Sly Stone is a mythic figure whose career, from a distance, looks like some kind of overworked allegory about lofty utopian ideals crashing into cold, hard reality. His whole career arc is so wild that it can be hard to remember that he’s still around. The 80-year-old Stone has been a reclusive figure for decades, and he’s only make brief and temporary returns to the limelight this century — a performance at the Grammys in 2006, another and Coachella in 2010. In 2011, the New York Post reported that Stone was homeless and living in a camper van. But today brings the news that Sly Stone is writing a memoir and that it’s coming out this fall.

Sly Stone’s book is called Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin); it’s named after Sly And The Family Stone’s classic 1969 chart-topper. Stone co-wrote the book with Ben Greenman, a former New Yorker editor who’s helped write a lot of memoirs from famous musicians, including Stone’s fellow troubled and reclusive ’60s genius Brian Wilson. God knows the book will have a lot of material to cover, from the early days when Sly And The Family Stone were combining soul, funk, and psychedelic rock into thrilling new shapes to the point where the music and Stone’s life both turned to seething, erratic darkness.

In a press release, Sly Stone says, “For as long as I can remember folks have been asking me to tell my story, I wasn’t ready. I had to be in a new frame of mind to become Sylvester Stewart again to tell the true story of Sly Stone. It’s been a wild ride and hopefully my fans enjoy it too.” In the US, the book is coming out on AUWA Books, Questlove’s newly launched publishing imprint. Questlove, who has co-written five books with Ben Greenman, heavily featured Sly And The Family Stone in his Oscar-winning 2021 documentary Summer Of Soul.

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) is out 11/17 via AUWA Books in the US ad White Rabbit in the UK.