Sly Stone, the revolutionary musician and dynamic showman whose Sly and the Family Stone transformed popular music in the 1960s and ’70s and beyond with such hits as “Everyday People,” “Stand!” and “Family Affair,” has died. He was 82.

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Stone, born Sylvester Stewart, had been in poor health in recent years. His publicist Carleen Donovan said Monday that Stone died surrounded by family after contending with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other ailments.

Formed in 1966-67, Sly and the Family Stone was the first major group to include Black and white men and women, and well embodied a time when anything seemed possible — riots and assassinations, communes and love-ins. The singers screeched, chanted, crooned and hollered. The music was a blowout of frantic horns, rapid-fire guitar and locomotive rhythms, a melting pot of jazz, psychedelic rock, doo-wop, soul and the early grooves of funk.

Sly’s time on top was brief, roughly from 1968-1971, but profound. No band better captured the gravity-defying euphoria of the Woodstock era or more bravely addressed the crash which followed. From early songs as rousing as their titles — “I Want To Take You Higher,” “Stand!” — to the sober aftermath of “Family Affair” and “Runnin’ Away,” Sly and the Family Stone spoke for a generation whether or not it liked what they had to say.

Stone’s group began as a Bay Area sextet featuring Sly on keyboards, Larry Graham on bass; Sly’s brother, Freddie, on guitar; sister Rose on vocals; Cynthia Robinson and Jerry Martini horns and Greg Errico on drums. They debuted with the album “A Whole New Thing” and earned the title with their breakthrough single, “Dance to the Music.” It hit the top 10 in April 1968, the week the Rev. Martin Luther King was murdered, and helped launch an era when the polish of Motown and the understatement of Stax suddenly seemed of another time.

Led by Sly Stone, with his leather jumpsuits and goggle shades, mile-wide grin and mile-high Afro, the band dazzled in 1969 at the Woodstock festival and set a new pace on the radio. “Everyday People,” “I Wanna Take You Higher” and other songs were anthems of community, non-conformity and a brash and hopeful spirit, built around such catchphrases as “different strokes for different folks.” The group released five top 10 singles, three of them hitting No. 1, and three million-selling albums: “Stand!”, “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” and “Greatest Hits.”

For a time, countless performers wanted to look and sound like Sly and the Family Stone. The Jackson Five’s breakthrough hit, “I Want You Back” and the Temptations’ “I Can’t Get Next to You” were among the many songs from the late 1960s that mimicked Sly’s vocal and instrumental arrangements. Miles Davis’ landmark blend of jazz, rock and funk, “Bitches Brew,” was inspired in part by Sly, while fellow jazz artist Herbie Hancock even named a song after him.

“He had a way of talking, moving from playful to earnest at will. He had a look, belts, and hats and jewelry,” Questlove wrote in the foreword to Stone’s memoir, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” named for one of his biggest hits and published through Questlove’s imprint in 2023. “He was a special case, cooler than everything around him by a factor of infinity.”

In 2025, Questlove released the documentary “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius).”

Sly’s influence has endured for decades. The top funk artist of the 1970s, Parliament-Funkadelic creator George Clinton, was a Stone disciple. Prince, Rick James and the Black-Eyed Peas were among the many performers from the 1980s and after influenced by Sly, and countless rap and hip-hop artists have sampled his riffs, from the Beastie Boys to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. A 2005 tribute record included Maroon 5, John Legend and the Roots.

“Sly did so many things so well that he turned my head all the way around,” Clinton once wrote. “He could create polished R&B that sounded like it came from an act that had gigged at clubs for years, and then in the next breath he could be as psychedelic as the heaviest rock band.”

A jury has found a St. Paul man guilty of exchanging a flurry of gunshots with another man outside a White Bear Lake bar in 2023 after an argument over a spilled drink.

Kardell Baraka Otae Jackson, 51, was convicted Friday in Ramsey County District Court of all three charges against him: second-degree assault and two counts of possession of a firearm or ammunition by a prohibited person. The verdict followed a two-day trial before Judge Kellie Charles.

Kardell Baraka Otae Jackson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Jackson was taken into custody after the verdict, and sentencing is scheduled for July 28.

His attorney, assistant public defender Tyler DeHaven, said in an email Monday after a request for comment, “Mr. Jackson is disappointed in the outcome, but will continue to explore his legal options.”

Jackson and Charles Edward Stevens-Thigpen fired a total of 13 rounds at each other in the parking lot of Doc’s Landing, including one that grazed a 48-year-old man who was sitting in the bar.

A bullet was found lodged in a dart machine, and three bullet holes were discovered in the bar’s roofline.

Stevens-Thigpen, 37, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in July and faced a three-year prison term because he had no prior felony convictions. He was given three years of probation at his March sentencing after his attorney argued he was not the primary aggressor.

According to the charging documents, officers were called to the bar along White Bear Avenue just north of Interstate 694 shortly before 1 a.m. Sept. 24, 2023. The shooters had fled but were soon identified as Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson.

