Bill Withers was an American singer-songwriter. At the time of his death, his net worth was around $25 million. Best known for timeless hits such as "Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine", he passed away at the age of 81 on March 30th, 2020 from heart complications.

Born in Slab Fork, West Virginia, he was the sixth child of Mattie and William Withers. His mother was a maid and his father was a miner, and they divorced when Bill was three years old. After their divorce, Bill was raised by his mother's family in Beckley, West Virginia. He was born with a stutter that made it hard for him to fit in with others, which he struggled with until the age of 28.  When he was 13, his father died and at 17 he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving for nine years.

In 1965 he left the navy and worked as a milkman in Santa Clara County, California, then as an assembler in a number of factories, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, IBM, and Ford. After overhearing singer Lou Rawls' weekly wage of $2,000 and seeing his popularity with the opposite sex, Withers - who was making $3 per hour at that point - decided to give music a shot. He bought a guitar from a pawn shop, taught himself to play, and wrote songs in his spare time. He sent out demo tapes to executives at record labels and was picked up by Clarence Avant of Sussex Records. He called Withers into Sussex to record an album produced by Booker T. Jones, including the single "Ain't No Sunshine". The album, entitled Just As I Am was released in 1971, becoming a huge hit and making Withers a star. "Ain't No Sunshine" won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1972, and sold over 1 million copies in its first year.

The following year he released Still Bill, with single "Lean on Me" - the album was an even bigger success, making the singer a reported $650,000. "Lean on Me" went to number one in the Billboard Charts the week of July 8th, 1972 - Withers' second gold single, the record sold over three million copies. His next single, "Use Me" sold over one million copies.

In 1973 Withers married TV actress Denise Nicholas, but there were reports of domestic abuse and they divorced in 1974. Two years later, he married Marcia Johnson and the couple remained together for the rest of his life. A graduate of UCLA Graduate School of Management, Johnson became Withers' manager and head of the Mattie Music Group where she controls Bill's publishing companies and worldwide sub-publisher representatives. She's behind the placement of Withers' music in countless films, commercials, and television programs, the royalties from which have kept his net worth high despite his retirement from the music industry in 1985. Marcia is a board member of the charity Stuttering Association for the Young (which Bill was also a board member of) and has two adult children with Bill - Todd and Kori. The couple lived in a 5,000 sq ft home in Los Angeles which they bought for $700,000 in 1998.

After his initial success at Sussex Records, Withers was unable to record music for some time due to the label's financial difficulties. During this time he concentrated on collaborations, including writing and producing for Gladys Knight & The Pips, performing with James Brown, Etta James, and B.B. King in Zaire (modern-day Democratic Republic of Congo). After Sussex Records folded in 1975, Withers signed with Columbia Records. The relationship between Withers and the label was strained, but Withers recorded and released three albums between 1976 and 1978. After this, he again turned his focus to joint projects, including the single "Just the Two of Us" with jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., released in June 1980. The song went on to win a Grammy for Best R&B Song. In 1985 Withers released his final studio album, Watching You, Watching Me, and parted ways with Columbia.

His music has been covered and remixed extensively, including 1988's "Lovely Day (Sunshine Mix)" by Ben Liebrand, and Withers receives half of every dollar his back catalog generates. In 2005 Bill Withers was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 2007 "Lean on Me" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2014 he won the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album for Bill Withers: The Complete Sussex & Columbia Albums Collection, a nine-disk set featuring all eight of Withers' studio albums, as well as his live album Live at Carnegie Hall. The following year, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Stevie Wonder.

Bill Withers died age 81 in Los Angeles on March 30th, 2020. His family announced his death four days later and he is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.

Sources: Forbes, Wikipedia, BillWithers.com, Rolling Stone, Next Alerts, Newspaper Library, Say.org

This article was updated on April 5, 2021 by Poppy O'Neill

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