William Harrison “Invoice” Withers, Jr. (born July 4, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who carried out and recorded from 1970 till 1985. He recorded numerous main hits, together with “Lean on Me”, “Ain’t No Sunshine”, “Use Me”, “Simply the Two of Us”, “Beautiful Day”, and “Grandma’s Arms”. Withers’ life was the topic of the 2009 documentary movie Nonetheless Invoice. In April 2015, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame.
Youth
Withers was born the youngest of six kids within the small coal-mining city of Slab Fork, West Virginia. Raised in close by Beckley, West Virginia, he was 13 years outdated when his father died. Withers enlisted with america Navy on the age of 18 and served for 9 years, throughout which period he grew to become considering singing and writing songs. Discharged from the Navy in 1965, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1967 for a musical profession.
Withers labored as an assembler for a number of totally different corporations, together with Douglas Plane Company, whereas recording demo tapes together with his personal cash, buying them round and performing in golf equipment at night time. When he debuted with the track “Ain’t No Sunshine” he refused to resign from his job due to his perception that the music enterprise was a fickle trade.
