Bill Withers

Soul singer and songwriter Bill Withers was averse to glamour. Rather than the gold lamé costume of the soul stars of the seventies, he wore a simple sweater on stage and on television appearances. His songs, with the two minutes and three seconds short 'Ain't No Sunshine' leading the way, sounded all the more impressive.

Bill Withers, who died of heart failure on Monday March 30 at the age of 81, was not cut out for the career of an artist. Born in the mining town of Slab Fork in West Virginia, he was destined to descend into the coal mine. His asthma prevented him from doing so; one schoolteacher even called the stuttering Bill “disabled.” At the age of seventeen, he enlisted in the navy, where he worked as an aircraft mechanic for nine years. He only did singing as a hobby; he did not buy his first guitar until later in life. (NRC)