Sly Stone, the singing superstar once worth an estimated $40 million, is now homeless and living in a van in Los Angeles. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
He was a huge name in music from the '60s and '70s, worth $40 million. Sly Stone was not shy about flaunting his wealth. He had outrageous clothes, a fleet of classic cars, the lifestyle of a rich and famous star, and that's why the Sly Stone of today is a heartbreaking sight.
INSIDE EDITION found Stone broke, homeless, down and out, living in a beat up old van on a street in Los Angeles's tough Crenshaw District.
"Do you look back and wish you did things differently?" INSIDE EDITION's Jim Moret asked.
"Yeah," said Stone.
It's a rags to riches story in reverse. He and his group, Sly and the Family Stone, had nine number one hits, including classics like "Family Affair" and "Thank You."
In his heyday he lived in five star hotels. Now Stone now lives in van.
He runs an extension cord into the home of a friendly couple for electricity. He's just barely scraping by. The 69-year-old's health is in decline and his voice is so weak and hoarse from years of hard living and drug abuse, you can barely understand him.
"Where did things go wrong?" asked Moret.
"I should have just stayed playing music," Stone said.
One neighbor, who did not want to go on camera, said he wants Stone to just leave.
"I think a lot of people put up with him because he is an old celebrity," the man said.
The same neighbor says he's on the brink of calling local authorities.
"Me personally, yeah I'd like him to leave, I'd like him to get out of town, I think it's bringing down the property value."
From the fleet of classic cars he once owned, a 1963 Studebaker is the only one left. A Studebaker and a van are all that's left of his once vast riches and a storied life and career.
