Verses

Excerpts from--

Runnin' Away: Behind the scenes at the Sly Stone show

By Gabe Meline - Oct. 22, 2008 - North Bay Bohemian

The insane circumstances surrounding Sly Stone’s appearance in Santa Rosa were told to me by several people.

Sly Stone is in Los Angeles. He fires his business manager. Sly tells the promoter that he’s his own boss now, that he’s the one who’s going to get paid at the show and that he needs $3,000 wired to the bank account of an Iranian BMW saleswoman before he’ll even get on the plane to San Francisco.

The plane was supposed to arrive from Los Angeles at 11:30am.

The limo waits at the airport. Sly’s next flight becomes 1:30pm, then 2:30pm, 3:30pm and 5:30pm.

The promoter drives to the airport in the slim hope that Sly might walk through one of the gates.

Finally, at 7:30pm, with his young Japanese girlfriend in tow, the 65-year-old Sly shows up at the airport. He’s an hour and a half away from the show—which starts in a half hour—and he demands to go to the hotel. The young girlfriend finally talks him out of it, and he agrees to go straight there, but he’s still talking about getting paid.

He sleeps all the way to Santa Rosa.

Sly doesn’t hit the stage at the Wells Fargo Center until 10:30pm, during the fifth song of the set. He walks off the stage 25 minutes later, in the middle of “I Wanna Take You Higher,” telling the crowd, “I gotta go take a piss. I’ll be right back.”

But Sly never comes back. The band continues on without him, killing time for 30 minutes. During the last song, a man appears on the stage, whispering into band members’ ears.

Meanwhile, backstage, Sly is demanding to be paid.

Sly is out in the parking lot, still in his white suit, trying to get into the promoter’s car. All the doors are plainly locked, but he keeps trying. Finally, a woman drives by, picks him and his Japanese girlfriend up, and they whiz away. Word of his departure gets inside.

Sly’s making a getaway? Sly’s driving off right now? You’d better chase after him if you want to get paid?

The band members pile in their cars and find Sly precisely where they thought he’d be: the Fountaingrove Hilton. He’s not in his room. All the rooms are reserved under the business manager’s name, whom Sly fired that morning.

“Get me out of here,” he’s heard telling his driver, and they peel out.

It is not an uncommon sight to see cars racing down Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa on a Friday night.

The lead car giving chase contains a funk music legend, pursued by five more cars driven by band members, some of whom have played with him for 40 years. Six cars race down the street, weaving in and out of lanes.The young Japanese girl cries hysterically in the car.