By the time Lenny Kravitz droped Raise Vibration, he’d already long been inducted into the cool dad hall of fame, operating somewhere between spiritual guru and shirtless rock demigod. But make no mistake—this is still the guy who wrote “Let Love Rule,” and he’s still trying to save the world one groove at a time.
“What’s important to us in so many cases is counterproductive,” he says. “To our state of mind, peace, unity, sustainability—etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.” If he sounds like he’s channeling Marvin Gaye, it’s not accidental. “I heard ‘What’s Going On’ the other day,” he tells me. “It sounds like it was written yesterday.”
But Kravitz is still betting on love. Always has been. “I’m always gonna remain optimistic,” he insists. “Time is of the essence, though. Maybe we’re too late for certain things… maybe we have to learn by destruction.”
Of course, Kravitz has always been more than a one-chord preacher. Even as he waxes poetic about planetary consciousness, he also casually drops the fact that Michael Jackson is screaming on his track “Low.” Yes, that Michael Jackson.
“I didn’t say ‘featuring Michael Jackson.’ I didn’t want it to be about exploiting anything,” he says. “He’s just giving this sort of exclamation to what I’m saying. In a very subtle way. Very powerful.” The two recorded it before Jackson’s death, and Lenny saved the moment like a sacred relic. That’s restraint—most artists would’ve slapped a hologram of MJ on the album cover and called it a comeback.
Another track, “Johnny Cash,” tells the story of a moment far too real to be poetic. When Kravitz’s mother died, he was living in producer Rick Rubin’s house. So was Johnny Cash. “I was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Johnny and June came down and saw something was wrong. I said, ‘My mom just died.’ They grabbed me. Held me. Comforted me,” he remembers. “And when I wrote the song, I found myself saying, ‘Just hold me like Johnny Cash when I lost my mother.’”
The song isn’t about Johnny Cash, but good luck separating the man from the moment. “It probably was the last time I was comforted in such a deep and meaningful way.”
Kravitz, who splits time between Paris, the Bahamas, and, presumably, another dimension where abs are eternal, swears by travel as the ultimate consciousness-expander. “People think what they’re experiencing is the center of the universe,” he says. “There’s just so much more.”
And then there’s Five, his Y2K-era record turning 20 at the time of this interview, with bangers like “Fly Away” and that space-age cover of “American Woman.” “I was experimenting,” he says of its future-shocked sound. “People say it sounds futuristic. I didn’t even think of it that way—I was just making music.”
Of course, now that every previous album is getting the deluxe treatment, Five will get its due. “I’m not sure how much extra stuff there is,” he says, “but we’re gonna do it.” Start hoarding shelf space now.
We go on to talk about guitar gods. Prince is gone. So who’s left? “Craig Ross,” Kravitz says without missing a beat. “My lead guitarist. Those that know, know. Prince knew. Jimmy Page knows. He’s amazing.”
Which sums up Lenny Kravitz pretty well: fully aware of the apocalypse, still betting on love, and always giving props to the guitarist next to him. The world may be crumbling, but Lenny’s still making records, still preaching peace, and still sounding like the coolest man in any room—shirt or no shirt.
Listen to the interview above and then check out the videos below!
