The dreadlocked 35 year old Lenny from Manhattan has got quite a story to tell, filled with love, scandals, death, drugs and , of course, MUSIC....
Lenny is the half-Jewish - half-Bahamian son of the NBC producer Sy Kravitz and the actress Roxie Roker (most known as Helen in "The Jeffersons"). He was born in New York where he grew up in an idyllic spot of the rich Manhattan. In 1974 the family moved to Beverly Hills where Lenny went to Beverly Hills Highschool. He studied musical instruments and learned to play bass, guitar, keyboard and That was also where he made his fist contact with music, as he sang in the California Boys Choir.
Lenny was a very goodhearted boy. When he was only 17 he helped a prostituted girl to escape her pimp. He hid her in his room, under his bed, took care of her and kept it a secret from his parents. His parents always said: (I quote:)
- You're always doing things for everyone, except for yourself.
As almost every teenager, Lenny had his own identity crises and changed from punk to hippie to, at last, his own personality. But for a while he adored David Bowie.
- I wanted to be David Bowie more than anything in the world, Lenny said.
1989 he met his future wife, Lisa Bonet, known from "The Cosby Show". When they met, they were both seeing others and became really close friends. But when Lenny's car suddenly broke down and he moved in with Lisa so that he could use hers, it all changed. They spent a lot of time together and soon discovered that they couldn't live without eachother. They flew to Las Vegas and got married the same year. Lenny called Lisa the complete reflection of himself. Soon after they had got married, they had their first, and only child, a daughter named Zoe.
They moved to Manhattan and Lenny started working on his first album. Lisa continued her part in "The Cosby Show" but visited her husband in the studio almost ever day, sometimes bringing the baby Zoe with her.
The same year, 1989, Lenny released his very first album "Let Love Rule" and suddenly he became a star. He plays all the instruments by himself (But not at the same time, of course) but for his first tour he recruited a band to play.
Early when Lisa and Lenny got married, evil voices said:
- This is just another freeloader, trying to make a career by marrying a star.
But such statements soon were proved wrong.
As Lisa's career seemed on the wane, Lenny suddenly was compared to superstars like John Lennon and Prince. In the magazine Rolling Stone there was a nude photo of Lisa and in the film Angel Heart, an X-rated love scene with the actor Mickey Rourke. It all dirtied Lisa's reputation.
Now the tables were turned, Lenny was the big star and Lisa, back in the safety of Cosby Show, stood in his shadow.
That, together with Lenny's popstarlife, ruined their marriage and they separated in 1991.
That year he also released his second album "Mama said" which he describes as "a soundtrack of a breakup". The title is named after his mother and in the song "Always on the run" he sings about his mother always telling him how things should and should not be done.
1993 his third album was released, "Are you gonna go my way". Here he happily mixes funk, rock, soul and even gospel. The album, his hopes and believes that he and Lisa one day will be together again, are shown.
For some years, Lenny dated the French singer Venessa Paradis, but that didn't last. Before her he had had several shorter romances with for example Kylie Minogue, Yoko Ono and Madonna. Lenny wrote Madonna's "Justify my love", which led to several offers from for example Aerosmith, Mick Jagger, Venessa Paradis and for the "Batman Forever" soundtrack. Lenny and Venessa were going to get married, but that never happened. But they were a very hot couple, and haunted but paparazzies.
Once, in 1996, in a state were both Lenny and Venessa, according to eyewitnesses, were stoned, they attacked photographers in Paris. They were walking together, hand in hand, when some photographers stared taking photos of the couple. Lenny got furious and violently demanded to get the rolls of film. Venessa spat one photographer in the face, and the whole thing could have ended very badly if some passing-by wouldn't have helped Lenny to calm down. But the drug rumour is something that Lenny prefers not to talk about..
In 1995 Lenny released the album "Circus" where he clearly criticizes the musicbusiness.
- I'm sick of all the bullshit in this business, and the entire circus surrounding it, Lenny says. But he still thinks that music is the funniest thing in the world.
This year, Lenny's mother Roxie got sick of cancer, and when she died in 1997, it changed Lenny. He seeked a meaning in everything he did, nothing should be meaningless. In the song "Thinking of you" be asks his mother what it's like on "the other side".
When Lenny and Venessa broke up in 1997, Lenny was all alone. He used to live on Manhattan, with his snake Rex as only company. But as he traveled so much, he had to sell the snake. So after the breakup he didn't even have Rex.
But the charming, good-looking and extremely rich musician soon had a relatioship with the singer Natalie Imbruglia. They were even supposed to have been engaged. But that came as a surprise for Lenny. The relationship between him and the Australian singer is over. It is also told that he has had a relationship with the young, Swedish singer Robyn.
And this year he released his fifth album, "5".
Critics say it's not very good but contains some good songs, like "Thinking of you", a song to his mother and "Little girl's eyes" which is dedicated to his, now nine-year-old daughter. He truly loves her, but hasn't got much time to see her. For her, daddy is the bid idol and she specially likes this song for her, and the song "Flowers for Zoe".
Lenny is now trying to get rid of the drug-rumour and wants to have to sporty and healthy image.
He has even cut his dreadlocks of!!!
He is also starting a recordcompany for new artists so that they don't have to deal with all the assholes in the business that he did.
One critic said that Lenny Kravitz is only another dreadlocked, ring-through-the-nose hippie.
Hippie?
Lenny believes in peace, in the world getting along. Just listen to the name of his first album, "Let Love Rule". The world should be one place, not many small places.
He says, and I quote:
-When you're up in a spaceship and look at the world, it's on place. I'm into the world coming together, if that ever happens. Maybe it'll take a great tragedy first...
