Lenny Kravitz on Music, Zo Kravitz, Channing Tatum, & Love

Even at the gym, Lenny Kravitz is a showman. In early April, the rock ‘n’ roll legend shared a viral Instagram video of himself working out with longtime trainer Dodd Romero, doing sit-ups and heavy-lifting a barbell…nearly upside-down…in the middle of New York City’s Hudson Yards Equinox...in Chrome Hearts leather motorcycle pants. “I won’t do cardio dressed like that, obviously,” Kravitz clarifies. Obviously. “A lot of times I’m coming from something or I’m going to something, so I’ll come in dressed as I’m dressed, which cracks people up.”

Romero’s clientele includes guys in the NFL, NBA, and MLB—you know, people who sweat for a living and fixate over their latest personal record. And then there’s Kravitz. “I remember pulling up once with my tour bus to a session where I was going to be training with these hardcore professional athletes. They saw me coming in with boots and jeans and they were laughing, like, ‘Give us a break, come on.’ And then I would come in and destroy them. They didn’t see it coming, right? They just see this little rock star dude in their brain. They had no idea how I train.” 

Maybe that's because, wherever Kravitz goes, he elegantly saunters in oozing rockstar status—whether that’s at the gym, on stage before thousands of roaring fans, or at his tropical oasis in the Bahamas, where he dials in for our Zoom chat between at-home rehearsals for his upcoming world tour. Truly, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore. And what separates Kravitz from so many iconic musicians—often jaded, unbothered, strung out, likely eager to hop off an interview with a journalist—is an immediately evident, earnest sense of gratitude and kindness. That's Lenny fucking Kravitz for ya.

On May 24, just two days before his 60th birthday, Kravitz released Blue Electric Light, his 12th studio album, six years in the making. The record is a collection of 12 soulful rock and R&B-infused songs that, while written amid a pandemic, seismic changes in the music industry, and a hotly contentious presidential election, celebrate positivity from the jump, with an opening track appropriately titled “It’s Just Another Fine Day in the Universe” and complementary sweet songs such as “Honey,” “Let It Ride,” and “Love Is My Religion." All of the tracks fit neatly next to his lauded cross-genre discography, from “Fly Away” to “American Woman,” “Mr. Cab Driver,” and “Are You Gonna Go My Way.”

In the years since 2018’s Raise Vibration, Kravitz recorded about four albums worth of music and edited Blue Electric Light down to songs that best reflect what he’s passionate about these days: love. He calls this body of work the record he never made before his 1989 debut Let Love Rule, having referenced lyrics written in high school (“Bundle of Joy,” “Heaven”), old cassette tapes, and childhood memories described in his New York Times best-selling memoir. 

“I truly love life, and I’m aware that these blessings come from God. I want to make the best of it,” he says. “I love what I do. I love being creative. I love making music, and so I choose to use it as a vehicle to bring us together.”

He credits his family for his sunny disposition. The son of Roxie Roker, a Black, Bahamian actress best known for her role in The Jeffersons, and Sy Kravitz, a white, Jewish journalist and NBC producer, Kravitz, as he told Esquire last fall, grew up between Manhattan (where his parents lived) and Brooklyn (where he stayed with his maternal grandparents on weekdays while his mom and dad worked), rockin’ and rollin’ his way to a life in the spotlight. 

“I grew up in a family that, I mean, we had our issues—dynamics that any family would—but I had very positive role models, like my mother, my grandfather, my grandmother, that were very hardworking, positive people,” he says. “I realized when I started making music as a teenager that my journey in music was to be positive, to amplify love. I truly wake up every day feeling an immense amount of gratitude—for life, for opportunity, for lessons and experiences. It’s how I choose to live life.”

To Kravitz, the blue electric light referenced in his new album title really is about spirituality. “That to me is, it’s energy, it’s spirit, it’s God, it’s humanity, it’s love, it’s that vibration,” he says, acknowledging just how abstract the concept is. It's woo-woo, but so is he. “I talk about doing all these things with this person under the blue electric light, under the power of God and love and spirit and all that. So it’s just a visual. I hadn’t planned on that being the title of the album, but after I recorded the track, my guitarist and engineer, Craig Ross, said, ‘That is a great title for the album.’”

I’m in the best place that I’ve ever been in my life—mentally, physically, and spiritually.

