Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Lenny Kravitz (2018)

Episode Date: July 26, 2020

It’s been over 30 years since Lenny Kravitz released his breakthrough first album “Let Love Rule.” Since then he has sold more than 40 million albums and at one point won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance four years in a row. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist talks to the rock star about his long career in the industry and the interesting way he came up with his most recent album “Raise Vibration.” (Original broadcast date: September 9, 2018) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another edition of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Thanks as always for clicking on us for subscribing and we've got a good one for you this week. But just be honest, he may be the coolest man to strive the planet. His name is Lenny Kravitz. We got together in New York City, the place where he was born and lived till he was 11 to talk about his latest album, Ray's vibration. And we get into the fact. And he explains how this works exactly. That every song in the album came to him as a dream, came to him. Came to him. him in his sleep. He would wake up in the middle of the night, punch out the lyrics into his phone, and start playing riffs on his guitar to match the lyrics. I think that's genius. I don't even know what that is. Maybe it's just Lenny Kravitz. We also get into how and why he plays most of the instruments on all his albums himself. Many of you probably know that. He does the vocals, of course, plays the guitar, does the drums, the bass, and layers it all together. And how that really came out of necessity on his first album and as a tradition he's continued now through Ray's vibration, which is his 11th album. He's sold more than 40 million records. He's won a bunch of

Grammys in his life. You know the hits. Are you going to go my way? Fly away. Let Love Rule. The list goes on and on. He talks about growing up in the music scene of New York with super cool parents. His dad was an NBC News producer. His mother, Roxy Roker, starred in the Jeffersons, as you may know. Comes from a great family who taught him about music, took him with the Apollo, took him to the Algonquin, took him all these cool places to hear music, and we get into all of that with the great, the always cool, the always fun to talk to Lenny Kravitz right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Thanks for doing this, Lenny. Pleasure. Appreciate the time. Good to be here. Good to see you. Congratulations on the album. Thank you. What's the feeling with an album about to go out

into the universe? Something you've worked on so hard and now you put it out to the public. Is it nerves? Is excitement? What do you feel? No, I mean, it feels. It feels. good. I mean, I've already been on tour for two months in Europe, so I've been playing some of it. I've obviously been listening to it for several months now since it's been finished. So it feels like it's already

out to me. You know, it is out. But I'm looking forward to it. You know, for me, it's just about representing myself authentically. So creatively, you know,

putting out something that was me at that moment, those moments that I made the record. And that's what happened. The record is a really great representation, a snapshot of that time for me and everything that I was going through. So that's where the success is. I was interested to hear you say you were frustrated in some ways creatively. You had writer's block. I think you even said, how do you get through that? I didn't have a block. What happened was, each time I make a record, it's another version of myself,

it's who I am at that moment. And I wasn't exactly sure before I started making the record who I thought I was at that moment. And because I can play a lot of different styles and I use a lot of different genres in my music, I can go in so many directions. And I was like, well, should I go here? should I go here, should I go there?

I really wasn't sure, and I was thinking about it too much. So what I did was I got really quiet. I stopped thinking about it. And after a couple of weeks of that, I woke up with a song from a dream. And I went to the studio, and as I was recording it, I realized that I had something that this felt like it was the beginning of my journey. And as I was recording that song and working on that song for several days, the floodgates opened and everything just came. And I dreamt the whole album.

In most cases, I dream a couple of songs when I make a record. Most of it is me hearing something when I'm awake. But this whole record was a dream. I'd wake up anywhere between three and five in the morning, hearing. this music. So that's really special because it takes me out of the process. I want to be as much out of the process as possible. I want to receive something. And so when I do, my job is to then get that from my dream to the tape or hard drive, whatever it may be. As it seems, as it sounded in my head.

See, people hear that and say, come on, that can't be really how you came up with an album. Do you hear the words? Do you hear a story? I hear, it depends. I hear, I might hear the chord changes and the melody. And I may not have words. I might hear words. I might hear just the chorus. And then I have to fill in the blank.

So they usually come in different configurations. But there's always, um, a lot to work on, you know. And so what's the process from there? You wake up. You said you say it on your phone maybe. The thing is to wake up because, you know, I could be really comfortable and I'm tired. You know, the pillow's just feeling right and I don't want to get up.

