Sly Stone Sues Former Manager Over Royalties for $50 Million
Sly Stone is suing the Family Stone’s former manager for $50 million, claiming that manager Jerry Goldstein bilked 20 years worth of royalties from the band in order to fund his own lavish lifestyle, the Wrap reports. According to Stone’s lawyer Robert Allen, in 1989 Stone signed a deal that he believed was a management contract with Goldstein; instead, Allen claims, Stone was tricked into signing over the rights of all his music to Goldstein, as well as the trademark for the Sly and the Family Stone name. Since being made aware of the allegations, BMI stopped any further royalty payments to Goldstein.
“[Goldstein] just hoped Sly would die broke in the back of a van before he found out,” Allan told the Wrap. In the suit, Allen writes that Goldstein’s actions represent “a dark side of the music business where some of these artists are being robbed of their intellectual property and the fruits of their genius by unscrupulous people who prey on their trusting nature and lack of business and legal knowledge.”
As Rolling Stone previously reported, Sly and the Family Stone will make a rare live appearance on the final day of the Coachella Festival, taking place April 16th through 18th in Indio, California.
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