Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir

The never-thought-we'd-see-it memoir from the legendary Sly Stone.

Not many memoirs are generational events. But when Sly Stone, one of the few true musical geniuses of the last century, decides to finally tell his life story, it can't be called anything else.

As the front man for the sixties pop-rock-funk band Sly and the Family Stone, a songwriter who created some of the most memorable anthems of the 1960s and 1970s ("Everyday People," "Family Affair"), and a performer who electrified audiences at Woodstock and elsewhere, Sly Stone's influence on modern music and culture is indisputable. But as much as people know the music, the man remains a mystery. After a rapid rise to superstardom, Sly spent decades in the grips of addiction.

Now he is ready to relate the ups and downs and ins and outs of his amazing life in his memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). The book moves from Sly's early career as a radio DJ and record producer through the dizzying heights of the San Francisco music scene in the late 1960s and into the darker, denser life (and music) of 1970s and 1980s Los Angeles. Set on stages and in mansions, in the company of family and of other celebrities, it's a story about flawed humanity and flawless artistry.

Written with Ben Greenman, who has also worked on memoirs with George Clinton and Brian Wilson, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) is a vivid, gripping, sometimes terrifying, and ultimately affirming tour through Sly's life and career. Like Sly, it's honest and playful, sharp and blunt, emotional and analytical, always moving and never standing still.

Author: Sly Stone
Publisher: Picador USA
Published: 10/15/2024
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.25h x 5.38w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781250872265

About the Author

Sly Stone was born Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas, in 1943. He had brief careers as a doo-wop singer, a radio DJ, and a record producer before founding and fronting Sly and the Family Stone. Mercurial, idiosyncratic, and inimitably brilliant, Sly Stone is a true American original. He lives in Los Angeles. This is his first book.

Ben Greenman was born in Chicago, raised in Miami, and shaped largely in Brooklyn. He is a New York Times bestselling author who has written both fiction and nonfiction, including collaborations with Questlove, George Clinton, Brian Wilson, and Stevie Van Zandt. His criticism and journalism have appeared in a number of publications, including The New Yorker, where he was an editor for more than a decade, and the Miami New Times. He would also like to thank you (falettinhim be hymns elf agin).