Bill Withers
In 1971, the pop and soul singer-songwriter Bill Withers debuted on the new Sussex label with the urban song “Harlem.” Disc jockeys flipped the single over and its orchestrated flip side, “Ain’t No Sunshine,” became the first of three Top 10 gold singles for Withers on the label, which included the funk sounding “Use Me” and his No. 1 soothing friendship anthem, “Lean on Me,” which has been popular for decades, especially during challenging times. More singles continued through 1974 on the Sussex label, including the Christmas song “The Gift of Giving.” When the Sussex label folded, Withers was picked up by Columbia and had a Top 40 hit with “Lovely Day,” the soul single “Don’t It Make It Better” and more. In 1981, Withers returned to the Top 10 for a final time singing “Just the Two of Us,” an edited version of a longer track from Grover Washington Jr.’s Winelight album with Bill as the featured vocalist and a co-writer of the song. In 1987, Club Nouveau’s cover of “Lean on Me” became a No. 1 gold single for a second time for Withers as its composer. Withers passed away on March 30 at the age of 81.
The following is an interview with Bill Withers, conducted by Goldmine contributor Ken Sharp a few years back.
GOLDMINE: You’ve always been very humble about your talents.
BILL WITHERS: I had grown up in the Navy. I’d been in the Navy for nine years. I’d worked in a military complex and factories and things like that. Those places aren’t the places where huge egos can foster. If you’ve got one, you better keep it to yourself. People who grew up from the beginnings of their lives doing music, there’s a certain confidence that they have like athletes. Since I made this transition for some other place, the place that I came from just didn’t nurture that kind of egocentric assessment of yourself. I never had a lack of confidence as a singer or songwriter. I probably had a lack of social confidence because I stuttered until I was 28. I was a chronic stutterer. People who stutter do so because of a lack of confidence. My theory is it’s a fear of the response of the listener or the opinion of the listener as to what you’re saying. And so that being sort of the foundation of my being. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I could sing, I just had a natural apprehension of somebody accepting me doing anything.
GM: How many years did it take before you found success?
I came to L.A. in ’67. It might have taken like three, four years
