Rustee Allen (born March 3, 1951) is an American musician best known as the bass guitar player for the influential

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

band

Sly and the Family Stone Sly and the Family Stone was an American band from San Francisco. Active from 1966 to 1983, it was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music. Its core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-i ...

from 1972 to 1975. Allen replaced founding Family Stone member

Larry Graham Larry Graham Jr. (born August 14, 1946) is an American bassist and baritone singer, both with the psychedelic soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station. In 1980, he released the single "O ...

, who was forced out of the band and went on to start his own,

Graham Central Station Graham Central Station was an American funk band named after founder Larry Graham (formerly of Sly and the Family Stone). The name is a pun on New York City's Grand Central Terminal, often colloquially called Grand Central Station. History O ...

Biography

Born in

Monroe, Louisiana Monroe (historically french: Poste-du-Ouachita) is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and parish seat of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolita ...

, and raised in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, Allen began teaching himself to play the guitar at age twelve. He later joined a local band, and was assigned to play the bass parts on the bottom four strings of his guitar. Penciling in a mustache on his face to obscure his being underage, he was soon playing in bars with blues guitarist Johnny Talbot. A stint with the Edwin Hawkins Singers led him to meet Freddie Stone, brother of Sly Stone and the guitarist in

. Freddie hired Allen to play bass for Little Sister (band), Little Sister, a Family Stone offshoot group.

, the bass player for the Family Stone, was quoted as saying that if he ever left the group, he wanted Allen to replace him. In 1972, Allen got his chance, and assumed the role of bass player in the Family Stone after Graham was forced out of the band. Allen's recorded work with the Family Stone includes tracks from two LPs, ''Fresh (Sly and the Family Stone album), Fresh'' (1973) and ''Small Talk (Sly and the Family Stone album), Small Talk'' (1974), along with the track "Organize" from ''High on You (Sly Stone album), High on You'' (1975). When the Family Stone dissolved in early 1975, Allen joined Robin Trower's hard blues-rock band, where he played on two albums, 1977's ''In City Dreams'' and 1978's ''Caravan to Midnight''. Allen has also played bass with a number of other artists, including George Clinton (funk musician), George Clinton, Lenny Williams, The Temptations, and Lighthouse for the Blind. He led his own group, the jazz fusion band Second Wind, from 1977 to 1978. Since 1994, Allen has played bass for Bobby Womack. In 2006, Allen performed with Sly & the Family Stone at the 48th Grammy Awards. Allen is working on a solo CD entitled ''Simple Rules.'' It was issued on his own label, Rustee Nailz, on July 15, 2018. Rustee had his solo debut at the Uptown NightClub, in Oakland, CA, on July 15, 2018.

Later years

Allen appeared in the documentary ''On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone'' which was released in January 2017.Okayplayer.com
New Sly Stone Documentary Premiering In January 2017 By Elijah C. Watson
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Rustee 1953 births Living people Musicians from Monroe, Louisiana African-American guitarists American funk bass guitarists American male bass guitarists Sly and the Family Stone members American rhythm and blues bass guitarists American rock bass guitarists American jazz bass guitarists Guitarists from Louisiana 20th-century American guitarists Jazz musicians from Louisiana American male jazz musicians