Sheryl Crow releases moving cover of Bill Withers' song 'Lonely Town, Lonely Street'
Sheryl Crow shared a moving cover of late singer Bill Withers' 1972 song "Lonely Town, Lonely Street" to pay tribute to the legendary artist over the weekend.
Withers, known for his hits like "Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine," died from heart complications at the age of 81 on March 30.
Crow posted a touching message for the singer-songwriter, alongside a photo with him, on Instagram. "I love Bill Withers. His passing last week was a heavy blow, on top of the challenges we’re all facing just trying to live day to day right now," she wrote in the caption of her post.
"After making incredible, beautiful, funky records like 'Ain't No Sunshine', 'Grandma’s Hands', 'Use Me', and 'Lean On Me', Bill got tired of the music business and stopped recording in 1985," Crow's message continued.
"When I was fortunate enough to meet him, I begged him to make music again and he replied, ‘I am a stonemason now and I am good at it!’ He told me he was happy and didn’t want to make music anymore."
Crow said Withers' passing and other moments like this "remind us about what’s really important in life - love, family, living life in harmony with each other and our planet."
She recorded the cover of Withers' song with fellow artist Citizen Cope. The cover was produced by Steve Jordan.
"I'd been working on getting Bill to record for over a decade," Jordan said in a press release. "He would send me a tune and say 'I need a certain kind of person to record this.' The truth is, he was the only person that could record it first!"
"He would visit me in the studio and we would have a blast, he loved hanging with the studio cats . . . everyone would get such a thrill with Bill just being there, he was a GURU! There was only one Bill Withers," his statement continued.
Check out their cover here.
