The eighties were drawing to a close when suddenly he appeared: a hippie with dreadlocks in tight soul trousers, rocking as if the seventies had never ended. Lenny Kravitz initially seemed an anachronism, but barely two years later his retro style perfectly matched the prevailing trends.
Leonard Albert Louis Jean Etienne Monfort Kravitz was born on 26 May 1964. His mother is actress Roxie Roker, known for her role as Helen Willis in the TV series The Jeffersons. From a young age, little Lenny proved incredibly musical. He taught himself to play guitar, drums, bass guitar and piano. He took his first steps in the music industry under the pseudonym Romeo Blue. We find him in 1984 on the track What A Woman Feels Inside by disco singer Thelma Houston. His parents divorced in 1985 when Kravitz discovered his father was unfaithful. He himself married Lisa Bonet in 1987, who played Denise Huxtable in the TV series The Cosby Show. A year later their daughter Zoë Kravitz was born, who in her teenage years followed in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother.
Let Love Rule
Lenny Kravitz dropped the stage name Romeo Blue when he was offered a contract with Virgin Records in 1988. In the autumn of 1989 his debut album Let Love Rule was released, preceded by the single of the same name. Both did reasonably well in the charts, although it would later become clear that Let Love Rule was the only Lenny Kravitz album not to reach the top 10 in the Netherlands. On 13 December 1989 Kravitz gave a concert at Paradiso, Amsterdam. That performance was broadcast on British and Australian radio in 1991, ahead of the release of his second album Mama Said. By then he was already a big star. In 1990 Madonna asked him to write a new song for her Best Of album The Immaculate Collection. The result was Justify My Love, a huge hit in early 1991.
Mama Said
When Justify My Love was charting worldwide, rumours circulated about a supposed relationship between Kravitz and Madonna. This greatly displeased Bonet. It became too much for her in 1991 and she filed for divorce, which was finalised two years later. Personal struggles aside, these proved to be very productive years for the rock star. Always On The Run, which Kravitz wrote with Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, was his first top 10 hit in the Netherlands in spring 1991, and the album Mama Said was then in the top 5 of best-selling records. Later that year the singles It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over, Fields Of Joy and What The Fuck Are We Saying? were released, all reaching the charts. It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over reached number 2 in the US. In May he performed at Pinkpop for the first time and in December at Ahoy, Rotterdam.
Are You Gonna Go My Way
Before his divorce from Lisa Bonet was finalised, Lenny Kravitz had found a new love in French singer Vanessa Paradis. In 1992 Kravitz produced Vanessa Paradis’s self-titled album, which incidentally gave her her only top 10 hit in the Netherlands with the single Be My Baby. At the same time, Kravitz was busy recording his third album, Are You Gonna Go My Way, with the title track released as the first single in February 1993. It became Kravitz’s second top 10 hit in our country and he improved on his previous album chart performance when Are You Gonna Go My Way peaked at number three in March. Two and a half years later the follow-up Circus reached number one in the Album Top 100, despite the single Rock And Roll Is Dead being a disappointing hit. At the end of 1995 Kravitz’s mother died of cancer. His relationship with Paradis ended in 1996.
5
After whirlwind success and a turbulent private life in the first half of the nineties, Kravitz took a little longer over his fifth album. The analogue recording equipment of his first four records had been replaced by digital equivalents, and his long dreadlocks had disappeared. The result of the recordings, aptly titled 5, arrived in May 1998 and was once again a top 10 entry for Kravitz. However, the singles did less well in the charts, although the rock song Fly Away was a hit again in the US. For the film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me he recorded a cover of American Woman in 1999, originally a top 5 hit for The Guess Who in 1970. In July 1999 Kravitz performed at Goffertpark in Nijmegen.