With an emphasis on love in Kravitz's songwriting, it's only fair to ask about his actual love life. Kravitz was famously married to actress Lisa Bonet, the mother of his only child, Zoë Kravitz. In the song “Blue Electric Light,” he sings about a person that “could be” his wife; “Stuck in the Middle” is as timeless of a love song as they come. Kravitz has said he’s come close to marriage again, and that he’s spent years self-reflecting to be more disciplined in relationships. So, today, 31 years after finalizing his divorce from Bonet, who does Kravitz love, and is he in love with anyone in particular? 

"I love love. I love relationships, I love that whole dynamic, and it’s been something that’s been challenging for me. When it comes to, you know, the full commitment, marriage—I haven’t done it since Zoë’s mom. It’s been quite a while, and it’s something I really fantasize about, long for in reality. So it’s not just a fantasy, it’s something that I long for, but you cannot, everything takes the time that it takes, and I’ve had lots of lessons to learn,” he says. “You truly must be ready with anything in life that you long for. When you’re ready, it will come.”

He pauses. “I feel like I’m at a place where I truly believe that I’m ready, and it’s really just about the right person and the right time. Timing is so important—you can meet the right person at the wrong time, you know? You can meet the wrong person at the right time. You could do all kinds of things, you know? It really takes the two of them, and so, I’m open and patiently waiting. And I know that it’s, I know that it’s coming because I’m in the best place that I’ve ever been in my life—mentally, physically, and spiritually. And it’s hard, too, because I’m good by myself.”

Kravitz understandably sounds a bit cagey when probed about his love life, but the second I ask about his daughter, how she's influenced his music and what he's most proud of her for, he lights up. “She has enhanced my life and opened my life and brought me to places I never thought I would be,” Kravitz says. “The thing that I’m most proud about with Zoë is what an outstanding and beautiful individual she is. I mean, she inspires me. She’s her own person. It can be difficult growing up when you have parents that are known for something… To see her become this creative force, she’s so independent. She’s so talented and free. I couldn’t be more proud of the human being she is.”

He’s excited for Zoë to marry her fiancé, Magic Mike alum Channing Tatum. What will Kravitz feel watching his daughter walk down the aisle? “Just happiness, you know? Happiness knowing that she’s confident in her choice and is looking forward to building a life with someone—they’re equally matched and equally yoked. Just happiness.”

To be 60, flirty, and thriving is quite the feat for any human, which brings us back to fitness, the therapeutic practice that helps him maintain that glass-half-full attitude. Kravitz tries to lock in an hour of cardio a day (it's why he looks so good in nothing but bootcut jeans). He lifts weights five days a week. He rides his bike around the Bahamas. He jumps rope. And just vibes.

“I truly believe that our bodies are a temple and I enjoy looking after it, inside and out. I like my body to function at its optimum. I enjoy training. I’m committed. It also brings me joy. It’s like meditation. It takes me away. You only think about that when you’re doing it. It’s something that I really depend on,” he says. “And, uh, this might sound strange, but I’ve never felt younger. I’ve never functioned better.”

What’s the last thing you do before you fall asleep?

Normally, turn off the television. At night, I like to put films on to rest my mind, and then when I feel myself getting drowsy, I turn off the movie. 

What was the first album you ever owned?

The Jackson Five’s Third Album.

If you were to spend $1,000 today, what would you buy and why?

I’d probably go into town here where I live in the Bahamas and buy everybody lunch—the whole town. I live in a town of 500 people. I’d take everybody out to lunch.

What’s your favorite tattoo and why?

The tattoo of my mother on my arm, because it’s my mom.

What’s the last movie you watched?

An old black-and-white movie called Gaslight with [Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman].

Describe a memorable dream.

I talk about this dream in my book, [Let Love Rule]: I used to have this dream that seemed very haunting, when I was, like, 5 years old, where I was inside of a casket, being dropped into the ground, which sounds crazy as a 5-year-old. Where would I get that visual from? It was a recurring dream that I had as a child and what it taught me was that life does not end in the grave. Life goes on. I always felt that it was God speaking to me, letting me know that life did not end on this planet, because I had nowhere that I could get those images from. There was nothing that I watched as a 5-year-old that would give me those images.

Who is your mentor?

My grandfather.

Name one place you’ve never been but have always wanted to go.

Vietnam. My father spent a year there covering the Vietnam War. He was a journalist and his stories [about it] used to fascinate me. Anyway, it’s a place I’d like to go.

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