Was Sly Tone's Net Worth on the Higher or Lower Side? — We Are Ready to Find Out

In an October 2023 interview with The Guardian, Sly Stone revealed that in 2019, he was told by doctors that if he continued to smoke crack, death would be knocking on his door. At the time, the founder and frontman of Sly and the Family Stone was still actively using at the age of 76. "They told me that if I kept smoking, I would ruin my lungs or I might die," he told the outlet.

Despite decades of drug use, that particular conversation got to the multi-instrumentalist. "From the way I was feeling, I took it serious this time. Once I decided, it just happened," he explained. Beyond the toll being an addict can take on one's body and mental health, it can drain your bank account pretty quickly. Here's what we know about Sly's net worth at the time of his death.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, when Sly passed away, he was worth $500,000. The bonafide musical prodigy could play several instruments by the time he was 11 years old. His first job was working as a disc jockey at KSOL, a radio station in San Francisco. While there, he was a hired gun, playing keyboards for folks like Dionne Warwick, the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers, and Chubby Checker.

Those gigs were in the early 1960s and paved the way for Sly and The Stoners in 1966. One night while chatting with his brother Freddie (who played in Freddie and the Stone Souls) the siblings decided to fuse their bands together. Out popped Sly and the Family Stone which was cemented by Rose Stone's arrival in 1968. The band recorded four albums in quick succession and was one of the biggest names in music in just a few short years.

The band found drugs after moving to Los Angeles in 1969, in particular, cocaine and PCP. This slowed their recording progress down significantly. For the next two years, Sly and the Family Stone released one single, though it dropped a funk beat that changed the musical landscape at the time. With the 1970s came two more albums, but gigs were being canceled by promoters due to the unreliability of the drug-addicted members of the group.

The band broke up after a poorly attended show at Radio City Music Hall in January 1975. Sly embarked on a solo career that was marred by his drug use. "Sly never grew out of drugs,” his ex-wife Silva told People in June 1996. "He lost his backbone and destroyed his future." The embattled singer, along with the rest of the Family Stone, occasionally popped up for tributes or accolades. Despite his many struggles, the band solidified themselves as trailblazers of funk and soul.