Lenny Kravitz, the visitor on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is among the nice singer-songwriters — and rock stars — of the final 35 years.
Described by Billboard as possessing “unwavering cool,” by The Unbiased as “the final of the nice rock stars,” by Males’s Well being as “the final mass-cultural rock star nonetheless standing” and by VH1 as one of many 100 all-time best artists of laborious rock, Kravitz has offered greater than 40 million data, had two singles crack the highest 10 of the Billboard Scorching 100 and three albums crack the highest 10 of the Billboard 200 and been nominated for 9 Grammys, profitable 4 — in the identical class, greatest male rock vocal efficiency, 4 years in a row, a document — for “Fly Away” in 1999, “American Lady” in 2000, “Once more” in 2001 and “Dig In” in 2002.
His affect has been and continues to be felt by generations of musicians who’ve adopted him. Jay-Z, certainly one of his closest associates and largest admirers, has stated, “There could be no Tyler the Creator with out Lenny Kravitz,” and Steve Lacy has known as Kravitz his “position mannequin.”
Now, only a few months shy of his sixtieth birthday, Kravitz is having one thing of a resurgence. For “Highway to Freedom,” an unique tune that he wrote for the Netflix movie Rustin, he acquired on Monday his first-ever Golden Globe nomination and subsequent month may nicely land his first-ever Oscar nomination. Final week, he carried out it for President Joe Biden and Biden supporters at an enormous Hollywood fundraiser and likewise on Jimmy Kimmel’s present. Earlier than the tip of the 12 months, he’ll obtain a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame. After which, in March of 2024, he’s set to launch his twelfth studio album, Blue Electrical Gentle, and tour the world with it.
Over the course of a dialog at Netflix’s L.A. places of work, Kravitz mirrored on what it was like for him rising up biracial and half-Jewish and the way music grew to become a central a part of his life from a really early age, why he turned down a wealthy document deal even when he was dwelling out of a rented automobile after leaving residence at 15 after which in the end signed with a label that admitted it wasn’t certain what to do with him, the resistance that he encountered from music critics whilst his reputation soared with the discharge of early singles like “Let Love Rule” and “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” and the origin tales of his different best hits, plus rather more.
