It's also the song that ended Leonardo DiCaprio's musical career before it ever started.
The two sat down for a private session. Just them and a single piano player. They picked a song to try together: Bill Withers' "Lean on Me."
"To be honest, I'm not really prepared to do a musical, simply because I think I have a pretty atrocious voice," DiCaprio said later. "We had a friendly thing where it was me and him and a piano player, and we tried to sing a song together. It didn't go too well. I think it was 'Lean on Me,' and when I hit the high note, he just turned to me."
"Yes, D, I don't know if this conversation should continue."
Related: Linda Ronstadt Hired Two Unknowns for 1971 Disneyland Concert—Accidentally Assembling One of Rock's Greatest Bands
There's a particular irony in the song that did it. Bill Withers was in his early thirties when he wrote "Lean on Me" in 1971. He’d spent nine years in the US Navy before moving to Los Angeles, where he worked at a factory making aircraft parts for Boeing 747s to get by. He spent his nights recording demos. At the time, he was already considered old for a first-time artist when his first album came out.
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
It doesn't require a trained voice or a wide range. It has one moment where the melody climbs and holds, a sustained high note in the bridge that separates the singers from everyone else.
A song that was designed to be sung by everyone, regardless of how they sounded, turned out to be the one that proved Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't sing.
The Role That Went to Everyone Else First
Ethan Hawke has claimed that he gave the best screen test of his life for Moulin Rouge! and still didn't get the part. Heath Ledger auditioned. Jake Gyllenhaal even auditioned. Still, each of them walked out without the role.
His ability to actually sing, combined with the chemistry he built with Nicole Kidman, carried the film to eight Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Moulin Rouge! won two Academy Awards and turned McGregor into a household name on a scale he hadn't previously experienced.
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♬ sonido original - disneyspain - disneyspainIronically, DiCaprio is currently attached to play Frank Sinatra in a biopic being developed with director Martin Scorsese. As of February 2026, DiCaprio confirmed the project is "still in the works." The film, if it happens, would require him to embody one of the greatest vocal artists in all of American history.
Baz Luhrmann has made no comment.
Bill Withers wrote it as a gift for strangers.
And the man it humbled is still, somehow, circling the world of music from a very safe distance. But, maybe not for much longer.
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