IN 2017, a documentary called On The Sly: In Search Of Sly Stone attempted to nail down some of the truths about its protagonist. A decade-long quest to find the reclusive musician, it was full of agonising near-misses and tantalising brief encounters that climaxed outside a 2005 show by Phunk Phamily Affair, led by Stone’s sister Vet, at Hollywood’s Knitting Factory club, where Sly himself, sporting a blond mohawk, pulled in driving a custom three-wheel Harley.
Such brief, random sightings were not unusual – but after a Grammys appearance in 2006, where he gave his has never felt more prescient…