(Paris) “I didn’t know if I could make a second one”: 35 years after his first record, Lenny Kravitz, almost 60 years old, releases a 12e album and has just won his star on Hollywood Boulevard.
Let love rule, a rock opus, was released in 1989, performed and recorded with material from the 1960s and 1970s. It’s time for rap in the United States with Big Daddy Kane, Gang Starr, 2 Live Crew, De La Soul or DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, the latter alias hiding Will Smith in his first life.
“I had no idea what was going to happen next,” confides Lenny Kravitz, joined by videoconference by AFP. The music industry offers him a second chance and the New Yorker breaks through with Mama said (1991), plowing the same furrow, carried by the successes Always on the run And It ain’t over’til it’s over.
It was the start of a glittering career with 40 million albums sold and four consecutive Grammy Awards for best male rock vocal performance. Initial criticism (imitating 1970s rock) is outweighed by tributes from his peers today.
“Going to a Lenny concert is something. He’s been giving his stuff for years and everything he’s done has always been on the side of the best,” praised Pharrell Williams in the review Fader.
Barack Obama
And at the start of the year, Barack Obama included it in his reading list of 2023 favorites, with Road to freedom. “It’s wonderful, Barack Obama makes great lists, full of meaning,” relishes the singer, who plays all the instruments on his records, except the saxophone.
The former American president did not choose this piece by chance, in connection with Bayard RustinNetflix biopic named after a civil rights activist in the United States.
“I am honored to have helped tell this story. My parents were activists, I had heard his name, but I didn’t know as much about him as I should have. Everything that many people should have known,” says the artist.
This African-American activist undoubtedly remained in the shadow of Martin Luther King, of whom he was one of the strategists, because of his homosexuality.
Another honor, in March: Lenny Kravitz was entitled to his star on Hollywood Boulevard. Logical for the one who played on the piano in homage to the missing of the 7e art at the last Oscars.
“If I am offered flowers, I accept, I take advantage, I am always there and I am always hungry,” he smiles.
Bahamas
He plays this hunger in a publication on A pochade taken too seriously by the New York Timeswho questioned coaches who disapproved of his gestures.
His physique sculpted in the gyms allows him to show off naked in his Parisian mansion for the video of TK421 (reference to a character from Star Wars). This simple foreshadow Blue Electric Lightalbum scheduled for May 24, two days before his 60the birthday.
“It’s an idea from Tanu Muiño, director of the clip Chicken Teriyaki by Rosalía. She said to me: “I’m coming to your house, you get up and get ready”. I tell myself it’s going to be boring. But she said to me: “Take off your clothes, I’m going to start”. And we had fun as you can see,” brushes the singer.
So goes Lenny Kravitz, who records his Harley-Davidson on the track Bundle of joy but at the same time shows concern for the environment, getting involved in charity concerts for the planet.
“In the Bahamas, where I often reside, for a long time, I have lived near the water, I see that the ocean has risen.” “The younger generations are inheriting a hell of a situation in relation to climate change,” he concludes.