Lenny Kravitz Celebrates 20 Years of 'Let Love Rule'

Posted on Nov 24th 2009 3:00PM by Steve Baltin
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Yes, 'Let Love Rule,' the album that introduced the world to Lenny Kravitz and made the singer/songwriter/guitarist a star is 20 years old. To commemorate the milestone, Kravitz went back to the beginning to create a deluxe version of the CD. To do so, Kravitz says he had to really look back at 1989. "I had to pay attention to my life at that time," he tells Spinner. "We found a lot of photographs and memorabilia and things that brought me back to 20 years ago. The interesting thing for me was that it still felt fresh, it felt the same. That was really weird."

That the record, which included the monster title song, has remained relevant all these years is a testament to his vision at that time. "I remember saying 'I want to make a record that in 20 years would stand up.' That was the sentence that I said," he says. Now, he's not trying to take credit for being a prophet at the time. "Obviously I couldn't have been thinking 20 years ahead. I wasn't even thinking 20 minutes ahead," he says. "I had no idea I would ever make another record besides that one. I didn't know what was going on. I just knew that there was music inside of me and I wanted to express it."

When he looks back on that music now, even he is amazed at some of the playing, almost all of which he did himself, because, "I couldn't afford to pay anybody to come play and I had the ability to do it." What stands out to him? "'My Precious Love,' I remember listening to that back and I was like, 'Wow, where did that come from?'" he says. "[Or] the groove on 'Mr. Cab Driver.' There are different qualities I never thought about then that I think about now when listening back."

But when Kravitz looks back at the album now, it's really a time capsule for him, one that brings him back to 1989. "When we put the thing together I could really remember my life," he says. "I remember the apartment I was living in, I remember the people that were around then, my daughter being born then, being married, especially being married, everything that was going through my life. I could feel it, see it, smell it, taste it."