Singer Withers overcame stuttering

The April/May 2006 issue of the magazine Waxpoetics sheds some light on the brilliant career of the famed singer and songwriter.

Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.

Not motivated in school and struggling with stuttering, Withers dropped out after ninth grade, later to join the Navy. It was in the Navy that for the first time he was able receive adequate speech therapy.

The article in Waxpoetics lists, "...his chronic stutter as one of the possible reasons he stayed in the service for so long, because he used the time to become comfortable with speech and gain self-confidence"

After his hitch in the Navy, Withers worked in jobs ranging from aircraft repairman to milkman. Finally in 1967, at age 29, he decided to pursue his interest in music.

In this case, it was the first time that both artists who recorded the song were African-American. Withers' songs have been recorded over the last 36 years by hundreds of artists, such as Barbra Stresiand, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Sting, Temptations, Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Joe Cocker and Mick Jagger.

Some articles from past decades credit the newfound fluency that Withers received from his speech therapy in the Navy as giving him the confidence to pursue a career in music.

He hopes to soon release his first album of new material since 1985.