Playboy Interview: Lenny Kravitz

rock's grindmaster speaks out on sampling, the beatles and hearing your music in an elevator

Back in the Eighties an aspiring rocker calling himself Romeo Blue decided to ditch the stage name and perform under his own moniker. It has been a good move for Lenny Kravitz. He's gone on to sell more than 12 million albums and collect four Grammys. Kravitz was apparently born to rock. He banged on pots and pans when he was a child, settled down for a while as a choirboy and staged his teenage rebellion to the accompaniment of self-taught bass, keyboards, guitar and drums.

Considered by critics as a retro musician in a techno age, Kravitz remains unmoved by attempts to label him. "I don't know what kind of musician I consider myself. I just try to play," he says.

While piling up album sales since his 1989 debut recording, Kravitz has experienced the travails of rock stardom--tabloid treatment of his six-year marriage to Cosby Show star Lisa Bonet (they have a 13-year-old daughter)--as well as the perks: houses in the Bahamas, New Orleans and Miami, front-row seats at fashion shows, and the sale of his music for SUV commercials.

He took a break from rehearsing with his tour band to meet with Contributing Editor Warren Kalbacker at Kravitz'futuristic "studio house" on Biscayne Bay.

"The place is a rock-and-roll mother ship," Kalbacker reports. "It's filled with recording equipment and decorated in a riot of red, silver, black and white. The bright red pod-style baby grand would motivate the most recalcitrant piano student. Kravitz padded across the deep pile carpeting, put his feet up on the long couch and began to speak softly about the music."

1

[Q] Playboy: We learned long ago that rock and roll was here to stay. But how is rock faring in the age of hip-hop and ambient music?

[A] Kravitz There's no rebellion left in rock and roll. It's straight-up establishment business. It's a trip. An artist has to do certain things to have a career and a certain level of success. If you're going to be on VH1 or MTV, you have to do all the politics, and play this event and that affair. You're going to go around to all the stations to get airplay. Rock and roll was about doing your own thing, and you still can musically. But as far as not caring about the system--that's cool if you choose not to care, but if you do that, you won't play on that level.

2

[Q] Playboy: You write your own songs. Does the business ever force you to play a more commercial tune than the one you compose in the studio?

[A] Kravitz: I never do that. When I go into that room [points to his studio] and play my music, I make what I make. I'm not trying to please. When I come out of the studio I play the business game, because I want to share my music with as many people as possible. That doesn't mean you sell out. It means you have to balance your creative musician side with your business side--if you've got one.

3

[Q] Playboy: What do you think of DJs? Is somebody sampling you right now?

[A] Kravitz: I've been sampled a lot. That's what they do. That's their art form. It's like making a collage. People snip this stuff out of magazines and put it together. It's stuff that already exists, but now you've done your thing with it. I've seen great collages. My ex-wife used to make amazing collages, huge ones with things from all over the place. You take things and make them into something different.

4

[Q] Playboy: We understand that copyright law requires acknowledging the artist who created the original music. Have you received your due?

[A] Kravitz: That's what is supposed to happen. Then again, forget even sampling. If a kid can go to a friend's house and burn a CD or download it, why would that kid buy a record? People are going to stop buying records. It's going to be all about the live show, which you obviously can't steal. It's time for artists to figure out other ways to do things, promoting their own things, playing smaller or larger halls--different locations than those owned by the big people. Being more independent and not being up in the system the whole time, not being part of a machine.

5

[Q] Playboy: Did white rockers steal rock and roll from black musicians?

[A] Kravitz: I wouldn't say that they stole it. I wouldn't make it into an issue like that. That's like asking right now if white people are stealing rap from black people. White kids rap all over the place. But if you look at history, African Americans have invented these musical forms, be it jazz, blues, gospel or rock and roll. People slowly accept it and other people start doing it. Then it becomes mainstream, a part of the culture. In a lot of cases the people who came second got more credit, more money and more recognition. We had Pat Boone recutting Little Richard tracks horribly--and those were the hits. A lot of white people--especially the Brits--took rock and roll and made incredible contributions to it. Look at what Led Zeppelin did to the blues. Look at what the Rolling Stones did. Hendrix went over to England and picked up the band and got his whole thing going. It's a misconception that rock and roll is white music, which is what a lot of white people say. And a lot of black people say it, too, which is very surprising to me. I've heard black people say that to me--"Oh, you play that white music."

(continued on page 153)Lenny Kravitz(continued from page 111)

6

[Q] Playboy: You're a big fan of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Please deconstruct the appeal of the Beatles.

[A] Kravitz: They wrote incredible songs with incredible melodies. You had four musicians who were the four right guys at the right time with the right look. It was phenomenal. But the bottom line is, the music was unstoppable and they made records that changed the world.

7

[Q] Playboy: The Beatles covered songs by the Isley Brothers and Chuck Berry. Are you proud of a Lenny Kravitz cover?

[A] Kravitz: American Woman. It worked out well. I never would have thought of doing that song. It was for Austin Powers, and the movie producers suggested it. I always loved the vocal on that song, the way the guy sang it, it fit right into the whole groove. I did it differently. I went into the studio and made a demo of it--which ended up being the real version. My funk album that's coming out next has a cover of Dear Prudence from the White Album. It's the second cover I've done and is pretty different.

8

[Q] Playboy: From the Delta to Detroit, from coast to coast, geography and music have made a rich mixture. Give us the Lenny Kravitz musical atlas.

[A] Kravitz: Motown was the first music I really got into. First the Jackson Five and Stevie Wonder and the Temps and Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight and the Pips. You listen to those records, you've got big arrangements, great rhythm sections, strings. Berry Gordy created history. That was an era. Then I got into Al Green records, which I then found out were from Hi in Memphis. That's where the great producer Willie Mitchell made records with people like Ann Peebles, who did I Can't Stand the Rain. Philadelphia was Gamble and Huff, the Sound of Philadelphia.

