Lenny Kravitz

Main
Albums / Singles
Articles
Gallery

And so the debate rumbles on as to whether Lenny Kravitz ever had any musical nous of his own. The NYC boy has never been afraid of wearing his heart on his sleeve and keeping his musical heroes close to his heart; in short, he lived through each and every one of them and sometimes this overflowing affection spilled into his songs, to the dismay of his many detractors.

His father was an NBC television producer and his mother was an actress starring in the 1970s hit sitcom The Jeffersons - Lenny grew up in showbiz surroundings as his father was also a jazz promoter with numerous friends from that world. The young Kravitz soaked it all up as well as being exposed to the soul music of Motown, Stax and James Brown.

Lenny ushered in the 1990s with his eclectic palette mixing rock with funk and soul. His image made as big a statement as his hits - first there were the dreads harking back to the days of Bob Marley, followed by the small neat afro and finally the unkept afro after a slight detour into Prince's flowing locks territory.

The music wasn't far behind either - after the breakthrough album Let Love Rule came Mama Said, and MTV had a new face to love and rotate. Always On The Run roped in Slash for the ride and the hits continued amid the break-up of his marriage to Lisa Bonnet. Now firmly established he wrote, sang, played and produced his own albums like Stevie Wonder and Prince had done before him.

So having ridden the crest of the wave that was the nineties, Lenny is finding his feet again, negotiating the peaks and troughs of the noughties with style if nothing else.