Bill Withers’s Life Was as Rich as His Songs
The “Lean on Me” and “Lovely Day” singer, dead at 81, was too great a talent and too independent an individual to be eclipsed by his own influence.
Bill Withers hadn’t released a new song of his own in decades, but even before he died at age 81 of , the soul singer was on the minds of many people amid the globe’s current viral crisis. Apartment buildings full of and hospital rooms of sang his 1972 classic, “Lean on Me.” For weeks, YouTube listeners of “Lovely Day” left messages “As I write this, we are in the middle of the corona virus pandemic. I need some inspiration. Thanks Bill,” “THIS SONG IS GOING TO GET ME THRU COVID19!!”
