Lenny Kravitz

Singer, songwriter, and guitar god Lenny Kravitz has the rare ability to change guises and styles while maintaining his authentic self. It’s a testament to the cultural mixing and matching the young artist (who was born in New York in 1964) encountered while raised in a Jewish and African American family steeped in the entertainment industry. While his mother, actress Roxie Roker, found fame on the television show The Jeffersons, his father’s friendships with numerous jazz legends (as well as Lenny’s own youthful obsessions with The Beatles and Prince) helped foster the creative verve that shines on his 1989 debut, Let Love Rule. Early hits like “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” “Fly Away,” and his cover of The Guess Who’s “American Woman” showcased Kravitz’s canny fusion of ’60s psychedelia and ’70s hard rock. Though present even in his meatiest rockers, the influences of soul and funk came more strongly to the fore on buttery love songs such as the hit “It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over.” Kravitz continued to change his game throughout the 2000s and 2010s, exploring hip-hop in collaborations with JAY-Z, while also expanding his profile as an actor in The Hunger Games. Kravitz still unloads plenty of snarling rock riffs, but as 2011’s politically charged Black and White America and 2018’s Raise Vibration demonstrate, they’re frequently welded to disco-funk grooves and synth chords inspired by ’80s pop. He has even dropped a smattering of club remixes for the EDM crowd. What hasn’t changed is Kravitz’s career-long belief in the power of love to heal and unite, both personally and socially. Arriving in 2024, the loose and relaxed Blue Electric Light features Kravitz (who plays nearly every instrument) declaring “Love Is My Religion” 35 years after he implored the world to “Let Love Rule.”