But you have to get up because when you say, oh, I'll get it in the morning, nine times out of ten, it's gone. That's right. So I have my phone next to the bed. It's off, but I turn it on, go to my recorder, put the melody down. Or if I need to get the chords, I'll grab a guitar that's in the room and I'll put that down. And then in the morning, I'll get up and I'll listen to it and I'll go to the studio and I'll start to figure it out. In some cases, I wake up and I go straight to the studio.

In the middle of the night. Yeah, because I can just feel that this is something I need to do, right now. And so the studio is right down a little path. It takes me about five minutes to walk there. And I start working on it. So all of the songs on this album came to you in your sleep. They come on different nights. Do you wait for them? Of course. Of course. I mean, you know, over the period of a couple months, I did, you know, 12 songs. There were a few more ideas that didn't make it. But yeah, they just come when they come. You know? So what did you want to say with this album?

You know you're in the zone when you're doing that. You know you're in the right place and you know creatively everything is going as you would want it to. So did you know it was time for an album or do you literally just sit and sort of wait for that moment to come? It was time for an album. I mean, it's always different, whether it's two years or three years or whatever it might be between records. But it was definitely time for a record. People were letting me know it was time for a record. But when I was going through the whole experiment of what should I do and doing, it wasn't time yet, you know, and that's the beauty of creativity.

It comes when it comes, and I don't want to push it. You know, I really want to receive something pure. That's for me. We all have our own things to receive and to transmit. But when it was time, it came and it came, you know, rushing out. Yeah. Was there something you wanted to say in this album? You've got love songs.

You've got protest songs. Do you go in with a story and narrative? I had no idea. I had no idea. But it's all in there. It's all collected. It's all in your spirit and your subconscious. It's there.

So, yeah, there's songs. There's protest songs. There's political songs. There's social songs. You know, there's love songs. you know, stories. So it's a mixture. But it's a very cinematic record.

When you listen to it, you can see it. The part about it coming to you is so fascinating and will be to so many people. Do you know of other artists who have had that happen to them where they'll be asleep, literally asleep, and this comes to them? Or is that unique to you? I haven't really talked to anybody.

I'm sure. does. Yeah. I mean, people hear, you know, music, you know, in so many different kinds of ways. But yeah, I'm sure that I'm sure that's something that happens to a lot of musicians. You're in a place and have been for a long time where you can do what you want to do musically. But do people still come to you, whether it's a producer or a manager or a record label and say, hey, there's this new thing happening? It happens. Maybe you should get involved in this. It happens. People think, you know, you should try this.

should try that or you need to be contemporary, whatever that means. And, you know, for me, it doesn't really work that way. It's not an assignment, you know, it's just like, I want to produce what it is that I hear. And that is unique to me, as opposed to jumping on the bandwagon. of a set of producers or the style of what's, you know, in fashion right now. My records never had anything to do with what was going on on the radio at that time. I was always in another direction sonically and also the music. So, yeah, I'm just about being me.

That's what I can do. You know. Well, that's what's true for 30 years that the music you're doing isn't necessarily what's big on the radio at that time. And yet you still succeed and you still have hits. So do you just keep your head down and keep doing your music? Yeah, and that's what I learned while making this record. Because I did get a little insecure about it and wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. And what I learned was just, you know, keep doing what you're doing.

keep being authentic to who you are. And like so many of your albums you play most, if not all, on certain songs, the instruments on all these. Where did that start for you? I mean, I was starting your first album. It started to play everything. Well, as a kid, I started learning different instruments because I would get bored and I want to play something else. And I always liked moving around. But then, you know, on my first album, when I made Let Love Rule, I had a lot of rule,

I couldn't afford to pay musicians. My intention was to do it with a group of musicians. I didn't want to be in the studio by myself, but I couldn't afford it, because I made the record on my own before I had a record deal. And my engineer at the time said, I know you play all the instruments,

so why don't you just do it yourself? And I said, you know, I don't want to. I want to have people around. I want to have this experience. And, you know, being a teenager and watching the documentaries of the Rolling Stones, and whoever, you know, you see these experiences of recording records and people in the room and the Beatles.

But anyway, it didn't work out that way. But it became my thing. It became the sound of my band. The band that you hear on my records, that band is me, but that's become my sound. And I also love playing the instrument, so that's the opportunity that I get to do that. It really started as a product of necessity. Absolutely. Absolutely. It was never my intention. And there are other artists who do that. Prince did it obviously.

