Rose Stone (born Rosemary Stewart, March 21, 1945, in Vallejo, California

Vallejo, California

Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, California, United States. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay...

) is an African-American singer and keyboardist

Keyboardist

A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...

. She is best known as one of the lead singers in Sly & the Family Stone

Sly & the Family Stone

Sly and the Family Stone were an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco, California. Active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music...

, a popular psychedelic soul

Psychedelic soul

Psychedelic soul, sometimes called black rock, is a sub-genre of soul music, which mixes the characteristics of soul with psychedelic rock...

/funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 band

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

 founded by her brothers

Sibling

Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...

, Sly Stone

Sly Stone

Sly Stone is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly & the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of...

 and Freddie Stone

Freddie Stone

Freddie Stone is an African-American musician, best known for his role as co-founder, guitarist, and vocalist in the band Sly & The Family Stone, the frontman for which was his brother Sly Stone...

. She often wore a platinum-colored wig while performing with the band, and was noted for her strong vocals

Human voice

The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...

.

After the band's dissolution in 1975, "Sister Rose" (as she was also known) married Sly Stone's former manager/co-producer, Bubba Banks. She later recorded

Sound recording and reproduction

Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...

 a solo

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 on Motown Records

Motown Records

Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...

, billed as 'Rose Banks'. During the 1980s and 1990s, Stone worked as a backing

Backing vocalist

A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...

 session

Session musician

Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

 singer, appearing on recordings by Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

, Ringo Starr

Ringo Starr

Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...

, Reef

Reef (band)

Reef are an English band from Glastonbury. The band members includes Gary Stringer on vocals, Kenwyn House on guitar, Jack Bessant on bass and Dominic Greensmith on drums.-Early days:...

 and Bobbysocks!. Stone is today part of the musical department at her brother Freddie's church. She returned to her gospel roots in 1983 when she sang on Sandra Crouch

Sandra Crouch

Sandra Crouch is an American Gospel music performer, drummer and songwriter.-Musical career:She won a Grammy Award in 1985 for "Best Soul Gospel Performance, Female"....

's Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

-winning album We Sing Praises, soloing on the old hymn "Power in the Blood". She has been associated with the Crouch family and the music department of Christ Memorial COGIC in California for many years.

She also appears on Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams

Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...

' album Escapology

Escapology (album)

-Background:In 2002, Williams signed a record-breaking £80 million contract with EMI. The contract featured a number of provisos, including the label ceding greater creative control to the artist and a commitment to breaking Williams in the American market...

as an example on the track "Revolution" a duet

Duet (music)

A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...

 with Williams.

Rose Stone is the featured soloist in the church choir in the movie The Ladykillers

The Ladykillers (2004 film)

The Ladykillers is a 2004 dark comedy film directed, written and produced by the Coen brothers and stars Tom Hanks, with a supporting cast that includes J. K. Simmons, Marlon Wayans, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst and Irma P. Hall...

. She is heard also in the music in the final credits.

Her daughter, Lisa Stone, is now singing with Vet Stone

Vet Stone

Vet Stewart is an African-American soul singer, the lead singer in Sly & the Family Stone's background group Little Sister Vet Stewart (born Vaetta Stewart on May 2, 1950 in Vallejo, California) is an African-American soul singer, the lead singer in Sly & the Family Stone's background group Little...

 and Cynthia Robinson

Cynthia Robinson

Cynthia Robinson is an American musician, best known for being the trumpeter and vocalist in the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band Sly & the Family Stone...

 in a Sly & the Family Stone tribute band.

In 2006 Stone reunited with the original Family Stone.

In 2011 Stone and her daughter Lisa toured with Elton John

Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...

as members of his vocal backing group.