Lenny Kravitz says that when you have a career that spans three and a half decades, you learn to accept that your fortunes change from time to time. “Surfing is changing,” says the singer, guitarist and producer (and actor, fashion designer, author and design mogul), gazing aptly out at the Pacific from his apartment in Malibu, Los Angeles, on a slightly gloomy February morning. “You surf small waves, then moderate waves, then, oh wow, you catch a huge one. Throughout a career of thirty-five years, it goes up and down, in every direction.
It’s been a life of forward-looking restlessness for Kravitz, now 59, who emerged with the swaggering soul-funk of Let love speak in 1989, and went supernova with the jubilant rock’n’roll grooves of his third album, 1993’s Will you follow my path.
Since then, there has been little room to return to eight records, but Kravitz found himself in a contemplative mood as he created Blue electric light, his twelfth album (released May 24). Prompted by the experience of revisiting his youth for his 2020 memoir, also titled Let love speak, we see Kravitz imbuing his sound with the synth-pop flourishes that obsessed him as a teenager. Recorded in his studio in the Bahamas, the country where he usually resides, it shows Kravitz relishing what he sees as another big momentum shift on the horizon.
“I feel like I’m back in a wave of this magnitude and I’m enjoying every moment, because I didn’t grasp it the first time,” he says. Life is good, he says, settling in for a conversation about his career with Classic rock. And why wouldn’t it be? It’s Lenny Kravitz.
Where was your mind when you started working on Blue electric light?
This record reflects very well my musical expression at the time when I was in high school, and I think it’s because I had written a book (Let love speak). In this book, I spent a lot of time reliving my adolescence. It’s not a period that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about or reminiscing about, and I went back and thought about how I was making music back then, how way I did it. There are even two songs on the record, Bundle of joy And Heaven, which date from this period. So it’s a real celebration of today and this time.
What was it like reconnecting with the school?
It was awesome, it was fun, and it’s something I enjoy. It took me back to that time. All the other songs are new, but with these two songs I was transcribing a really bad tape that sounded like crap. It was difficult to listen to because it was dull, veiled. It was an old cassette. But I studied it.
Where was the tape all these years?
He had been lost. A friend of mine found it because I gave him one at the time and he found it. So it was all meant to be. The fact that it was found after a million years and sent to me was really cool.
Who were your main influences when you made this old demo?
In high school, Bowie, Prince, a lot of 80s stuff, The Police, Rick James.
And to think that in just a few years, some of these artists have gone from being heroes to being collaborators.
Yeah. Interestingly enough, I had the chance to work with Michael Jackson, with Bowie, with Prince.
When you think back to that first burst of success, what are the first things that come to mind?
I am extremely grateful. I really wanted to make music since I was a kid. It was never about becoming famous, it was more about making music. I never imagined being the frontman, I was always cool being a guitarist, drummer or bassist. I wasn’t the lead singer of any of the bands or things I was doing at that time, I was the guy next to the guy.
I didn’t want to be a solo artist, I wanted to be in a band, I wanted to have other people there, I wanted to have that studio experience that I had seen in documentaries about bands that looked so much fun. . The fact that I ended up doing this mostly on my own, without having that experience, and being the lead singer and frontman and having it work, was amazing to me.
When did you accept, “Oh, right, it looks like I’m a solo artist, then”?
Let love speak, That was it. Before that, man, I was doing things, doing demos, in different bands, but I was jumping from project to project. I was actually in a band – and it was my first time as lead singer – that was offered a contract. But Let Love Rule just came to mind and I had to turn it down. I told them I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have a record deal, but I had found my sound and was committed to making it – foregoing money or opportunities for success. I’ve always done that, I’ve always followed my instinct.
Where does this ability to take a leap of faith come from?
I have no idea. Because think about it: I’m a teenager at A&M Records, and I’m offered a contract, but they tell me I have to change my music, and they’re going to give me all this money. and “You’re going to go to Europe!” and “You’re going to make a record” and “You’re going to be a star!” blah blah blah, and I accept it. But when it came time to sign the agreement, I felt this uncomfortable feeling inside me.
