Sly Stone, legendary funk singer, has been awarded $5 million in his lawsuit against a former manager and attorney, according to Variety.
Stone’s trial which lasted for five years, concerned the claim that his manager Gerald Goldstein and attorney Glenn Stone have involved Sly to sign an agreement with Even Street Prods. in the late 1980s, then diverted millions in royalties, not leaving a penny to the funk icon. Now the singer has finally received his money. And just in time.
As reported by factmag.com, after an appeal rejection in 2013 that deemed BMI, Sony, and Warner were not liable to pay things looked extremely grim for Stone, especially when reports came in that he was homeless and living in a van in Los Angeles.
During the trial, Stone, whose real name is Sylvester Stewart, testified that he had not received any royalty payments between 1989 and 2000. Although both Stone’s former manager and attorney claimed that the singer was not tricked into signing the contract, but was aware of the terms and renewed the agreement 40 times over 15 years between 1994 and 2006, the jury have said their word.