Bob Love said the first memory he had of funk legend Sly Stone was when Sly and the Family Stone played a benefit concert at Wichita State back in the summer of 1971. His brother, Rudy Love, was the opening act.
“Rudy and his band went on, and they were really rockin’ and everybody was waiting for Sly and the Family Stone. Then, all of a sudden, some black limousines pull up. To see Sly and his family get out of the cars, and they were singing, and you could tell the showmanship — the professionalism, and we watched them, and Rudy was hooked. So we got to meet Sly at that time, and they put on an incredible performance.“
Sly was told that Rudy Love could sing by a mutual friend, Vernon Burrow, who was from Wichita but lived in California.
“[Sly’s] been around all the greats, Stevie Wonder, [and] … some of the greatest singers of all time, like Bobby Womack. Vernon introduced Rudy to him, and he said, “Rudy, hey, man, can you sing?”
And Rudy said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I sang a little bit, you know.’ And Sly said, ‘Well, sing this,’ and he pushed a button, which eventually ended up being the tracks from the ‘I Get High On You’ album, [of which] Rudy is prominently featured on.”
The Love Family band eventually moved to California and Bob would go visit during his summer months of college. He says it was an incredible experience to live with Sly Stone.
“I would go wherever they were, and I got to meet Sly and stay at his house and meet his family.
“It was amazing. …I come from Checotah, Oklahoma, where we basically started out without any running water and electricity coming from there, up to Wichita with housing where you crowded in with so many family members. Then, to get out there and get picked up in a Rolls-Royce. …[Sly] had a home in Novato, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and you … look like you're going up into the clouds, because he lived at the top of the mountain, and you could see deer all around his house. He had these incredible cars in the garage, and then to go in and be actually in a mansion of an icon.”
An icon who eventually gave Bob a job in that very same mansion.
“When people called, or when they tried to come up to the gate to visit Sly, he told me to go out there and tell them, ‘No.’ I mean, I'm talking Grace Jones; I’m talking Ike Turner. I mean, I'm here telling somebody like that, ‘No. Sly is not taking any company today.’
“He treated us very well. We ate there. We slept there. Sat in rooms with him for days, watching him record and listening to stories.”
At that time, Sly’s band was in transition, and Rudy was lending him a hand.
“He still had his horn section, and so he and Rudy started singing and helping with the band and organizing rehearsals. Rudy started going on tour with them, and so they built a strong bond and great relationship.”
After returning to Wichita, Bob remembers getting a call from Rudy.
“I remember him calling home and saying, ‘Man, I can't believe that I'm actually going to be on the album.’ He talked about how proud he was. Sly hardly ever let anybody else, [outside of the family], sing on his records.”
And once the Love family heard it, they were ecstatic.
“Of course, we are all screaming and hollering and elated! We couldn't believe [it]. Here is Rudy Love from Wichita [and] … Sly Stone — one of the hottest rockers of all time — here [Rudy] is on the album. We … were just mesmerized, and we just played it over and over and over and over.”
Bob believes that Sly should be remembered as a pioneer, a genius.
“I've seen some of the comments on Facebook [and] some of the negativity. But … so many people … wanted to copy or use his style. He was a pioneer in, I would say, the rights of people. He was a pioneer [in] his performance and his dress, his style. I just remember him as being one of the kindest people that you ever wanted to meet. And once you got to know him, he would give you his shirt off his back.”
Bob remembers when his brother, Gerald Love, a drummer, got sick in LA. Sly flew him to San Francisco and covered all of his doctor bills.
“It hurt him so bad that he knew Gerald was sick.
“Just to have that kind of a person around … I saw what he meant to Rudy, and we were in rooms where a lot of stars couldn't go. We would sit there for days and watch him create, while working on two or three songs at a time. His creative genius was off the charts, and I think we are very blessed to have been around him, and then to have been able to still listen to his music, and that music is timeless.”
