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 Edwin Reuben Hawkins (August 19, 1943 – January 15, 2018) was an American gospel musician, pianist, choir master, composer, and arranger. He was one of the originators of the urban contemporary gospel sound. He (as leader of the Edwin Hawkins S ...

led him to meet

Freddie Stone Freddie Stone (born Frederick Jerome Stewart, June 5, 1947) is an American pastor and musician, best known as a co-founder, guitarist, and vocalist in the band Sly and the Family Stone, fronted by his brother Sly and including his sister Rose ...

, brother of

Sly Stone Sylvester Stewart (born March 15, 1943), better known by his stage name Sly Stone, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer who is most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the ...

and the guitarist in

. Freddie hired Allen to play bass for 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 Fresh or FRESH may refer to: People *DJ Fresh (born 1977), UK-based drum and bass artist *DJ Fresh (producer), US-based R&B producer born Marqus Brown Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Fresh'' (1994 film), a crime film * ''Fresh'' (200 ...

'' (1973) and ''

Small Talk Small talk is an informal type of discourse that does not cover any functional topics of conversation or any transactions that need to be addressed. In essence, it is polite and standard conversation about unimportant things. The phenomenon ...

'' (1974), along with the track "Organize" from '' High on You'' (1975). When the Family Stone dissolved in early 1975, Allen joined

Robin Trower Robin Leonard Trower (born 9 March 1945) is an English rock guitarist who achieved success with Procol Harum throughout 1967–1971, and then again as the bandleader of his own power trio known as the Robin Trower Band. Biography Robin Trowe ...

's hard blues-rock band, where he played on two albums, 1977's '' In City Dreams'' and 1978's ''

Caravan to Midnight ''Caravan to Midnight'' is the sixth studio album by Robin Trower. The album cover art is by Hipgnosis. It was reissued in 1997 as a 2-on-1 CD along with his next 1980 album ''Victims of the Fury''. Track listing All tracks by James Dewar an ...

''. Allen has also played bass with a number of other artists, including George Clinton,

Lenny Williams Leonard Charles Williams (born February 16, 1945)"Biography by Alex Henderson"
AllMus ...

The Temptations The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top ...

, and

Lighthouse for the Blind A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

. He led his own group, the

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

band Second Wind, from 1977 to 1978. Since 1994, Allen has played bass for

Bobby Womack Robert Dwayne Womack (; March 4, 1944 – June 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guit ...

. In 2006, Allen performed with Sly & the Family Stone at the

48th Grammy Awards The 48th Annual Grammy Awards took place on February 8, 2006, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning from October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2005. Irish rock band U2 were ...

. 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