Superlatives
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
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Lenny Kravitzis just waking up at his Bahamas home on a recent morning when we say hello.
(Theleather gym pantsseemingly have the day off.)
His corneas are, of course, cocooned in sunglasses.
Its a brand-new start for me, the guitar hero says.
I can just feel it.
Its like pushing the restart button on Lenny 2.0.
This Kravitz is a little funkier, even bordering on the New Wave.
Besides, he has some misconceptions that hed like to clear up.
Most therapeutic song to record
A Long and Sad Goodbye.
Its about my dad.
I started writing it before he died.
The song really dealt with the difficulty that we had.
Me being a mamas boy, I was very sensitive to it.
That song was the most therapeutic because it just has a lot of heaviness surrounding it.
I chose to release it after he passed because I didnt want it to hurt him.
Well, it wasnt done in a harmful manner, but I just chose to respect his feelings.
So it came out afterwards and it was good for me.
Ive never performed the song live.
Song that scared you most to write
Nothing.
I just accept it.
I pick up what I hear and whats being offered to me.
Its floating around there somewhere.
I learned very early on, while working on my first album, to accept what comes.
My ideas, my ego, and my sensibility have nothing to do with it.
Ive thought to myself at times,Oh, this is the song Im being given.
Okay, wow, this is kind of weird.
I didnt think Id be writing a song with this groove.
But it makes it where, in the end, I can be free because its not about me.
Its about this thing that Im being given and my job is to complete it.
It all started with theLet Love Rulealbum.
Before that, I was searching, as one does: Whats my sound?
What do I like?
What do I want to put together?
Oh, this would be cool.
Ill put this kind of vibe together with that.
I was consciously trying.
They started coming at me and downloading into my head.
I started to listen to it and ran over to the instruments to figure it out.
Then another one came, and then another one after that.
They came without me trying or without me thinking about it.
So from that time to now, Ive accepted thats how I work.
I do what I hear, and theres a wonderful feeling in accepting that.
This is for me.
Im not following trends.
Ive learned to stay as far out of the way as possible and enjoy it.
Then I know Im doing the right thing.
Most overindulgent song
Theres a song called I Built This Garden for Us onLet Love Rule.
It somehow reads and it works, but Ill admit its got a lot going on.
I think Im a better singer than I was at the start of my career.
But I accept it.
So Id have to say Let Love Rule.
That wasnt the first song I recorded.
Some of the first songs were Fear, Rosemary, and Does Anybody Out There Even Care.
Let Love Rule came toward the end of that album.
It was something that came to me when I was living in Soho.
I was on 450 Broome, on the corner of Mercer, when I made that record.
Of course, I would also see it all the time.
I never thought about writing a song with those words.
I thought it was just a nice phrase.
When I did that song, it was the beginning of me accepting my voice.
That was the first time I had heard myself and went, Okay, thats me.
My tone, the way I sing the song, and my three-part harmonies on the choruses.
I grew up singing in a boys choir, so I love those layered harmonies.
My voice just kept getting more seasoned.
Im now able to sing cleaner, but I still have the rawness and the feeling.
Perhaps Im more nimble with my voice.
So thats interesting to me.
Why am I the opposite?
Also, I had never planned on being the front man or being the lead singer.
I was always playing the guitar, bass, keyboard, or drums in a band.
I never planned on doing this.
I love that solo for that reason.
Theres also a tad of Jimi Hendrix and Curtis Mayfield in there.
When you think about the blues or the simplicity of when you listen to B.B.
Youth is also a feeling and a place to be.
I think that feeling of youth also has to deal with freedom.
It started a few years ago, but the process took a minute.
I got a tattoo that says free at last, inspired by Martin Luther King.
That could have been, like, ten years ago?
As you live and move forward, you realize, Well, I thought I was free then.
Hopefully you continue to move forward and get better, whatever that means to you.
I just made a decision that I needed to become more and more free as time went on.
I can say that right now, today, Im feeling that very strongly.
Hopefully in five years time, Ill feel even better about it.
And I go, Yeah, for 35 years.
A lot of people that enjoy music arent necessarily into the liner notes.
So maybe thats it they dont understand what Im doing and the process of how I do it.
you might enjoy the music.
You dont have to know.
Netted shirt with the most sentimental value
I have one that belonged to my dad.
In the 70s, there was an abundance of netted shirts.
You could still see little dots of his skin underneath it.
So that started the whole thing.
Actually, I never thought about that, but thats where it started.
