Bill Withers

Bill Withers was an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter born William Harrison Withers Jr. on July 4, 1938, in Slab Fork, West Virginia. He grew up in the coal-mining town of Beckley, West Virginia, and served nine years in the United States Navy before moving to Los Angeles in 1967 to pursue music while working day jobs assembling aircraft toilets and milk-delivery trucks.

His debut album Just as I Am was released in 1971 on Sussex Records and was produced by Booker T. Jones. It contained the songs Ain't No Sunshine and Grandma's Hands, and Ain't No Sunshine won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1972. His second album Still Bill followed in 1972 and included Lean on Me, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and Use Me.

Withers later moved to Columbia Records, where he recorded albums including Menagerie in 1977, which produced Lovely Day. He shared the 1981 Grammy for Best R&B Song for Just the Two of Us, written and performed with Grover Washington Jr. Lean on Me went on to win him another Grammy after a cover by Club Nouveau in 1987.

He stopped releasing new music after the 1985 album Watching You Watching Me, citing frustrations with record-label executives, and largely stayed out of the public eye for the rest of his life. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. He died on March 30, 2020, at age 81.

Their name Bill derives from the Germanic elements wil meaning will or desire and helm meaning helmet, as a short form of William. Bill was among the most common American boys' nicknames throughout the twentieth century.