Sly Stone Is Homeless & Living in a Van

It's the worst kind of "Where are they now?" story: Funk legend Sly Stone is 68 years old, and living out of a van in the Los Angeles projects. With his band Sly & the Family Stone, Sly -- whose real name is Sylvester Stewart -- played at Woodstock, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and created classic tracks like "Everyday People" and "I Want to Take You Higher." But the singer is now broke, thanks to what the New York Post calls "a lethal combination of excess, substance abuse and financial mismanagement."

It seems that Stone's decline happened gradually, starting with a serious drug habit that began to drive his band and family apart in the early '70s. His cocaine and PCP (phencyclidine) use was so compulsive that he recalls heading out with $2,500 to buy a Christmas present for his young son, and "by the time I get (to the store), I had spent it all on drugs." He was arrested several times for cocaine possession in the 1980s.

But there were money problems as well. Stone was a big spender who lived on his own compound in Napa Valley and liked to collect cars. In 1984, he sold his music-publishing rights to Michael Jackson, a mistake that robbed him of future millions. In 2009, however, the money stopped coming in entirely. Stone says it's because his manager, Jerry Goldstein, defrauded him with a bad contract. (He's now suing Goldstein for $50 million.) That's when he moved into the van he calls home.

Most days, Stone's van can be found parked in L.A.'s rough-and-tumble Crenshaw neighborhood, where a retired couple feeds him and lets him shower in their home. And, to hear the musician tell it, he's perfectly content.

"I like my small camper," Stone tells the New York Post. "I just do not want to return to a fixed home. I cannot stand being in one place. I must keep moving."

Stone hasn't given up on music, though. He is constantly working on new songs, which he records on his laptop computer, and now he just wants another shot at the career that made him a soul icon.

"Please tell everybody, please, to give me a job, play my music," he urges the Post. "I see all the guys playing those old songs. Let these guys know, like Lady Gaga, let me come in, just let me come in and pay me if you like it."

Hear that, Gaga? Give the man a job!

Gabrielle Union Garcelle Beauvais Genelle Frenoy Georgianna Robertson