As the music world remembers the late Sly Stone who died this week at the age of 82, many recall the founder of Sly and the Family Stone’s unparalleled talent as a musician. But, so too remembered was something which made him in some ways notorious — his record for showing up late, or not at all.
One such show happened in D.C., and Public Information Officer for DC Fire and EMS Vito Maggiolo was there.
On Feb. 15, 1970, Maggiolo, who was a high schooler at the time, showed up to DAR Constitution Hall in D.C. after scoring tickets to see Sly and the Family Stone from his neighbor who was a manager at the venue.
Needless to say, Maggiolo was excited to be there.
“His (Sly Stone’s) grooves, his music was so … it was happy music,” Maggiolo said.
Thinking back as he stands on the steps of Constitution Hall, Maggiolo said things were a bit chaotic from the get-go.
“Lot of folks rushed the doors, so there were folks who didn’t have tickets inside. It was a pretty wild scene,” Maggiolo said.
Then came a wait — a very long wait — for the band to take the stage. Some accounts claimed the wait was five hours, which Maggiolo said could have been right, though he didn’t remember the exact time.
“It seemed like forever,” he said.
Maggiolo recalled looking around as things grew increasingly tense, thinking at the time: “What’s going to happen here.”
He remembered his neighbor, the Hall’s manager, trying to calm the crowd to no avail. Maggiolo said those efforts didn’t go over well, and the manager left the stage.
“It reached a point where, in my mind, people were getting ready to tear up the hall. It was really scary,” Maggiolo said.
Despite realizing things “could have gone south,” Maggiolo stuck around to see if the band would finally show up.
“I was willing to take the chance,” he said.
Maggiolo recalls the angered crowd immediately growing silent and looked toward the stage.
“Sly and his regalia had come out on stage and said something to the effect that ‘it’s OK, it’s cool, it’s cool,’” he said.
The band disappeared from the stage again.
“I was stunned. I think everybody was stunned,” Maggiolo said.
Moments later, Sly and the band would return and start the show sometime after midnight, Maggiolo recalled.
He said as the band played, the music literally turned a crowd full of frowns upside down, creating a joyous atmosphere.
“I don’t recall how long they played, but the fact that they did play, the fact that the concert, to some extent, did take place, everybody was happy. Constitution Hall didn’t get burned down,” Maggiolo said.
Maggiolo said he tells the story of the show from time to time, but it all came back to him Monday evening as he heard WTOP report on a D.C. show in which Sly showed up five hours late. It was then Maggiolo said to himself, “I know, I was there!”
He said he didn’t realize going in that he’d witness music history at that show.
“I guess I was lucky, and I got to see a little bit of music history, infamous music history, as it were, but I do remember the music. It was amazing. Sly was an amazing performer,” Maggiolo said.
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