Bill Withers, author and performer of the hit “Ain’t no Sunshine”, died at the age of 81

He was one of the great names in American soul in the 1970s. Bill Withers, author and performer notably of Lean on Me or Lovely Day, died Friday, April 3 of a heart disease, announced his family at the American agency Associated Press (AP). He was 81 years old.

“He spoke honestly to people, and made them exchange together”, reacted his family in a statement, “His music belongs to everyone”. The soul singer, who died in Los Angeles, had won three Grammy Awards, including one in 1971 for Ain’t no Sunshine, one of his greatest successes.

Lean on Me, an ode to friendship, was played for the White House nominations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

“I’m not a virtuoso, but I think I wrote songs that people could identify with,” declared the artist in 2014 in an interview with the magazine Rolling Stone.

“The most difficult thing about songwriting is being simple while being deep. And Bill seems to understand, intrinsically and instinctively, how to get there ” explained singer Sting in a documentary in 2010.

First studio album in 1971

Born in 1938 in West Virginia, youngest of a family of six children, handicapped in his childhood by his stuttering and orphan of father in adolescence, he enlisted very young in the navy and only left the flags 1965. Bill Withers then moved to Los Angeles and embarked on a musical career, recording demos and playing in clubs at night, while keeping a job “Food”.

His first studio album, Just as I Am, in 1971, contains several nuggets, including Ain’t no Sunshine, and propels his career. Other successes will follow, including Lean on Me and Lovely day. But Bill Withers, who entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, quickly moved away from the music industry. He had stopped his career in the 1980s.

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