‘Sly Lives!’ Producer Reveals Why Sly Stone Wasn’t Interviewed for Doc

Questlove’s Sly Stone documentary Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), out now on Hulu, features interviews with artists like D’Angelo, Q-Tip, and Andre 3000 talking about the Family Stone legend but doesn’t feature Stone himself reflecting on his legacy. During a Q&A for the documentary, producer Joseph Patel revealed why Stone was kept out of his own life story.

“We interviewed Sly for Summer of Soul in 2020. And he had just gotten clean, and he just, he doesn’t have the motor function,” Patel said (via People). “He can’t speak in full sentences. His eyes reveal a precociousness and a lucidity that’s there, but his motor function doesn’t exist.”

Patel added that he and Questlove ultimately decided it didn’t “feel right” to include Stone in his current state in Sly Lives! “‘Let’s tell this story with a lot of empathy,’” Patel said Questlove told him. “That’s not empathetic.”

While Sly himself didn’t participate, three of Stone’s children — Novena Carmel, Sylvette Robinson and Sylvester Stewart Jr. — shared anecdotes about their father. Nile Rodgers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Chaka Khan, George Clinton, Vernon Reid, and more are also among the interviewees who help paint a cinematic portrait of Stone and his genius.

“Sly Lives! — that exclamation point is earned — knows it doesn’t need to sell you on dancin’ to the music,” Rolling Stone’s David Fear wrote in his review of the documentary. 

“Yet Questlove & co. would like to put the complete story of the man behind it in context, as well as rescuing him from a narrative that puts its emphasis on the past few erratic decades. The ‘lives’ part isn’t used lightly here, and speaks less to the fact that he’s still around in his 80s and more about the continual vibrancy of an overshadowed legacy.”