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 ...

band

Sly and the Family Stone Sly and the Family Stone was an American band formed in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1966 and active until 1983. Their work, which blended elements of funk, soul music, soul, psychedelic rock, gospel music, gospel, and R&B, becam ...

from 1972 to 1975. Allen replaced founding Family Stone member

Larry Graham Larry Graham Jr. (born August 14, 1946) is an American bass guitar, bassist and baritone singer, 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 si ...

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

Graham Central Station Graham Central Station was an American funk music, 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. H ...

Biography

Born in

Monroe, Louisiana Monroe is the ninth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and is the parish seat and largest city of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolitan statistical ...

, and raised in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, 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, vocalist, choir master, composer, and arranger. He was one of the originators of the urban contemporary gospel sound. As the leader of the Edwin ...

led him to meet

Freddie Stone Frederick Jerome Stewart (born June 5, 1947), known professionally as Freddie Stone, is an American pastor and musician, known for being a member of Sly and the Family Stone. Career Born Frederick Stewart, he started playing music when he was ...

, brother of

Sly Stone Sylvester Stewart (March 15, 1943 – June 9, 2025), better known by his stage name Sly Stone, was an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He was the frontman of Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the development ...

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 may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films and television * ''Fresh'' (1994 film), a crime film * ''Fresh'' (2009 film), a documentary film on sustainable agriculture * ''Fresh'' (2022 film), a thriller film *''Fresh with the Aust ...

'' (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 Trower ...

'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, released in 1978. 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 ...

''. 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 is an American vocal group formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1961 as The Elgins, known for their string of successful singles and albums with Motown from the 1960s to the mid-1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield ...

, 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 mark da ...

. He led his own group, the

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

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 and guitarist. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's ...

. 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 ...

. 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 Little Sister (band) 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