A dramatic thing, the first time you stand up to your dad.
A lot of my songs deal with spirituality and God, and I guess if you're in tune with that, you'll read into it.
A lot of people don't listen to the lyrics, really.
A lot of people pretty much only listen to the chorus.
Change is growth. For me it has been a very spiritual and musical rebirth.
Confusion makes people uncomfortable. They can't put their finger on me.
Eventually you're going to have a digital transfer anyway when you make a CD, so it doesn't matter as long as what you're hitting first is what you want it to be.
Every night is different, you never know what it's going to be like. I remember every night. I don't like to compare them.
Fly Away changed my life. There are certain songs that do. When I won the Grammy, I was in Paris. I sort of forgot about it.
For the last few years, it's been so chic for everybody to be miserable. Like if you're in with the cool crowd, you can't be happy.
God forbid you sing about love. It's a lost concept.
God gave me the gift to be able to play instruments and I have to play.
God is always in my life, and that's the most important thing to me.
God said, Here. Have it. Enjoy it. I'm gonna be miserable?
I am not trying to change the world. I am just offering my gift that God gave me, and if somebody is moved by it, that's beautiful.
I am still into the people I listened to growing up, so I completely remember what is like to be a fan, I haven't changed.
I am trying to get closer to God.
I couldn't tell you what I am going to do next 'cause I have no idea, but I am open to anything.
I didn't really listen to rock 'n' roll until I moved to LA. We would ditch school, go get high, put on Zeppelin IV and just bug out.
I don't like to approach people that much. There's been times when I wanted to say something to somebody, in a quick moment, but didn't. Then you think, man, who knows?
I don't play the tuba.
I don't think about the styles. I write whatever comes out and I use whatever kind of instrumentation works for those songs.
I feel like I'm only in the beginning of my career. I've only made five albums. It's not a lot.
I get a lot of joy from playing instruments, and I have a different personality on each instrument. I like to let that come out. I get kind of selfish.
I get hired as a writer or producer and I do the best I can to bring out that artist. If somebody calls you to do something, you go right for that vision and you're aware of that person's vibe. You're trying to get inside of them.
I have a great time with my band and on the stage we get along well.
I identify with women more than men. I guess I have a strong feminine side.
I just need to know that I did the very best I could and that I was true to myself.
I knew Slash in high school, but not very well. Just knew him as this kid that used to hang out in the hallway. Pretty much looked then the way he does now.
I knew what I wanted to do from the time I was 5.
I made the record that my life had me make. Each one is like a diary.
I mean, there are only so many notes. What makes something original is how you put it together.
I never sit down to write. When I'm moved, I do it. I just wait for it to come. You just hear it. I can't really describe writing. It's in my head.
I think it'd be a real nightmare to put a record out and sell 20 million copies and then that's it.
I was taught by my grandfather that anything that your mind can conceive, you can have. It's a reality.
I wasn't the kind of person that liked waiting for autographs or following them, I just liked to go to the shows, study their records, driving many, many hours to different states to go to concerts.
I wouldn't play together with someone who likes to control everything like me.
I'm always sort of reflecting on what I do on what I've done. Usually before I make a new album, I'll listen to the previous albums just to see where I've been.
I'm half Jewish, I'm half black, I look in-between. I dress funny. I play all these different styles of music on one record. It's like, What is he doing?
I'm in this for the long haul. I've been making music my whole life.
I'm more hungry now than I was 11 years ago. Which is great because I see a lot of artists that have been out for a long period of time. They get kind of fat.
I'm really happy about American Woman, it brought the Guess Who back. They started gigging again and got their song out on commercials.
I've always been into films. I've been offered lots of films but they've always been these very stereotypical roles. They wanted me to play some gangster or street guy, or pimp, drug addict.
I've been compared to hundreds of artists, which just goes to show you that I'm not any one thing at all.
I've had to work very hard, and I don't really have a category or fit into any niche, so each time I come out with a new record, it's like, I'm a new guy.
I've woken up from dreams and the whole song is there. I'm listening to it in my dreams. I consciously have to wake myself up and get a tape recorder because I hear it like a record.
If I had to associate myself with one song, it would probably be Let Love Rule. It's so simple and to the point. It speaks for itself.
If I were white, I'd get less criticism.
If you ask a hundred people, they all give you different answers.
If you heard my records and no one told you, I don't think you'd know whether it's a band or one guy.
If you listen to a lot of old funk records, the drums are really small. But you don't perceive it like that because the groove is so heavy.
It was amazing to me that, all of a sudden, I was hearing my music on the radio and coming out of cars.
It was like I lived in between a Spike Lee movie and a Woody Allen movie, and it was awesome. I didn't understand prejudice at all.
It's a trip to have a Greatest Hits record. It's a trip.
It's about the music. We've learned from those that came before us.
