(Credits: Far Out / Jac. de Nijs / National Archives)
Wed 3 December 2025 1:00, UK
Certain voices feel like they are interwoven into popular culture. Almost as though they were there the entire time, singing songs that have timelessly portrayed the reality of day-to-day life. One of those voices will always belong to Bill Withers.
Whether it was listening to him sing about the tenderness of familial life on ‘Grandma’s Hands’, the pain of heartache of ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ or the warm-hearted friendship of ‘Lean On Me’, there seems to be no moment of broad humanity left untouched by Withers.
Why? Well, sure, the technicality of his friendly baritone certainly helps, almost comforting the listener like the sonic equivalent of an arm around the shoulder. But beneath that are the experiences of a man who has truly lived a life. In fact, he didn’t record his first song until the age of 32, having spent his adult life until then serving in the Navy.
Speaking of his accessibility as an artist, Withers said, “Being from a rural, West Virginia setting, that kind of circumstance would be more accessible to me than it would be to a guy living in New York,” adding, “Coming from a place where people were a little more attentive to each other, less afraid, that would cue me to have those considerations.”
It’s why songs like ‘Lean On Me’ and ‘Grandma’s Hands’ are so full blooded when delivered by Withers. The experience behind every syllable can be traced, as opposed to a feigning of emotion for the purpose of serving records. It’s ultimately what made him as treasured as an artist like Stevie Wonder, for his profound emotional intelligence put him on an even playing field with the likes of said multi-instrumentalist icon.
In fact, Wonder was a massive fan of Withers and inducted him into the 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was during his tribute speech for that induction that Wonder explained what I have spent my life and the added time of this article trying to describe as the true essence of Withers’ greatness.
He proudly explained that a “great songwriter and a singer who can do both is when they are able to let you feel in every word, every word they sing and express that you can relate to. You see, I’ve always felt that Bill Withers’ songs were songs that were for every single culture there is.”
Adding, “Everyone can relate somewhere in the world to the greatness of those songs. What I think of ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’, it is so relevant to what he’s talking about, the relationship of that wonderful someone that is not around. And when she’s not around, his life is so incomplete.”
The proof is in the very fact that Stevie Wonder, born in 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan, can feel exactly the same as I do, born nearly half a century later and from a completely different part of the world. Withers’ music has glued us all together through a sense of emotional consciousness and a voice that represents all spectrums of humanity.
Related Topics