Of course. Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, taught Ron Green. I mean, there's people that do it. And it's, you know, those were great examples. I was telling you, Let Love Rule started for a lot of people with such a big album. But for me, it started high school for me. It was freshman year in high school, going through to Mama's Ed and sophomore year. You can go all the way through my high school career. And that's the soundtrack. Do you remember what? where you were, literally you were in Hoboken, but where you were in your life and career

when that first record came out, and you could never have imagined sitting where you were right now. I was just a guy making music. I was trying to make my music, and I was trying to get signed for years before that, you know, when I was a teenager. But people didn't really understand what I was doing, and they didn't fit into a box category.

It was all over the place, and then, you know, the way I looked, and my name, and what is this, and black and white and all this. So I was, I never sold out on my, on my idea of who I was. And, I was offered deals if I would change my music.

They'd say, we think, we know you're talented, but you need to do this. And I'd say, no, but this is what I'm doing, and this is what's me. they wouldn't sign me and I would keep you know and I mean they were I turned down big money and big deals because I wanted to be me and it's pretty crazy that I did because at that point I was living in a car I had no money but something inside of me wouldn't let me do it and so I was making the record on my own without a record label and I had no idea what would happen but

I met the people at Virgin Records, and they heard it, they understood it. They said they had no idea if it would sell or how they would market me, but that they actually believed in the music, and we would together figure out how to do it. And that's what happened. They sent me to Europe first, actually. They had me go out of the United States to break and then come back. So how did you make that adjustment, Lenny, in your own life, going from living in your car, as you said,

to now you're a rock star and when you walk down the street people know who you are i mean it didn't happen right i mean i actually was still taking the the train to hoboken uh while i was making the second record cut the path i was making yep christopher street yep yep i would take i'd get on the one at christopher street and and uh go to hoboken and then i'll walk to the studio um But when, so I made the second record, the first in the second record, still on the train. But people started looking at me a little bit. And then after the second record came out, when it ain't over until it's over broke, that was it. I couldn't take the train anymore.

It got a little crazy. But it's an adjustment. You know, I grew up in the streets in New York and the streets of L.A. and I love the street and I mean I'm still in the street but the days of just being incognito were over and you know you just adjust

you know you talk about growing up in New York your musical inspiration some of them were in your house Duke Ellington you've talked about people like that who are the people you give credit to now as you sit here for making you the artist who are today Stevie Wonder

Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gay, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Hendricks, Carol King, Kiss, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Faye La Couti, Bibi King, Taj Mahal, I mean, it goes on and I mean, I keep going, but I mean... Was that music all in your house? So many records. Yeah. And records that I listened to on the radio, the Beatles, I mean, Bob Marley, the Whalers. I listened to everything, you know. Yeah. And your parents were supportive of your music dream?

Yeah. I mean, my mom was an actress, so she was into the arts. My father was very much into music. He was a journalist and worked for NBC News as a producer and an assignment editor. And the real real thing, The real support that I got was that they took me around with them. So I got to, as a kid, I got to go to the clubs and to the concert halls and to the symphonies and the operas and the ballets and the theaters. I got to see all of this stuff firsthand at a very young age. So I was exposed and that was the best support. One of the stories that goes around about you is that the Jackson Five was your first show. Yeah.

And you walked out of there and you knew that you wanted to be in music. The next morning, I remember putting, I had these galoshes that came up to here, up to the knee. I put them on and I, you know, danced around, room, you know, because they had these boots on that they were wearing at the concert. And I knew I was like, that was it. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be up there like that, making music. Has there ever been a point for you where you said, I don't know if I'm going to make it as a professional musician, maybe it was the time when you were living in the car before let love rule.

Was there another idea for you? Like if the music doesn't work, that was it. My mom really wanted me to have a plan B. That was very important. Have a plan B. I had no plan B. I put everything on one number, man. And thank God it worked out.

I mean, if it hadn't happened, I'd be playing music either in the street or in a club or restaurant, I don't know, in a hotel, whatever I would have to do to play music, I would do. But, yeah, here I am. 29 years later, it's kind of crazy. Is it crazy to you to think that Let Love Rule is coming up on its 30th birthday? It is, because I remember everything about it. It seems like yesterday. And it seems like a lot of time has passed, but not like that.

