Bill Withers wrote Ain't No Sunshine while working in a factory making toilet seats for 747s. He was 33. The record executives told him he was too old. The song won a Grammy and has been covered more than 200 times. Lean on Me. Use Me. Lovely Day. He walked away from the music business in 1985 and meant it.

A stutterer from Slab Fork, West Virginia, he joined the Navy at 17, worked in an aircraft factory, and wrote songs on his lunch break. His debut album Just As I Am featured Booker T. Jones on production and Stephen Stills on guitar. Ain't No Sunshine -- with that 'I know I know I know I know' section he improvised because he'd planned to write more lyrics and Booker T. told him to leave it alone -- was the sound of a man who wasn't trying to be famous. He was just trying to be honest.

He hated the music business. The execs, the schmoozing, the machine. In 1985 he quit. No farewell tour. No reunion. The phone kept ringing. He kept saying no. His songs -- Lean on Me, Use Me, Grandmother's Hands -- became standards while he lived quietly in Los Angeles. He died in 2020. The songs were enough. He knew it. The rest of us just had to catch up.

Bill Withers wrote Ain't No Sunshine on his lunch break building toilet seats for 747s. Lean on Me. Use Me. He walked away in 1985 and never looked back. The songs were enough.