Lenny Kravitz Calls for a 'Love Revolution'

Posted on Oct 2nd 2007 5:00PM by Nadine Cheung
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The publicist who connects Spinner's call to Lenny Kravitz explains that the musician is currently in Brazil, and it will be hard to hear him. But after minutes of speaking to the 43-year-old funk-soul rocker, it's apparent that no matter how weak the connection is, anyone on the receiving end of him understands what he is saying loud and clear.

Despite an 18-year career -- one that's rendered four Grammys and platinum certification seven times over -- Kravitz is as common as ever. He speaks in a smooth rhythm, his voice miles away, but Kravitz's message permeates the distance. It's a message that he's sent before, and one he's determined to send again. One needn't look further than the title of his forthcoming album to decipher: 'It's Time for a Love Revolution.' Spinner spoke to Kravitz about the new album, his recent personal trials -- including the death of his father -- and our celebrity-obsessed society. He may be an ever-cool cat, but this time around he's letting his lion's heart shine.

What inspired the "love revolution" theme for the album?

From day one, I've always said 'let love rule,' and love has always been a central theme on my albums whether it's person to person, social -- whatever. But I feel like it's time to take that to the next step -- to be more hardcore. That sounds funny in reference to love, but the world is such a negative place and there's war in every corner. There's people dying everywhere and there's no understanding between people and countries. It's time to really get people to join together in the name of love, period.

The phrase "It's time for a love revolution" conjures images of the '60s anti-war movement. You even have a song called 'Back in Vietnam.'

That song clearly is about Iraq and how I feel that it mirrors a lot of the Vietnam crisis ... here we are again in that type of situation.

Your father passed away in the time since you released your last album, 'Baptism.' Is 'A Long and Sad Goodbye' a message to him?

Yeah. We had a very interesting, very tumultuous relationship. He passed going on two years now at the end of the year, and the beauty is that we got to make peace before he passed. So the song expresses how I felt about our relationship, my childhood, what he did, but at the end of the song, it ends on a major chord which makes the last note sound uplifting as opposed to sad. It's that glimmer of happiness that we got to experience before he died.

The slower-tempo songs – 'This Moment Is All There Is,' 'A New Door' and 'If You Want It' – are somewhat paternal. Did you write them with specific person in mind?

I'm speaking to myself. I speak to everybody, but I really speak to myself first. Living in the now -- in reference to 'This Moment Is All There Is' -- is a very difficult thing to do and I feel that it's really important starting with my life. We spend so much time in the past and in the future, that we miss so many of the moments that are right in front of us.

Where do you fit in today's musical landscape?

I don't feel part of anything. I just feel like I'm myself. I make my music and I put it out and, you know, even when I had huge hit records they were never like whatever was on the radio. They were always different and they always changed the face of radio in some respects. So I don't feel like a part of any group or movement. I'm just myself.

Did you feel that you had something to prove with this album given your previous successes?

No. For each album, it's about expressing myself honestly -- that's the challenge. If I express myself honestly and if the record really stands for where I am in my life at that moment, then it's a successful record. I don't have anything to prove -- I just have to enjoy myself and enjoy the gift that I've been given. That's enough for me.

Did you always think of it your destiny to be a famous musician?

Honestly, I never thought about being a star. I know a lot of people do, but what I thought about was just being a musician. And in my head, that meant I could have been a drummer in a jazz band, or I could have been a bass player in somebody's band, or a studio musician -- play in a club or on the street. It didn't matter. I knew that I would be a musician prior to the time that I was 5, 6 years old

You're no stranger to media attention. How do you feel about society's ever-increasing interest in celebrity?

There are so many other things in the world to be concentrating on -- not to mention people's own lives. It's sad that we really spend so much time worrying about other people, and really odd that we're getting off on their problems. I don't understand it. It also shows that there's a deep emptiness in our society. If that's what we get off on -- if that's what we're spending all of our time paying attention to and buying all these magazines and listening to all this gossip, celebrating people who have little to no talent -- then it shows that there is a big emptiness within our souls.