Because it still seems like it was yesterday, too. Time is very interesting, yeah. One of the words I've heard you use a lot in interviews is groove. And you talk about groove as something you're born with, a gift. Yeah. You can have all the musical talent. You can't teach groove. Yeah.

What does that mean? What is groove? I mean, groove is your rhythm, your sense of groove, you know. Everybody grooves differently. Some people play on the beat. People play behind the beats. Some people, you know, play very clean. Some play kind of greasy, you know.

The groove is your style. And, you know, you can go to music school, you know, all day long and technically know how to play all these notes and play fast and all that. But it doesn't mean that you have a groove. Doesn't mean that it has feel. And then you can have somebody that can play one note.

For example, B.B. King, he can't just play one note, but he can play one note and completely penetrate your soul with one note. Whereas a guy could take a solo and play a thousand notes and you feel nothing.

So it's really about your soul, your spirit, your groove. That's what, that's what, you know, that's the gift. Yeah. One of the other words people associate with you is cool. People say you're the epitome of cool. And I know there's nothing less cool than talking about why you're cool.

Yeah. But what does that word mean to you? Cool. I mean, when I think of cool, I think of people like, and I think of Miles. Yeah. You know, I think of Jimmy Hendricks. I think, you know, people that I looked up to, yeah, it's funny. You know, I don't think of myself in that way because, you know, why would I or why should I?

I'm just myself, but I don't wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and say, you're cool. No. I certainly hope not. Other people can say that about you, right? We're talking about some of your heroes, and you mentioned Aretha Franklin. Big, big. Can you put into context what she's meant, not just to you, but to music over the last 60 years?

I mean, there's certain people that this the world would not function without. I mean, Aretha Franklin's music, I mean, what a gift. What a gift for her to have, but what a gift for us to be able to listen and receive that gift. Her music has brought so much joy to the world and so much soul and so much feeling. She truly is the queen of soul. And, I mean, those records, man, those records, especially for muscle shoals, I mean, are just phenomenal. And through her voice, through her expression, we get to feel what soul really is, you know, what gospel really is. But the spirit of God really is.

I mean, she is such a dynamic vehicle. And so I'm just grateful that I got to hear this music, and I'm even more grateful that I'm even more grateful that I got to hear this music. I'm even more grateful that I got to meet her, to work with her, to become friendly with her. Yeah. You have a favorite song of hers? I know that's tough. There's so many. I mean, respect was the first one for me. I mean, that track, if I got to listen to that track two days ago, they were listening closely to the recording.

It's so dynamic. The drums, I mean, the whole thing is just amazing. Every part of that record, the saxophones, the background singers, the guitar, the background singers, guitars, the bass, everything is just so, so punchy and so soulful. That was the first one that got me. Yeah. We're lucky to have been around when she's here. Absolutely.

Absolutely. I mean, she will always be with us. I started asking about your acting career, which is like a little side gig for you, but you that's my little side gig. Right. That's your side hustle. So you got Precious. Yeah.

You've got the Butler, Hunger Games, on and on and on. You enjoy doing acting. I do. I enjoy, as we spoke earlier about me being in this studio by myself primarily. This gives me the opportunity to work with other people to collaborate for it to not be about me. It's about a character and it's about the director's vision. So it's very refreshing for me, you know. So more on the horizon, more accurate? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. But right now I'm into this album and,

in the road. So I'm committed to that for the next bit of time. And speaking of acting, you must be so incredibly proud of your daughter and the career she's launched for herself. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm just, you know, I'm blessed. I couldn't be more blessed. And I'm just happy that she's doing what it is that she loves. She works really hard. She's passionate. And it's amazing to watch. It's beautiful to watch. What's it like to see your little girl grow up and be on the big screen in a movie theater or on TV? It's great, you know.

But, you know, I grew up seeing my mother like that. Right. Zoe's mom was like that. And now Zoe. So I was like, I've been surrounded by these actresses in my life. And so, you know, some nights I just might get home and turn the TV on. There's my mom. You know, there's a rerun of the Jeffers.

And it's so beautiful because it's not. Not everybody gets to see somebody that's passed, especially, you know, their mother, moving and talking on a screen. It's like she's still alive. You know, she's right there. So it's just, you know, as I said, it's beautiful to watch. I never thought of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You also are into design.

