SPMG BOOKS: Sly Stone book to be released through new Questlove imprint

Questlove has his own book imprint and is launching it with a memoir by one of the world’s most influential and enigmatic musicians, Sly Stone, leader of Sly and the Family Stone.

“Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” named for the Sly and the Family Stone hit, will be released Oct. 17 through Questlove’s AUWA Books imprint, part of Macmillan Publishers. The memoir is co-written by Ben Greenman and will track Stone’s rise to the heights of stardom in the late 1960s to his long decline and virtual disappearance from the music scene.

“For as long as I can remember folks have been asking me to tell my story,” the 80-year-old Stone, who was born Sylvester Stewart, said in a statement Wednesday. “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.”

Other books planned for the AUWA imprint include “Handbook for the Revolution: The Essential Guide for Workplace Organizing,” by Amazon Labor Union activist Derrick Palmer and “Hip-Hop Is History,” a chronology of hip-hop’s first 50 years co-written by Questlove and Greenman.