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Quick Facts
Best Known For
Grammy Award-winning rock musician Lenny Kravitz made the albums Let Love Rule, Mama Said and Are You Gonna Go My Way. He's also acted in such films as Precious and The Hunger Games.
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Play NowLenny Kravitz. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 07:17, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/lenny-kravitz-20871647.
Lenny Kravitz. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/lenny-kravitz-20871647 [Accessed 19 May 2013].
"Lenny Kravitz." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 07:17 http://www.biography.com/people/lenny-kravitz-20871647.
"Lenny Kravitz," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/lenny-kravitz-20871647 [accessed May 19, 2013].
"Lenny Kravitz," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/lenny-kravitz-20871647 (accessed May 19, 2013).
Lenny Kravitz [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/lenny-kravitz-20871647.
Lenny Kravitz, http://www.biography.com/people/lenny-kravitz-20871647 (last visited May 19, 2013).
Lenny Kravitz. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/lenny-kravitz-20871647. Accessed May 19, 2013.
Synopsis
Lenny Kravitz was born on May 26, 1964 in Brooklyn, New York. His first album, Let Love Rule, was released in 1989. In 1998, his album Five won him his first Grammy Award. In 2004, his album Baptism expressed his renewed enthusiasm for making music. Baptism was followed by the albums It is Time for a Love Revolution (2008) and Black and White America (2011). In 2009, Kravitz made his screen debut in the film Precious.
Quotes
"Confusion makes people uncomfortable. They can't put their finger on me."
"Change is growth. For me it has been a very spiritual and musical rebirth."
Childhood
Leonard Albert Kravitz, known to most as Lenny Kravitz, was born on May 26, 1964 in Brooklyn, New York. An only child, Kravitz is the product of an interracial marriage. His father, Sy Kravitz, is Jewish; his mother, Roxie Roker, who died of cancer in 1995, was an African American. As a bi-racial child in the 1960s, endured an onslaught of prejudicial remarks.
Kravitz was raised in a wealthy home environment. Sy Kravitz is a television producer, and Roxie Roker played Helen Willis on the popular television sitcom The Jeffersons. When the family moved to Hollywood for Roxie's role, Lenny, who had developed a passion for music at an early age, joined the California Boys Choir. Displaying his raw talent on several instruments, Kravitz was also accepted into the music program at Beverly Hills High School. He graduated in 1982.
Early Musical Career
After graduation, Kravitz left home. Calling himself "Romeo Blue," he hit the road to try to make it big in the music business. Despite his parents' celebrity connections, Kravitz was determined to succeed on his own merit. The early years of his musical career were anything but glamorous. Kravitz lived out of a car that he rented for $5 a day. In 1985, while still struggling to land his big break, Kravitz was deeply saddened by news of his parents' divorce.
Personal Life
The following year, Kravitz relocated to New York City. It was there that he met actress Lisa Bonet, who was starring as Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show at the time. Lenny and Lisa fell in love and quickly moved in together. In November of 1987, the couple eloped in Vegas. Back in New York, Lenny had the good fortune to meet recording engineer Henry Hirsh. It was the opportunity that Kravitz had been looking for. By 1989, his debut album, Let Love Rule, was about to be released by Virgin Records—just as Kravitz and his wife, Lisa, welcomed their daughter Zoë into the world. The world seemed to be Kravitz's oyster until the couple later divorced in the early 1990s.
Musical Success
Kravitz's first album, Let Love Rule, was released in 1989 and ranked No. 61 on the Billboard charts. The title track made No. 89 on Billboard's Hot 100. While Kravitz's debut album, which exemplified his own eclectic blend of rock influences, was moderately successful, he didn't achieve widespread fame until Madonna covered his song, "Justify My Love," in 1990. As Kravitz was rising to stardom, his marriage to Bonet disintegrated.
Kravitz put out his sophomore album, Mama Said, in 1991. The album, inspired by his painful divorce, made the Top 40 on the Billboard charts.
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