• I Found ‘One in a Million’
    Awake!—1989 | February 22

    • I Found ‘One in a Million’

      THE New York Woodstock Music Festival in 1969 was the most thrilling moment of my musical career. A sea of humanity stretched as far as the eye could see. It was awe-inspiring!

      I was the bass guitarist and singer with Sly and the Family Stone, one of the best-known music groups of the time. A tremendous roar of approval came from the throats of half a million people as they called for an encore of our performance.

      That was indeed a thrilling moment, but it is now far from the most memorable event of my life. I have found a rare treasure, a ‘one in a million’ find. However, before describing it, let me explain things that shaped my life.

      Becoming a Musician

      In 1946 I was born into a musical family in Beaumont, Texas, my mother’s only son. She was a pianist with the church choir, and my father was a jazz guitarist. Soon afterward my family moved to Oakland, California, where I started tap dancing at the age of five. Two years later, I learned the piano under the guidance of my grandmother, who cared for me in those early years.

      When I was 11, my father gave me his guitar and amplifier, and I eagerly set about learning this new instrument. Later, I learned to play the drums, the clarinet, and the saxophone. By the time I was 13, I had my own professional rock ’n’ roll band called The Five Riffs. At the age of 15, I began playing in nightclubs as part of the Dell Graham Trio, which was made up of my mother on piano, me on lead guitar, and a drummer.

      My mother and I later formed a duo. To make up for the lack of a drummer, I thumped and plucked the bass strings of my guitar to accentuate the rhythm. In this way I developed my own distinctive thumping-and-plucking style of bass playing. A regular patron was so impressed that she telephoned a disc jockey, Sly Stone, and urged him to listen to me. The result was that, in 1966, I was offered the role of bass guitarist in a seven-piece group that became known as Sly and the Family Stone.

      Our record “Dance to the Music” became an international hit, and we became the most popular black group of the time. Other hits quickly followed, including “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” “Everyday People,” and “Thank You for Letting Me Be Myself Again.” Then came the Woodstock Music Festival, where we played alongside other internationally famous musicians. Later, we played for 300,000 people on the Isle of Wight in Britain and for 350,000 at a music festival in West Germany.