Amsterdam ArenA
Lenny Kravitz left the twentieth century behind with a Greatest Hits album. The single Again from it was a hit and he performed at Ahoy for the seventh time. The sixth studio album Lenny was released in the autumn of 2001. The first two singles from that album, Dig In and Stillness Of Heart, flopped badly, but he made up for it with the third single. Believe In Me was Kravitz’s first top 10 hit in nine years in spring 2002. A few months later he was one of the main attractions at Pinkpop. Meanwhile, he was briefly engaged to supermodel Adriana Lima. On the album Baptism Kravitz returned to his roots. The record reached number three in the Album Top 100 in May 2004 and a month later he gave a one-off concert at the Amsterdam ArenA. The singles Where Are We Runnin’? and Calling All Angels were minor hits. In June 2005 he shone alongside R.E.M. and Nine Inch Nails at Rockin’ Park. His father died in October.
It's Time For A Revolution
After that, it was quiet around Lenny Kravitz for a while. At the end of 2007 he broke the silence with the single I’ll Be Waiting. The ballad was an unexpectedly big hit for the singer in early 2008 and even gave him his highest ever chart position in the Netherlands. The success translated into record sales, as It's Time For A Love Revolution entered the Album Top 100 at number 2 in February, behind Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black. It was Kravitz’s highest chart position in that list since 1995. During the European tour he again performed at Rockin’ Park and the Heineken Music Hall. A more intimate show followed at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam in July 2009. The ninth album, Black And White America, also reached number two in the sales chart in August 2011, now behind Adele’s 21. In October Kravitz was back at Ahoy. He returned there again in July 2012.
Avicii
In the autumn of 2012 Lenny Kravitz surprised friend and foe when Swedish DJ Avicii made a remix of his track Superlove. The dance version became a hit in several countries. Two years later the album Strut was released, which brought him to the Ziggo Dome for the first time in November 2014. The guys from Bløf managed to get the singer for Concert At Sea the following summer. In the years after, the rocker took it a bit easier. He sold his beach house in Miami for over 16 million dollars, but still has homes in Paris, Brazil and the Bahamas. His eleventh album Raise Vibration was released in 2018. It is his lowest-charting record in twenty years. Yet he continues to sell out concerts. In 2019, alongside the fiftieth edition of Pinkpop, he also played smaller festivals in Wageningen and Emmen.
Besides being a singer, Kravitz is also an actor. He appeared in the film Precious (2009), which won two Oscars. He also appeared in the first and second parts of The Hunger Games (2012, 2013), playing the role of Cinna, Katniss’s stylist. He also had a role as Butler in the White House and as a friend of Cecile Gaines in the film The Butler (2013).
Top 2000
In the 24th edition of the Top 2000, Lenny has only 2 entries:
Listen here to our Top 2000 inspiration playlist on Spotify: Top 2000 Inspiration Playlist
Sunday Morning Classic
Let your hair down with Lenny as Sunday Morning Classic. On Sunday 19 March 2023 the album "Mama Said" was on our turntable as Sunday Morning Classic.
Mama Said is Lenny’s second studio album, released in April 1991 by Virgin Records. Like his 1989 debut, Let Love Rule, Kravitz plays most of the instruments himself, but he has a little help from friends and session musicians. Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash co-wrote and played on the track "Always on the Run". He also played on the track "Fields of Joy". The song "All I Ever Wanted" was co-written by Sean Lennon. Although enough copies of the album were sold to be certified double platinum, the RIAA still lists it as platinum. In the UK the album reached number 8 on the UK Albums Chart. In 2012 Virgin Records released an extensive double-disc version of the album with a number of remixes and bonus tracks.
Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune noted: "Instead of building on the sixties influences that permeated his 1989 debut Let Love Rule, Kravitz practically wallows in them on Mama Said... Kravitz's taste is commendable and Mama Said sounds admirably gritty and sexy, without major production influences from the nineties. Rarely have traditional guitar rock and sweet soul been so confidently and effortlessly fused."
Mama Said was Kravitz’s commercial breakthrough. The album was a stylistic evolution from his debut and reflected changes in Kravitz’s life. His recent split from wife Lisa Bonet made Mama Said an album full of emotions of loss and sorrow, but also denial of it. With all its carefully produced classic rock homages, it sounds as if the album could have been released in 1972.
Enjoy listening!
Source: NPO and Wikipedia Photo: album and SvenPaulus
