Why? Episode 418- Sly and the Family Stone's Jerry Martini

Do you remember the first time you met Sly Stone?

Oh, yeah, I do.

Um, when I first met him, I think, let me see.

Well, yeah, we were 18 years old, and we both, uh...

Sly was on this, you know, they had The Dick Clark Show in the East, on the East Coast.

You know, the, you know, the dance, uh, uh, program.

Sure.

Mm-hmm.

They had Dick Stewart in San Francisco.

And I used to watch that, and I'd play, I was playing in the local bands.

I was playing with a band called Joe Piazza and the Continentals.

Ooh.

And, and Sly actually came and played bass in that band, but they were both real popular local characters on the Dick Stewart dance party.

And Sly had real short hair, parted on the side.

[laughs]

He looked like a very white Black man.

And, um, and Joe was the popular kid around town.

And so I played saxophone with them.

And, uh, also Sly was in, had a band.

Uh, but actually it was his first gold record.

His first gold record was To Swim.

He wrote that for Bobby Freeman, Let's Do The Swim.

Mm-hmm.

He was 18 when he got his first gold record.

And-