Surveillance video showed that Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson got into a “heated dispute” inside the bar. At one point, Jackson held a pool cue as if he was going to strike Stevens-Thigpen with it. Two women and a man intervened and blocked Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson from one another.

Jackson ran to his Chevrolet Tahoe and grabbed a gun, while Stevens-Thigpen grabbed one from his GMC Denali. When he rounded a corner of the bar, Jackson fired off a shot at him, and the two men exchanged gunfire, the charges say.

Stevens-Thigpen nearly shot a woman who ran toward Jackson’s Tahoe. Jackson helped her get into the SUV before he again shot at Stevens-Thigpen. Stevens-Thigpen “grimaced” and began to favor his right leg, the charges say.

As Jackson and the woman fled the parking lot, Stevens-Thigpen fired three to four more rounds at the Tahoe. He ran to the Denali and also fled.

Stevens-Thigpen voluntarily went to the police department two days later, turning over a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun to police when he arrived.

He said he went to a doctor a day after the shooting because of severe bleeding from a gunshot to his thigh, and that his family convinced him to talk to police.

He told police he was at the bar when he bumped into a table, knocking over a glass of soda onto his ex-girlfriend’s sister. He said that caused an argument with the woman, who was Jackson’s girlfriend, and Jackson intervened.

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“The man told me that he got something for my (expletive) ass and he’s gonna pop me,” Stevens-Thigpen said at his July 8 plea hearing.

Stevens-Thigpen said he went to his Denali to get his 9mm as a “precaution.”

“I believe four shots were fired before I fired my first shot,” Stevens-Thigpen said at his plea hearing.

Jackson was arrested Sept. 27 in the parking lot of his workplace. His Tahoe had three bullet holes to its passenger side. He denied firing a gun at the bar. Officers executed a search warrant on his Tahoe and recovered a Glock 9mm handgun.

Jackson is not allowed to possess a firearm because of a previous felony domestic assault conviction.

NEW YORK — A judge on Monday dismissed the lawsuit filed by actor and director Justin Baldoni against his “It Ends With Us” costar Blake Lively after she sued him for sexual harassment and retaliation.

U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Liman’s decision is the latest development in the bitter legal battle surrounding the dark romantic drama that includes Lively suing Baldoni in late December.

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Baldoni and production company Wayfarer Studios countersued in January for $400 million, accusing Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, of defamation and extortion.

The judge ruled that Baldoni can’t sue Lively for defamation over claims she made in her lawsuit, because allegations made in a lawsuit are exempt from libel claims. Liman also ruled that Baldoni’s claims that Lively stole creative control of the film didn’t count as extortion under California law.

Baldoni’s legal team can revise the lawsuit if they want to pursue different claims related to whether Lively breached a contract, the judge said.

Emails seeking comment were sent to attorneys for Baldoni and Lively.

“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni.

The judge also dismissed Baldoni’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, which had reported on Lively’s sexual harassment allegations.

Charges were filed Monday after gunshots were fired outside the Burnsville High School graduation on Friday night.

No one was injured.

The Dakota County Attorney’s Office said in criminal complaints:

Abdulahi Jama Ali (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)

Officers were working security and crowd control outside the high school. They were aware that two groups of people “were arguing and flashing gang signs towards each other as officers were attempting to disperse the groups. Officers also broke up several physical altercations between the groups that evening.”

At about 8:30 p.m., officers heard gunshots coming from the west side of the school. Bystanders directed them to a Toyota Camry, and officers detained the driver and front-seat passenger.

The driver was identified as Abdikani Mukhtar Abdiwahab, 18, of Bloomington, and the passenger as Abdulahi Jama Ali, 18, of Shakopee.

A bystander was heard saying, “Ksoe, you missed. You dumb (expletive).” Officers learned Ali’s nickname is “Ksoe.” The bystander was wearing a leopard print or camo jacket.

Witnesses reported the Camry’s driver was driving recklessly and almost hit another vehicle. They saw a person in a leopard print jacket approach the Camry’s passenger side, talk with the occupants and try to punch the Camry with his fist.

A barrel of a gun then came out the front passenger window and someone opened fire.

Officers found a handgun with an extended magazine under the front passenger seat and a bullet casing on the driver’s side floorboard. They also found two bullet casings on the street and a parked vehicle with a bullet fragment in the driver’s side headlight.

Abdikani Mukhtar Abdiwahab (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)

Abdiwahab later told officers he hadn’t fired a gun and said his DNA wouldn’t be found on the gun taken from the Camry.

DNA swabs were taken from the handgun and from Ali, after police obtained a search warrant, and are pending analysis at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Abdiwahab is charged with two counts each of aiding and abetting a drive-by shooting and aiding an offender. Ali is charged with second-degree assault and two counts of drive-by shooting. Both are jailed.

Two other people were arrested in the incident. It wasn’t immediately clear if they would be charged Monday.

The Friday before Burnsville’s graduation, two people were injured in a shooting outside Mariucci Arena at the University of Minnesota after the Wayzata High School graduation ceremony. A 20-year-old from Coon Rapids is charged in that case.

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