Legendary singer and songwriter Bill Withers, whose music covered themes like love, friendship and togetherness, passed away in Los Angeles on Monday, March 30 at the age of 81 from heart complications.
“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved, devoted husband and father,” said his family in a statement. “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.”
“As private a life as he lived close to intimate family and friends, his music forever belongs to the world,” the statement continued. “In this difficult time, we pray his music offers comfort and entertainment as fans hold tight to loved ones.”
It didn’t take long for people to react to the news of Withers’ passing, and on Twitter many quoted his lyrics. One person also said his songs are “etched in our hearts.”
A number of celebrities sent messages as well, including The Roots’ Questlove, who shared a photo of Withers on Instagram.
“This news is super devastating,” he wrote on Friday. “Just this week alone losing Vaughn Mason, Ellis Marsalis, Manu Dibango, & Wallace Rooney….was painful but Bill Withers man….this guy was my FIRST idol before The Jackson 5ive or Prince. He was our Springsteen…our Everyman. One of the last celebrated blue collar musicians. Man this hurts to hear.”
Michael Eric Dyson reacted to Withers’ passing as well.
“Legend and icon are overused, but we lost both with the death of the immortal #BillWithers,” he tweeted on Friday. “One of the greatest singer/songwriters in our nation’s history, & one of the greatest poets to grace us with his electrifying music and his words dipped in sorrow and joy!”
Other celebrities who’ve expressed sadness about Withers’ death include Chance The Rapper, Russell Wilson and Billy Dee Williams, who wrote “Your music cheered my heart and soothed my soul.”
Despite having a relatively brief career, Withers was far from a one-hit wonder, releasing classic cuts like “Lean On Me,” “Just the Two of Us” “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Lovely Day.” The three-time Grammy Award winner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.
Withers released his first album in 1971, “Just As I Am,” on the now defunct Los Angeles-based Sussex Records. His last album, “Watching You Watching Me,” released by Columbia Records, came in 1985. He left the music business after that, partially due to having a bad experience at Columbia.
In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Withers said unlike the people he worked with at Sussex, the Columbia executives didn’t let him create freely.
“There were no black executives,” Withers explained. “They’d say s–t to me like, ‘Why are there no horns on the song?’ ‘Why is this intro so long?’ . . . This one guy at Columbia, Mickey Eichner, was a huge pain in the ass. He told me to cover Elvis Presley’s ‘In the Ghetto.’ I’m a songwriter. That would be like buying a bartender a drink.”
But Withers didn’t let that bad experience keep him from recognizing the impact he made with his music.
“What few songs I wrote during my brief career, there ain’t a genre that somebody didn’t record them in,” he said in that same interview. “I’m not a virtuoso, but I was able to write songs that people could identify with. I don’t think I’ve done bad for a guy from Slab Fork, West Virginia.”
