Freddie Stone (born June 5, 1947) – What Am I Gonna Do (With My Life) (1976)

The former Sly and the Family Stone lead guitarist co-wrote this beautiful jam for his sister Rose Stone (Banks) after she was signed to Motown.

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Singer/songwriter and guitarist Freddie Stone is one of the founding members of Sly and the Family Stone, along with his older brother Sly and sister Rose. He sang and played lead guitar with the group until they dissolved in the mid-1970s.

Frederick Jerome Stewart was born into a musical family in Vallejo, California. His father played guitar, violin, and harp, and his mother also played guitar and piano. Freddie began playing music at age twelve. He was a MVP basketball player at Benicia High School and elected Student Body President. After he graduated, the Stewart family moved to San Francisco.

In 1966, Freddie formed an R&B group called Freddie & the Stone Souls. Its members included Gregg Errico on drums, Theodore Wysinger on bass, and a trio of horn players - Herb Dotson and Danny Williams on tenor, and Ronnie Crawford on alto sax.

Freddie & the Stone Souls, 1966

Around the same time, Sly formed another group, Sly & the Stoners, with his friend Cynthia Robinson on trumpet. Since 1964, Sly had been a popular DJ known as “Sly Stone” at KSOL, an R&B radio station in San Mateo, and had begun producing records for Bay Area artists.

Saxophonist Jerry Martini persuaded Sly that the brothers should combine the two bands, with Sly as frontman and bandleader, which Sly and Freddie did in November, 1966. The combined group’s original name was Sly Brothers and Sisters, changed to Sly and the Family Stone after their first gig at the Winchester Cathedral nightclub in Redwood City. The original lineup was Sly, Freddie, Cynthia Robinson, Jerry Martini, Gregg Errico, and Cynthia’s cousin Larry Graham on bass. Rose Stone joined the following year in 1967.

See our post from March on Sly Stone for more on the group’s history and cultural legacy.

Freddie & the Stone Souls recorded several tracks during their short time together, which remained unreleased until 2010. That year, two were included on the compilation Listen To The Voices (Sly Stone In The Studio 1965-70), released on Ace Records. One of them was the superb psychedelic funk jam “LSD,” which Freddie wrote and arranged.

After Sly and the Family Stone broke up in the mid-70s, Rose Stone married Sly’s former manager/co-producer Hamp “Bubba” Banks. She was signed to Motown as Rose Banks, with Bubba co-producing tracks with Jeffrey Bowen for her debut solo LP, Rose (1976). Freddie was also briefly signed to Motown as a solo artist.

Along with Banks, Freddie co-wrote a song for her. The beautiful slow jam “What Am I Gonna Do (With My Life)” was a lyrical meditation on life’s twists and turns.

It was released as the non-LP B-side to her upbeat, funky 1976 single “Whole New Thing,” which was the opening cut from Rose, co-written by Jeffrey Bowen, Jim Ford, and the mysterious Truman Thomas.

Over the years, many have speculated Sly used this name as an alias on various 70s recordings. See our post from March on Bobby Womack and “What’s Your World,” from his 1975 LP I Don't Know What The World Is Coming To, an album that credited Thomas but also may have featured Sly, uncredited.

In 1996, a user named “babygirl” posted the following to the rec.music.funky Usenet newsgroup, claiming to know the real story:

“Truman Thomas was a real person (songwriter/singer) who died in 1981 of
a drug overdose. He greatly admired Sly and mimicked him quite often
which would explain the confusion. He was a big fan as well as a
musician himself. (This info came straight from a member of the Family
Stone). That ends the mystery.”

Since 1994, Freddie Stone has been a pastor, currently leading his uncle’s former church, the Evangelist Temple Fellowship Center in Vallejo, California. Music is an integral part of the church’s worship services.

In 2017 he appeared at the California State Fair, backing Sheila E. on a rousing version of “Everyday People.” In August 2019, he performed at the Black Woodstock (Harlem Cultural Festival) 50th Anniversary celebration in New York City, a set that included “I Want To Take You Higher.”

Further info:

FreddieStone.com (official website)

“Rock and Roll; Make it Funky; Interview with Rose Stone and Freddie Stone,” WGBH, September, 1995

#soul #funk #SlyAndTheFamilyStone #FreddieStone