“Hold me so I don’t fall,” a voice croaked over the public address system at New York’s B.B. King Blues Club and Grill. “I don’t think I’m going to make it.”

For most in the audience at Sly and the Family Stone’s first show in 32 years, the shock wasn’t that the elusive rock and soul icon delivered a spirited performance, but that he showed up at all.

After defining a new hybrid of psychedelic rock and rhythm & blues in the late 1960s, he became better known in the 1970s for his unreliability, missing many shows and displaying erratic behavior. By the 1980s, he had all but disappeared from public view into a fog of financial problems and drug arrests.

Entering from the left, a hunched figure with a white sweat suit, sunglasses and a mohawk hairstyle hobbled on stage aided by what appeared to be a punk rock dominatrix from a Vivienne Westwood catalog. After a few steps, Sly Stone stood upright, pushed himself away from his aide and took his place center stage before the adoring New York crowd.

After a meandering 15-minute monologue about everything from his grandchildren to his arrests, Stone and the band ran through an hour of their best known hits, including “Dance To The Music,” “Everyday People,” and “Family Affair.”

But by the time his band kicked into an opening note-perfect version of “Dance To The Music” on Tuesday night, any remaining naysayers faded from the dance floor.

Stone left most of the singing to his band, which includes only two members of the original Sly & The Family Stone (Jerry Martini on saxophone and the indefatigable Cynthia Robinson on trumpet). He was more like a master of ceremonies for the band, most of whom come from a tribute group headed by Stone’s younger sister Vet. For the first two songs, his niece Lisa Stone (daughter of the band’s original keyboardist Rose Stone) took the reins, while Stone stood off to the side watching the action like a proud father.

(Photo: Reuters/Derek Caney)