You've got a firm that's here in New York. Yeah, downtown New York. How do you balance all those things? Do you give that some of your time in between all this other stuff? I was at Cravest Design yesterday for three hours, three and a half hours. Were you? Yeah, no matter what I'm doing, whether I'm touring, making an album, making a movie, doing whatever. I'm always designing.

So if I can't be in the office, then the office comes to me. They fly to me, two of them, and we work wherever I am. And then they go back and put it all together. So designing's always happening. So that's not just your name on the door. You're in it. You're designing. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Got to ask you because I think a lot of people will be interested in know. What are you listening to right now? Who's an artist, people might be surprised that you are into right now? I'm not surprised. I mean, I'm still listening to the classics. Yeah. During the making of this album, the number one record that I was listening to was John Coltrane, Love Supreme. As far as a new record, the latest thing I heard knew that I was checking out was the Internet.

Their new record, I was checking that out a few days ago. I liked them a lot. Yeah. Do you always have music on in your house? For inspiration. Always. Always. Absolutely.

I can't live without music. And usually the old stuff, the classics. Yeah. Yeah. And obscure stuff, you know. You know, African, Senegalese music from the 70s or, you know, all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Are you excited to get out and you've been doing some tour in Europe?

You know, back here in the U.S. And then you could do an arenas next year. Yeah. We're going to set up for next summer's American and Canadian arena tour. So we're going to play a few dates in America. And, you know, I'll be on the road for probably, you know, a year and a half or so supporting this album. It feels like you've done everything. I mean, you're acting, play your music, you're in design.

Is there something else? I've done anything yet, man. Is there something else, Lenny, that's out there that you dream about doing? I just want to keep being creative. I want to keep doing what I'm doing. want to keep growing. And painting is one thing I haven't done. You know, I do photography.

Yeah. But I look forward to painting. I've been waiting. I know it's coming. Have you started to learn? No. No. I'm just going to kind of jump in.

I've been around a lot of great painters. I've watched. But I'm going to start experimenting. Yeah. Maybe this will come to you in your sleep, just like the record. You know? Absolutely. So we're talking about groove before, your description of groove.

How do you describe your groove when you're in it? It's just something that you feel. It's hard to talk about. You know, everybody has their own groove, whether you, you know, play on the beat or behind the bead or you're, you know. But it's when you're in the groove, everything feels right. Just everything, that moment, time, space, the world, everything disappears. And the only thing that exists is that groove. It's a very interesting place, and it's a place that I'm always striving to be.

I live for the groove. The groove is a beautiful place. It's one of those things you know when you're in it. Oh, yeah, you feel it. You're just like, wait, wait. There it is. And you're just like, it's ecstasy. It's the best feeling.

Yeah. We were talking about you having to adjust your life after you got famous and you couldn't ride the path train anymore. How did you adjust to celebrity life being people interested in your marriages and who you're dating and your daughter and all those things? Is that a hard thing to roll with or is that just part of the job? It took me a minute to adjust to because I'm... You know, I grew up in the streets, you know, all about that. I'm all about people.

You know, my mom used to call me the Pied Piper. Like, everybody came home with me. And, you know, when I moved out and lived on my own, it was the same thing. You know, I could meet somebody that day, and then they're at my house and people and we're sharing and we're doing and, you know, take the shirt off my back, whatever, you know. But then, you know, after the fame thing, happen, you have to adjust because a lot of people take your kindness for weakness. You know, and but, you know, you just make adjustments, you know.

In terms of your... But it's all good. I'm still the same person that I was then, basically, you know? You just have to keep your circle a little tighter? Yeah, it's become a lot tighter. Yeah. Yeah. That seems to be a common thread. People who get big, they shrink it down so they know who they're dealing with.

Yeah. And I still, you know, I still love folks, but it's, it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, thank you. Thank you. My thanks to Lenny Kravitz for that great conversation. His new album, Ray's vibration is out now. And thanks as always to all of you for checking out the Sunday Sit Down podcast. If you like what you hear, make sure to click subscribe if you haven't already for all of our full-length, unedited conversation with my guests every week. Don't forget to tune in, of course, to Sunday today. It's every Sunday on NBC. I'm Willie Geist.

Thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast.