Latest news with #SlyLives
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Questlove, Chuck D & More React to Sly Stone Death: ‘Sly's Music Will Likely Speak to Us Even More Now Than It Did Then'
Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone died Monday (June 9) at age 82, and the music community is grieving the groundbreaking funk pioneer. Questlove, who directed the new documentary Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius), shared a touching tribute on Instagram. More from Billboard Sly Stone Dead at 82 Kylie Minogue Joins Prestigious '21 Club' at London's O2 Arena Kevin Parker Previews New Tame Impala Music During Barcelona DJ Set 'Sly Stone, born Sylvester Stewart, left this earth today, but the changes he sparked while here will echo forever. From the moment his music reached me in the early 1970s, it became a part of my soul. Sly was a giant — not just for his groundbreaking work with the Family Stone, but for the radical inclusivity and deep human truths he poured into every note,' he wrote. 'His songs weren't just about fighting injustice; they were about transforming the self to transform the world. He dared to be simple in the most complex ways — using childlike joy, wordless cries, and nursery rhyme cadences to express adult truths. His work looked straight at the brightest and darkest parts of life and demanded we do the same.' The Roots drummer also highlighted two lines that 'haunt me' as he reflected on his legacy: 'We deserve everything we get in this life' from Sly Lives! and 'We got to live together' from the group's 1968 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit 'Everyday People.' 'Once idealistic, now I hear it as a command. Sly's music will likely speak to us even more now than it did then. Thank you, Sly. You will forever live,' Questlove continued. Public Enemy's Chuck D thanked Questlove 'for keeping his FIRE blazing in this Century' on X while sharing an illustration of Stone and Questlove. He posted more artwork of the psychedelic soul group while writing, '………and The Family Stone Rest In Beats SLY.' Legendary record executive Clive Davis, who worked with the group when it signed to CBS Records in 1967, wrote in a statement to Billboard, 'Sly was truly one of a kind. I had the very special experience of knowing him when he was at his most creative, his hardest working and his genius flourishing vibrantly. Sly's artistry influenced so many of our important creative talents. He will be forever missed.' KISS frontman Paul Stanley remembered seeing Sly and the Family Stone 'debut at the Fillmore East in New York City opening for Jimi Hendrix. They were a freight train of bombastic, joyous SouI that would soon climb the charts and change the sound of R&B for so many other artists. Rest In Soul!' he wrote on X. Holly Robinson Pete also celebrated Stone's pioneering efforts. 'You didn't just make music—you shifted the culture. As kids in Philly, my brother played Sly, I was Cynthia on my imaginary horn. We lived your music. You gave us the groove & the message. Thank you, genius,' she wrote on X. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame posted an in memoriam tribute thread on X, including a clip of Stone's acceptance speech during a very rare public appearance when he and the group were induced in 1993. The Rock Hall praised Sly and the Family Stone for making 'it possible for Black popular music to burst free on its own terms' and 'extending the boundaries of pop and R&B with each new song,' while hailing its 1969 Hot 100 No. 1 hit 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),' the double A-side single with 'Everybody Is a Star,' for helping 'create the sonic blueprint for the funk and disco genres that followed.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Americas' EP On Capturing Astounding Nature Scenes & Working With Tom Hanks, 'An Absolutely Delightful Bloke' – Contenders TV: Documentary, Unscripted & Variety
Frogs that freeze solid overnight in the Andes and then reanimate by day. Rockhopper penguins in Patagonia that scale a wall of stone 'free solo.' In Appalachia, fireflies that illuminate a forest in unison. These are just a few of the wonders captured in The Americas, the Emmy-contending 11-part nature series from Universal Television Alternative Studio and NBC. Tom Hanks narrates this examination of the astonishing variety of life on a supercontinent stretching from northern Canada to the bottom of South America. More from Deadline Deadline's Contenders Television Streaming Site Launches Sly Lives!' Filmmakers Questlove And Joseph Patel On Sly Stone's Genius And That Revealing Encounter With Maria Shriver – Contenders TV: Documentary, Unscripted & Variety 'RuPaul's Drag Race's Season 17 Queens Discuss The Series' "Beautiful" Storytelling & Welcoming Their Parents To The Stage - Contenders TV: Documentary, Unscripted & Variety 'We wanted to tell a story that was an adventure,' executive producer Mike Gunton explained as he appeared at Deadline's Contenders TV: Documentary, Unscripted & Variety event. 'I wanted it to feel like a safari, a fun safari. So if you were to go to the very best places you could ever go on this massive supercontinent, where would they be and who would be your guide? Tom Hanks. But if you go on a safari, you want to have the serious things. You want to have the scary things, you want to have the dramatic things, but you also want to have that playful side of things.' Gunton's extensive credits include Prehistoric Planet Seasons 1 and 2, Planet Earth II and Planet Earth III. He knows how to engage an audience with the inherent drama of the animal world. 'My own approach has always been to try and focus on individual character stories,' Gunton said. 'So you don't tell a [general] story about lions or about blue-footed boobies. You tell the story about a pair or an individual who's struggling with a task, almost like a hero's journey for each of these creatures. And one of the things that that does is I think it makes it connectable. Part of the entertainment of watching this is you see in these animals' lives your life reflected and vice versa.' RELATED: The Americas has been a major hit for NBC, becoming 'the most-watched nature documentary on linear television in more than 15 years.' It doesn't hurt the odds of success when you can draw on the talents of a two-time Oscar winner as your narrator. '[Hanks is] an absolutely delightful bloke and did such a good job, brought all sorts of his own skills and personality to it,' Gunton observed. 'Some of the little asides, we wanted some of those slight fourth-wall-breaking moments — not too much but just occasionally pointing up the kind of humanity of some of the things you saw. And I think he did that really, really well.' Before agreeing to join the project, Hanks watched a rough assembly of an episode. 'What was really wonderful,' Gunton recalled, 'is at the very end of showing him this cut, he turned and said, 'I was born to narrate this.' ' Check back Monday for the panel video. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About The 'Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping' Movie So Far Everything We Know About Netflix's 'The Thursday Murder Club' So Far TV Show Book Adaptations Arriving In 2025 So Far
