Sylvester

Stone, whose real name was Sylvester Stewart, grew up singing gospel with his siblings, and went on to play the Woodstock music festival in 1969.

Sylvester Stewart was born March 15, 1944, in Denton, Texas.

A fifth-grade classmate misspelled Sylvester’s name on the school chalkboard, and the mistake turned into a prophetic nickname: Sly.

“He’s had problems because he hasn’t been able to grow up,” Sylvester Stewart Jr., his son, said in 1996, after Stone finished a 45-day stay in rehab.

She left him in 1976 when his pit bull mauled Sylvester Jr., who was 2 at the time.