Bill Withers, R&B singer of 'Lean On Me' and 'Ain't No Sunshine', dead at 81

R&B singer-songwriter Bill Withers died from heart complications on Monday in Los Angeles, his family said in a statement. He was 81. Photo: 2006 filepic, AP

R&B singer-songwriter Bill Withers, whose belated career in music burned briefly but brightly in the early '70s via a string of highly personalised hits, died from heart complications on Monday in Los Angeles, his family told the Associated Press. He was 81.

"We are devastated by the loss of our beloved, devoted husband and father. A solitary man with a heart driven to connect to the world at large, with his poetry and music, he spoke honestly to people and connected them to each other," the family said in a statement to AP.