Bill Withers

At 81 years old, Bill Withers has this physical status:

William Harrison Withers Jr. (born July 4, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who appeared and recorded from 1970 to 1985.

"Lean on Me," "Ain't No Sunshine," "Use Me," "Just the Two of Us," "Lovely Day," and "Grandma's Hands were among his hits.

Withers received three Grammy Awards and was nominated for four more.

His life was chronicled in the 2009 documentary film Still Bill.

In 2015, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Early life

On July 4, 1938, Withers, the youngest of six children, was born in the tiny coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. He was the uncle of Mattie (née Galloway), a maid, and William Withers, a miner. He was born with a stutter and later said he had a difficult time fitting in. His parents divorced when he was three years old, and his mother's relatives raised him in nearby Beckley, West Virginia. When his father died, he was 13 years old. Withers joined the United States Navy at the age of 17, and spent nine years, during which time he became interested in singing and writing songs.

Personal life and death

Denise Nicholas, a former actress of the sitcom Room 222, was married by Withers in 1973. In 1974, the two families divorced.

Withers married Marcia Johnson in 1976. Todd and Kori had two children. Marcia eventually took over his publishing businesses, in which his children were also active as adults.

Withers died of heart disease in a Los Angeles hospital on March 30, 2020; his family reported his death four days later. He is laid to rest in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

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Career

In 1965, he left the Navy and moved to Los Angeles in 1967 to begin a music career. In 1967, he released "Three Nights and a Morning." Mort Garson's arrangement went unnoticed at the time, but Withers reworked the song "Harlem" later in the year.

Withers worked as an assembler for many industries, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, IBM, and Ford, as well as recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around, and playing in clubs at night. When he first heard the song "Ain't No Sunshine" in 1971, he refused to resign from his job because the music industry was a fickle market.

Withers continued to concentrate on his musicianship and learning guitar.

Clarence Avant, the owner of Sussex Records, auditioned Withers' demonstration tape in early 1970. Avant signed Withers to a record contract and T. Jones, a former Stax Records stalwart, was given the opportunity to produce Withers' first album. Four three-hour recording sessions had been planned for the album, but funds were unable to be recorded in three sessions with a six-month break between the second and final sessions. "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands" as singles when I Am first released in 1971 with the tracks, "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands" were singles. Stephen Stills appears on the album as the lead guitarist. Withers is photographed on the back of the album, at his Burbank, California, working his lunch box.

The album was a success, and Withers' band, a member of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, was on tour. At the 14th Annual Grammy Awards in 1972, Withers received a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for "Ain't No Sunshine." By the RIAA in September 1971, the track had already sold over one million copies and was given a gold disc.

Withers' second album, Still Bill, came after he went on hiatus from touring. The single, "Lean on Me" debuted on the top of the charts the week of July 8, 1972. Wither's second gold single with reported sales in excess of three million. With the R.I.A.A., his sequel, "Use Me," was released in August 1972 and became his third million-seller. On October 12, 1972, the first gold disc award was announced. His appearance at Carnegie Hall on October 6, 1972, was recorded and released on Sunday as the live album Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall. Withers released the album 'Justifications' in 1974. Withers was unable to record for a long time after due to a court dispute with the Sussex firm.

He wrote and performed two songs on the Gladys Knight & the Pips album I Feel a Song in October 1974, and B.B. King in Zaire four weeks before the historic Rumble between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali in the Jungle war. Footage of his appearance was included in the 1996 documentary film When We Were Kings, and he can be seen on the accompanying soundtrack. In the 2008 documentary film Soul Power, there is another video of his appearance.

Withers signed with Columbia Records in 1975, shortly after Sussex Records folded. Making Music, his first album release with the label, included the single "She's Lonely" which was featured in the film Looking for Mr. Goodbar alongside "She Wants to (Get on Down). During the next three years, he would release an album every year with Naked & Warm (1976), Menagerie (1977), containing the hit "Lovely Day"), and "Bout Love (1978).

Due to Columbia's limitations and being unable to get songs approved for his collection, he decided to concentrate on joint ventures from 1977 to 1985, including jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., which was released in June 1980. The song received the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. Withers' latest releases "Soul Shadows" with the Crusaders and Ralph MacDonald's "In the Name of Love," the latter being nominated for a Grammy for vocal appearance.

Withers was a featured vocalist on French singer Michel Berger's album Dreams in Stone in 1982. Withers' upbeat disco song "Apple Pie" was included on this album, which was co-written and sung by Withers.

Watching You, Watching Me, a 1985 hit the Top 40-rated R&B single Oh Yeah! Columbia Records' business relationship with Withers came to an end. In interviews, Withers said that a number of the songs that were licensed for the album, in particular, two of the first three singles, were the same songs that had been banned in 1982, contributing to the eight-year absence between albums. When his record label barred Mr. T, an actor, from releasing his own, Withers also said it was frustrating. In 1985, he performed with Jennifer Holliday to promote what would be his last studio album.

Despite the fact that remixes of his earlier recorded music were widely circulated after his "retirement," the A&R executives, or "blaxperts," as he referred to them, were attempting to have influence over how he should sound if he wanted to sell more albums or re-sign to a record label after 1985, who effectively ended his performing career. He was more popular in life than most, living a life before the music, so he didn't feel the pressure to keep recording after falling out of love with the industry. After leaving the music business, he said he did not miss touring and performing live and didn't regret leaving music behind.

A new version of "Lovely Day" from 1977 Menagerie's album "Lovely Day" was released in 1988, which was remixed by Ben Liebrand. In early 1978, the first edition of the United Kingdom had ranked at number seven, and the re-release took its place at number four.

Withers was named songwriter for the re-recording of "Lean on Me" by Club Nouveau at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards in 1988. This was Withers' ninth Grammy nomination and third victory. Withers contributed two songs to Jimmy Buffett's 2004 debut of License to Chill. Following the reissues of Still Bill on January 28, 2003, and Just As I Am on March 8, 2005, there was rumors that previously unreleased stuff would be released as a new album. Withers' old tapes were returned to him in 2006. "Lean on Me" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007.

Bill Withers: The Complete Sussex & Columbia Albums Collection, a nine-disc set showcasing Withers' eight studio albums as well as his live album Live at Carnegie Hall, received the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album (sharing the distinction with the Rolling Stones' Charlie Is My Darling – Ireland 1965). Leo Sacks, the collection's designer, and the masterminds, Joseph M. Palmaccio, and Tom Ruff were all honoured, as the award was presented.

Withers was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005. Stevie Wonder in April 2015 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "I wrote a short time in attrition" and said, "There are few songs I wrote during my brief tenure and there isn't a genre in which someone didn't record them in." I'm no longer a virtuoso, but I was able to write songs that people would relate to. I don't think I've done wrong for a man from Slab Fork, West Virginia," says the author. Aloe Blacc, Ed Sheeran, Dr. John, Michael McDonald, and Anthony Hamilton performed a tribute concert in his honor later this year at Carnegie Hall, featuring Aloe Blacc, Ed Sheeran, Michael McDonald, and Anthony Hamilton. Live at Carnegie Hall, Withers' 1973 concert album, as well as some of his other stuff, was reconstructed. Withers was on hand and spoke briefly onstage.

In February 2017, he appeared on Joy Reid's MSNBC show to address the refugee crisis as well as the political climate in America.

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