Sly Stone speaks

The Family: Errico, Rose, Sly, Cynthia Robinson, Freddie Stone, Jerry Martini and Larry Graham.
Photograph: Bob Cato/Sony Music

Alexis Petridis of the Guardian managed to track down Sly Stone for a chat, it's fascinating reading...

"It is a sweltering August evening and I am perched on the edge of a bouncy castle in the grounds of a child-friendly hotel near Newquay. I'm supposed to be on holiday with my wife and kids, but instead I'm listening to Sly Stone tell me about his new idea for a band, a band he claims will be "even stronger" than the Family Stone....

... And I speak to, [Cynthia] Robinson, [Jerry] Martini and drummer Greg Errico, who still tour together as the Family Stone. Between them, they tell tales about the early days, when not everyone they encountered was, as Robinson puts it, "into seeing different races having fun together": "one time, me and Jerry walked by a barber shop, Jerry with his long-haired hippy look, me with my Angela Davis afro, and they ran out the store with razors. We had to run! We hadn't even said anything to them!"

But the most striking thing is the awe and reverence in which they hold their former bandleader. "He's like Superman, literally," offers Robinson. "He's got x-ray vision." "He affected my life second only to God," says Martini. "Why don't people try to love him for what he did? He had so much to offer the music business and the world in general. Why is everybody concentrated on drugs or this or that?"

Read the full interview: Sly Stone: 'Albino musicians could neutralise all the racial problems'