"Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine" singer-songwriter Bill Withers dies at 81

The Guardian

The soul-folk icon, who died on Monday of heart complications, created hit songs that have been used in countless movies and TV shows. "Since Withers was the sole writer of most of his material, he gets half of every dollar his catalog generates – and 'Lean on Me' alone has appeared in innumerable TV shows, movies and commercials," Andy Greene wrote in a 2015 Rolling Stone profile of Withers. "Any licensee that wants to use Withers’ master version of one of his songs needs his approval." "If it’s for a scene in a show where somebody is killed or something, we will turn them down," said his wife Marcia Withers, who runs his publishing company. “We don’t want people to associate, say, ‘Lean on Me’ with violence.” "Technically, it’s possible to license a cover of one of his songs without his consent," noted Greene. “But that’s never happened,” said Withers. “They don’t want to piss me off.”