It's just using classic pieces of gear that sound great, straight. That's what gets that sound. It is what it is.
It's like a dream to come to Spain and stay for a couple of years and get somebody to teach me Spanish music.
It's very important to vote. People died for this right.
Mothers love you to the end, and she didn't want to hold me back from my livelihood. So I left for a month and called her every couple of days. I came home and she died 24 hours later.
Music is my life, it is a reflection of what I go through.
My career has been a gradual climb. I think that's part of the reason why I've had longevity.
My dream is to become a farmer. Just a Bohemian guy pulling up his own sweet potatoes for dinner.
My first guitar, a Fender Jazz Master, I traded it in for a Les Paul Deluxe.
My mother gave lots of good advice and had a lot to say. As you get older, you realize everything she said was true.
My mother passed at the end of the Circus tour. After that I really needed to take some time and just chill out and get my head together.
Nine out of ten groups that came out in '89 are gone. I'm still here.
Oasis are not just influenced by the Beatles; they actually take stuff. Then they get praised.
People feel they have to live that stereotypical lifestyle in order to be a rock star. You don't have to shoot heroin and act a certain way to be a rock and roll musician.
People see my photos and think I labor over my image and I'm this cool, brooding artist. But I'm just having fun with it.
Tape machines are effects boxes as well because each tape machine has its own sound. You can overload a tape machine or you can bump it a certain way so it compresses or makes a sound, tape saturation.
That's a big gift when people say to you that a song helped them or brought them to some place in their life where they needed to be.
The image is an image.
The image that the public gets is whatever they perceive it to be. Everybody has an opinion, everybody has their own vision, so I don't know what my public image is. I have no idea.
The loyalty rate isn't that high. I could have a big hit, then put out the next single, and they say, Oh yeah, who are you? Prove it again.
The story that I wanna tell is pretty much about the way I grew up. Being bi-racial, growing up in a big city and being an artist.
There are so many people that don't believe in themselves and don't have faith.
There's definitely an old school element to my music, but I also think it's modern.
They think I'm being serious when actually I'm a very big clown. But you have to know me to see that. I'm constantly cracking up and cracking everybody else around me up.
Today, people are more into the glitz and the glamour of everything. We don't even read the inside of records anymore.
We weren't put here to be miserable. We were put here to do the best we can, and we should take our energy and improve our state of being.
We're beginning to play God and get into cloning. We give up quickly. Divorce is an easy option. So why not just create your own mate? Synthesize a human being. You get tired of it, turn it off and put it in the closet like the vacuum cleaner.
We're getting so pulled in by computers and technology, and our kids have their face in the computers all day. The human relationship is being diminished by this.
We're going to get to a really sick point of designing fake people.
When I was a kid and I bought a record, I ripped that thing open, I wanted to know who was playing what, what studio it was cut at, who was the string arranger, who was the engineer.
When you see a close person you know pass in front of your eyes, it's hard core. After all that, I just wanted to enjoy every day. That was my goal. And to give thanks and to live fully.
You can be around 100 people and be completely alone. People don't realize what it's really like.
You're never promised your next breath.
You've got your entourage and people that help you make whatever happen around you. Everything's crazy and you're not paying attention to your inner feelings because you're so busy. I couldn't take it.
Lenny's 1999 hit single 'Fly Away' reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was featured in both car manufacturer and airline commercials.
Lenny was awarded a Brit Award for 'Best International Male Artist' in 1994.
Lenny performed at Tsunami Aid, a Concert of Hope in January of 2005, all the proceeds go to benefit tsunami relief efforts.
Lenny formed Roxie Records, headquartered in Miami, and named for his late mother, Roxie Roker. Lenny assumed the central atr role overseeing the creative development, the signing, and the development of the label's roster.
Lenny launched his own design firm studio, 'Kravitz Design' in July of 2004.
Lenny gained greater recognition when Madonna's cover version of his song 'Justify My Love' reached number one, on her Immaculate Collection album in 1990. He also dated Madonna at this time.
Lenny's parents were friends with jazz legends Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Miles Davis. Lenny was heavily influenced by Prince, as well as the Jazz greats.
Lenny was named after his uncle, Pfc. Leonard Kravitz, who was killed in action in Korea while supressing a Chinese attack and saving almost all of his platoon. He was awarded the 'Distinguished Service Cross' after his death.
Lenny used to perform under the stage name Romeo Blue early in his career.
Lenny married Lisa Bonet on November 16, 1987 on her 20th birthday. They welcomed daughter Zoe Isabella Kravitz into their lives before divorcing in April, 1993.
Lenny's first album, titled Let Love Rule is a raw, largely acoustic effort, with most of the tracks inspired by his love for Lisa Bonet, who co-wrote some of the songs with him. Lenny also played virtually every instrument himself (guitars, bass, organ, drums, etc).
Lenny was #93 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artist of Rock.
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