All artists
soulsoul jazzsmooth jazz

Bill Withers

5 tracks across 4 playlists

Slab Fork, West Virginia. Navy mechanic — yes, mechanic — who turned soul giant in his thirties without ever apologizing for the late start. 'Lean on Me,' 'Ain't No Sunshine,' 'Lovely Day,' 'Use Me' — three or four immortal songs and the kind of catalog every vocalist alive has covered. He famously walked away from the music industry in 1985 because the people running Columbia wouldn't stop trying to tell him what to make. Gone in 2020. A full-on class act, and a model for what creative dignity looks like.