Bill Withers had one of the most remarkable and unconventional paths to musical stardom. Born on July 4, 1938, in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, Withers was the youngest of six children. He grew up in a working-class family and spoke with a stutter, which made him shy and introverted as a child. He spent nine years in the U.S. Navy, where he overcame his stutter and started singing and writing songs. After leaving the Navy, he moved to Los Angeles in his early 30s—an unu