalleled influence on music.
His legal saga remains one of the most cautionary tales in the music industry—a story of lost royalties, bad contracts, and a system that often fails the very artists who built it.
Sly Stone never got his $5 million, but at the very least, he got his name back—and perhaps, at long last, the recognition he always deserved.