Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

In Spolseye, I'm Jesse Thorn. My guest, the musician Bill Withers, was born in a place called

Slab Fork, West Virginia. He grew up in a town next door called Beckley. The music industry

seemed a long way away. It wasn't some place where you could have long-range dreams,

not for me anyway. There was nothing that suited me there. I mean, everybody worked in the

coal mines. In other words, you can't aspire to certain things in certain places because

they don't exist. Now, if I go around people say, what advice do you have to use?

Young people that want to be in show business. First of all, you got to get out of here.

Nobody's going to come in and get you. It ain't here. So it's rare that people leave

there and become me. You have to have a broader vision and a bigger dream. It's Bullseye.

Coming up, I'll talk to the man who brought the world songs like Lean On Me, Lovely Day,

and just the two of us. And he'll call me out on my gotcha journalism.

Something's got to be wrong with you. Something's probably wrong with you for even asking me some

stuff like that. Fair point. No, I don't want to be sure. I'm a broken man.

It's Mr. Withers. Bill Withers and I will talk about talent, determination,

and why he wouldn't dance. Then later, I'll talk to Joe Randazzo.

He's drawn on his years of experience as a comedian, writer, and producer to compile his new book,

Funny On Purpose, The Definitive Guide to an unpredictable career in comedy.

It includes advice from lots of brilliant comedy people and a few unexpected ones like the

hip-hop mogul Damon Dash. For a hot minute, Randazzo worked for it.

One of his protégés was like, oh man, I'm so tired. And Damon Dash is like, I've been

tired for 10 years. And he was like, you have to be tired if you want to be successful.

...