I felt like an animal stuck in a corner – you’re either going to be captured, killed and eaten, or you’re going to fight and find your way out of that corner. My way out was to run. I needed it, but my soul wouldn’t let me do it because it knew something was going to happen before I knew something was going to happen. If I had accepted those offers at that time, I guarantee you I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.
When have you felt vindicated?
After the first two or three albums. When I did Let love speak, I didn’t know I was going to do another one. A lot of people release an album and then leave, or they release a second one and it flops and that’s it. But I guess after Will you follow my path I was like, “Wow, this is really happening. »
At the time, it felt like one of those rare meteoric rises that only happen to a few artists every decade. What was it like to be in the middle of it all?
It was magical. It was like being in the middle of a storm. It was crazy, everything revolved around me. I was everywhere. I was a kid in the middle of all this madness. But creativity always came first, making records, touring. That was always what was important to me. And the whole circus of a life was unfolding around me thanks to my success. There was a lot going on.
In 1993 alone, you collaborated with Mick Jagger, David Bowie, John Paul Jones and Curtis Mayfield, among others. Why do you think so many of your heroes adopted you?
I am grateful for that. I fought off criticism for years. This isn’t what the critics think, but I had a hard time doing so. But at the same time, whether it was Michael Jackson or Prince or Curtis Mayfield or Eric Clapton or Robert Plant, they all wanted to hang out, they all wanted to go on tour or go on stage and perform or go to the studio or whatever. else. , the people who educated and inspired me all came. It was very strange.
Who gave you the best advice?
Robert Plante. He opened for me in 1993. He had a solo record out and he wanted to expose himself to a younger audience, and he chose me. This obviously doesn’t come from me! So he came on tour. And Led Zeppelin means everything to me, Robert means everything to me, as a voice, as a writer, as a force. We became friends. During this period, I was very serious. Sound is very important to me, and when the sound isn’t good, it drives me crazy.
I was doing a soundcheck, and I guess I was in a bit of a mood because I didn’t like the sound of the stage that night, and Robert ripped me apart and tore me apart , basically saying, “Isn’t that good with you?” You’re in the middle of this great success, you have this music, you’re having a great run and you should enjoy every moment of it. Let go, relax! He was yelling at me like he was my older brother or my dad or something!
This freaked me out and I was a little embarrassed. Here’s one of my heroes telling me what a slut I am. But it was the most beautiful thing, because he’s a real guy and he saw me in this wonderful place that he’s been, and he said, “You better wake up and appreciate this and to have fun.” And that changed my mind. Since then, we have been great friends.
Well, if anyone is going to scold you, it might as well be Robert Plant. Later in your career, you sang a song with Michael Jackson and asked Dave Grohl to play drums. Dave later said Classic rock he could not recognize himself on the finished track.
He’s in there! He and I had a whole thing about it, because he thought he wasn’t there as strong as he should have been. I mixed it the same way Michael would have done with the samples and drums. Michael was working on the Invincible album at that time and called me to do a track. I recorded the track at Marvin Gaye’s studio in Los Angeles and Michael loved working there.
Michael came in and asked me to teach him the song and produce it, and it was really surreal to be there with the person who started all of this for me as a kid. I went to see the Jackson 5 when I was six, and here I am with him, teaching him my song and explaining how to do it. He said: “You stop me every time I don’t do it the way I wanted. »
We had fun. He was so human. We laughed a lot. Later I sent it to Grohl to add real drums to the samples, which I put in there and they sounded great. I’m not happy the song ended up on (posthumous release in 2010) Michael. There was a lot of bullshit on this album. But it’s a song and a memory that is close to my heart.
Looking back on your career, what is your proudest moment?
My daughter’s success and life (Batman And Mad Max: Road to Fury actress and model Zoë Kravitz) as a human being, not what she does. What she does is part of it, and it’s wonderful. Not because she was “successful”, but the exceptional human being that she is and in which I have something to do is my greatest achievement.