Dr. Deborah Jenkins

Sly Stone wrote Everyday People and Family Affair. At 71 he was living in an RV. A jury awarded him $5 million in his royalty case against his old manager, and a judge took it back. In the video below, it is two days after the verdict. A reporter outside his RV asks what he will do with the money. "Probably get a bigger new RV," he says. Three of his songs went to No. 1. For 20 years, he said, not one royalty check arrived. In 1989 he signed with a new manager, Jerry Goldstein. His royalties went into a company they set up together, Even Street Productions, in exchange for a 50% stake. In 2010 Sly sued him for $50 million. A year later he was found living in a camper van in Los Angeles. In January 2015 a Los Angeles jury agreed the royalties had been diverted. It awarded him $5 million, $2.45 million of it from Goldstein. Asked what he would do first, Sly said he would think of his kids. Then a judge threw the verdict out. The 1989 signature was legal. He never got the $5 million. Little Richard sold Tutti Frutti for $50. Sly Stone wrote three No. 1 hits and ended up in an RV. Was Sly robbed, or did he sign it all away himself?