Lenny Kravitz has marched to the beat of his own drum since first bursting onto the scene with his debut album, Let Love Rule, in 1989, but not even someone as cool and capable as Kravitz is immune to the occasional bit of harsh career advice. Unfortunately for Kravitz, it was delivered by one of his all-time musical heroes, adding insult to injury.
Kravitz would later come to appreciate what the musician had to say to him, although it didn’t stop the initial embarrassment from stinging as much as it did. But to understand why it hurt so badly, one must understand one of Kravitz’s most pivotal musical moments.
And like so many other kids growing up in the 1970s, this pivotal moment involved a rock ‘n’ roll cassette tape and a little bit of pot.
The Moment The Musician’s “Sky Opened Up”
The moment that would come to define Lenny Kravitz’s future—and, in turn, alternative rock music in general—took place during the musician’s first year of junior high school in Santa Monica, California. In his 2020 memoir Let Love Rule, he recalled sneaking off to an abandoned church courtyard with a couple of friends during their lunch break.
After a friend offered Kravitz a joint, he inhaled. Nothing. He tried again. Nothing. He tried again, holding it for longer. Something happened. As the high began to settle, Kravitz’s third friend slipped a Led Zeppelin cassette into his boombox. “Black Dog” began, the voice of Lenny Kravitz’s musical hero crooning, Hey, hey, Mama, said the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove.
“This was a moment. Maybe the moment,” Kravitz wrote. “My mind blew up with the sound of the screaming guitar, the crazed vocal, the blasting beat. I was knocked on my a**. I hadn’t even heard of Led Zeppelin. All I knew was that this music was electrifying every cell in my body.”
“The mixture of marijuana and “Black Dog” sent me soaring,” he continued. “The sky opened up. The world got bigger and more beautiful. On the same day and at the same time, I turned into both a pothead and a Zep head. Before the end of the week, I’d bought every single Led Zeppelin cassette. Marijuana and rock ‘n’ roll became my steady diet.”
Lenny Kravitz’s Hero Gave Him Some Harsh Advice
Years after Lenny Kravitz and his junior high friends smoked that fateful joint in an empty church courtyard, Kravitz, now a world-famous rockstar, found himself touring with Led Zeppelin’s lead vocalist, Robert Plant. But this time, Kravitz was the opening act, and Plant was the headliner.
“He’d put out a solo record, and he wanted to expose himself to a younger audience, and he chose me,” Kravitz recalled in a Classic Rock interview. “I was doing a soundcheck, and I guess I was in a bit of a mood because I didn’t like the way the stage sounded that night, and Robert ripped into me and tore me apart, basically saying, ‘The f*** is wrong with you? You’re in the middle of this great success, you have this music, you’re having a great run, and you should be enjoying every moment. Let go, relax!’”
“He was yelling at me like he was my older brother or my dad or something,” Kravitz continued. “It freaked me out, and I was a little embarrassed. Here was one of my heroes telling me what a b*** I’m being. But it was the most beautiful thing. He said, ‘You better f***ing wake up and enjoy this and have fun,’ and that turned me around. We’ve been great friends ever since.”
Photo by Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock
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