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“What else do I need to buy?” he asked Rolling Stone. A comeback tour could have netted him a fortune, but he simply had no interest. Smart real-estate investments and royalties from his old records meant that money was rarely a problem. The private gig found Withers and his band performing around 10 songs, with the crowd joining in for “Lean on Me.” It would be his last concert. Then the got so high that my nose started to bleed.” “She said it was only for 150 people, but I kept refusing. The album was a commercial disappointment, and he retired from recording and even performing live, though in 2004 he made a rare exception for the 40th birthday party of Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores. Go play with Bill.’ Now, I’m this big black guy and they’re sending a little naked white girl over to play with me! I said, ‘I gotta get out of here. “This stark-naked five-year-old girl was running around the house, and they said to her, ‘We’re busy. “They made me record that album at some guy’s home studio,” he said. His final album was 1985’s Watching You Watching Me. I was not allowed in the studio from 1978 through 1985.” “People say my career was 15 years, but it was eight years. “I was not allowed in the studio,” he said. During one particular low point, the label asked him to record a cover of Elvis Presley’s “In the Ghetto.” When he refused, relations with the label grew even more sour. He recorded five records for Columbia and scored radio hits with “Lovely Day” and “Just the Two of Us,” but his heart was no longer in the work. He actually said to me, ‘Look at these ugly niggers.’” I met another executive who was looking at a photo of the Four Tops in a magazine. “I am proud of myself because I did not hit him. “I met my A&R guy, and the first thing he said to me was, ‘I don’t like your music or any black music, period,’” Withers said. When Sussex Records finally went bankrupt in 1975, he moved over to Columbia Records.
#BILL WITHERS MOVIE#
One of the first songs they cut, “Ain’t No Sunshine,” was a tale of lost love that Withers wrote after watching the 1962 Jack Lemmon-Lee Remick movie Days of Wine and Roses on television. Jones, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, and Stephen Stills on guitar. A demo tape got into the hands of Clarence Avant, an executive at Sussex Records, and Withers was soon called into the studio to record an album with producer Booker T. He soon bought a cheap guitar at a pawn shop, taught himself to play, and began writing songs between shifts at the factory. Then Rawls walked in, and all these women are talking to him.” “I remember him saying, ‘I’m paying this guy $2,000 a week, and he can’t show up on time.’ I was making $3 an hour, looking for friendly women, but nobody found me interesting. “He was late, and the manager was pacing back and forth,” Withers said. Music played a small role in his life until he visited a nightclub in Oakland where Lou Rawls was booked to perform. He later worked at an aircraft-parts factory. He joined the Navy after high school and worked as a milkman in Santa Clara County, California, after he left the service. “One of the first things I learned, when I was around four,” he said, “was that if you make a mistake and go into a white women’s bathroom, they’re going to kill your father.” “When you stutter,” he told Rolling Stone, “people tend to disregard you.” He also had to endure incredible racism in the Jim Crow South. He was the youngest of six kids and struggled to fit in, largely due to his speech impediment. Withers was born July 4th, 1938, and grew up in Slab Fork, West Virginia, in the final years of the Great Depression. “Lean on Me” emerged once again in recent weeks as an anthem of hope and solidarity in the time of COVID-19.
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While many of Withers’ biggest songs were recorded in the Seventies, they have proven to be timeless hits. Songs like “Lean On Me,” “Grandma’s Hands,” “Use Me,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” and “Lovely Day” are embedded in the culture and have been covered countless times. The three-time Grammy winner released just eight albums before walking away from the spotlight in 1985, but he left an incredible mark on the music community and the world at large. In this difficult time, we pray his music offers comfort and entertainment as fans hold tight to loved ones.” As private a life as he lived close to intimate family and friends, his music forever belongs to the world. “A solitary man with a heart driven to connect to the world at large, with his poetry and music, he spoke honestly to people and connected them to each other.
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“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved, devoted husband and father,” his family said in a statement. Bill Withers, the soul legend who penned timeless songs like “Lean on Me,” “Lovely Day,” and “Ain’t No Sunshine,” died Monday from heart complications in Los Angeles.