9

[Q] Playboy: A gentleman we know was delighted to discover an Erroll Garner LP among his girlfriend's rock albums. We understand you acknowledge a debt to jazz artists.

[A] Kravitz: Erroll Garner was cool. I was totally into Miles Davis and John Coltrane and Sarah Vaughan and Louis Armstrong. I started going to hear Bobby Short at the Café Carlyle when I was five or six years old. I wasn't really getting what it was at all, just being dragged by my parents to go sit at the Carlyle in a jacket. By the time I was 10 years old I just got it. I just loved it. Bobby Short is a great piano player, and he's an incredible singer. His interpretation and delivery are the best. He does Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter and Gershwin like no one else does. He has that magical thing, man. I want to produce a record with him. Bobby and I and Ahmet Ertegun had a conversation about doing this record of Harlem tunes and duets with all these great people like Aretha Franklin or Natalie Cole or Diana Krall or Tony Bennett.

10

[Q] Playboy: Some critics have mentioned you and Jimi Hendrix in the same sentence. Do you want to be modest about your guitar playing or give a more considered answer?

[A] Kravitz: I couldn't even go near that question. As far as I'm concerned, I'm still learning how to play. I don't know what kind of musician I consider myself. I'm a guitar player, but I love all the instruments. I'm a one-man band. That's what I do. I think it's my talent.

11

[Q] Playboy: We hear plenty of guitar and keyboards in your music. Would you describe yourself as a pretty traditional rocker?

[A] Kravitz: Traditional, I don't know. A lot of kids play guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. I like to play instruments and feel instruments. I learned on my own. A few guitar lessons--I learned some chords when I was a kid. That's it. I practiced drums, bass and keyboards. Just stayed in my room and practiced. I choose to play instruments as opposed to getting the sounds out of boxes, meaning you can buy these things and all these sounds come out and you don't really have to play. You just program them. I like synthesizers. I like the sound of older synthesizers better than new ones. They sound much cooler and more hip and modern than new ones.

12

[Q] Playboy: Did singing with the California Boys' Choir get you hooked on live performance?

[A] Kravitz: I learned a lot in the boys' choir, before and during puberty. It was crazy. When I was 11 and 12 years old, I got to work with some of the greatest artists in the world. I sang with the New York City Opera Company and the Joffrey Ballet. I recorded with Zubin Mehta. I performed live with conductors Erich Leinsdorf and Michael Tilson Thomas. I learned so much about music and got to perform these great pieces--my first professional concert was opening night at the Hollywood Bowl, Mahler's Third Symphony with Erich Leinsdorf and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and it was like, wow!

13

[Q] Playboy: We take it that boys' choirs have come a long way from the castrati of the Italian stage and have mastered the outplacement process. Do they let you down gently?

[A] Kravitz: Once you can't sing the second alto parts, you're gone. All of a sudden your voice starts cracking and breaking. It goes from first soprano to second alto. There are no tenors.

14

[Q] Playboy: Your mother was a successful actress [Roxie Roker, known for her role as Helen Willis on The Jeffersons] and your father was a television producer. Can you possibly come up with a tale of tough times paying your dues?

[A] Kravitz: I moved out when I was 15. I needed to find my own way. I needed to start exploring my music and I had to become independent from my parents. I lived in a car, slept on floors. I lived in lounges of recording studios at night. I was playing for free, jamming with people, going into the studio. No $30 gigs--shit, nothing, not 30 cents. I didn't make a dime playing music until I got a record deal. I just went off into the world, man, did my thing, paid my dues. Living in a car wasn't a good trip.

15

[Q] Playboy: Did you endure a period when your 13-year-old daughter listened to 'N Sync and O-Town CDs?

[A] Kravitz: The boy bands, no. I took her to meet Britney once. She's into Gwen Stefani now. She loves No Doubt.

16

[Q] Playboy: You've been spotted beside the runways at fashion shows in Milan and New York. As an observer of the collections, would you nominate Sean Combs for best crossover from music to fashion with his Sean John clothing collection?

[A] Kravitz: I think it's another business for him. A lot of musicians like to dress in a way that helps express their whole vibe. I feel comfortable. I'm in my pajamas right now.

17

[Q] Playboy: Should every rock and roller have a big dog?

[A] Kravitz: I don't know. Mine's a Neapolitan mastiff. Raised him from a puppy. He doesn't go on tour, but he's traveled all over. He's mellow. He just kind of lies around. He doesn't move much.

18

[Q] Playboy: You lead off your current CD with the sound of gunfire and explosions. Is it really a Battlefield of Love out there?

[A] Kravitz: Oh, yeah. I was thinking about the relationships I've had, I'm having and trying to have. It's always a trip for me. Just feels like this sting. It's never easy. Maybe it will be one day.

19

[Q] Playboy: Can you recommend some bedroom music? What should we put on while we're getting it on?

[A] Kravitz: Miles Davis. His Kind of Blue is nice. And Coltrane's Ballads. Of course, Marvin Gaye is always good. No Kravitz for me during sex. I'll start thinking about work, whether the EQ on the drum was exactly what I wanted.

20

[Q] Playboy: What goes through a rocker's mind when he steps into an elevator and hears an all-strings rendition of his music?

[A] Kravitz: I thought it was great. I have heard my music on Muzak, which was very interesting. I've heard my music in supermarkets, department stores and in doctor's offices. It was funny, psychedelic in a weird way. Like taking a weird pill. [Whispers] Everything's all strings.

That's like asking if white people are stealing rap from black people. White kids rap all over the place.