90 Facts About Lenny Kravitz

Leonard Albert Kravitz was born on May 26,1964 and is an American singer-songwriter and actor.

Lenny Kravitz won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance four years in a row from 1999 to 2002, breaking the record for most wins in that category and setting the record for most consecutive wins in one category by a male.

Lenny Kravitz has been nominated for and won other awards, including American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Radio Music Awards, Brit Awards, and Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.

Lenny Kravitz was ranked at No 93 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".

Lenny Kravitz was made an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2011, and has played Cinna in the Hunger Games film series.

Lenny Kravitz is the son of actress Roxie Roker, a cousin of television anchor Al Roker, and the father of actress Zoe Kravitz.

Leonard Albert Lenny Kravitz was born in New York City, the only child of NBC television news producer Sy Lenny Kravitz and actress Roxie Roker.

Lenny Kravitz's mother came from a Christian family which was of African-American and Bahamian descent.

Lenny Kravitz was named after his uncle, Leonard M Kravitz, a private first class who was killed in action in the Korean War at the age of 20, while single-handedly holding off a Chinese attack, enabling most of his platoon to escape.

Lenny Kravitz began banging on pots and pans in the kitchen, playing them as drums at the age of three.

Lenny Kravitz decided that he wanted to be a musician at the age of five.

Lenny Kravitz began playing the drums and soon added guitar.

Lenny Kravitz's father, who was a jazz promoter, was friends with Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Short, Miles Davis, and other jazz greats; Ellington even played "Happy Birthday" for him on his fifth birthday.

In 1974, at the age of 10, Lenny Kravitz relocated to Los Angeles with his parents when his mother landed her role on The Jeffersons.

Lenny Kravitz took part in Mahler's Third Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl.

Lenny Kravitz attended Beverly Hills High School, where he was classmates with Maria McKee, Nicolas Cage, and Slash.

Lenny Kravitz taught himself to play piano and bass and made friends with Zoro, who would later become his long-time collaborator.

Lenny Kravitz's parents divorced in 1985, which had a profound impact on him.

Lenny Kravitz is the honorary nephew of Diahann Carroll, whom he called Aunt D, and actress Cicely Tyson was his godmother.

Lenny Kravitz had met the recording engineer, keyboardist, and bassist Henry Hirsch in 1985 when recording a demo at his Hoboken, New Jersey recording studio.

Lenny Kravitz would go on to collaborate with Hirsch on most of his albums.

Lenny Kravitz began working on his debut album with Hirsch over the next year and a half, with Lenny Kravitz's father paying for the studio time.

In October 1988, after completing most of the recording, Lenny Kravitz approached friend Stephen Elvis Smith, who had served as the music supervisor on Lisa Bonet's The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World.

Lenny Kravitz urged Smith to manage his career and assist him in finding a record deal.

Lenny Kravitz released his debut album Let Love Rule in 1989, a combination of rock and funk with a 1960s vibe.

Music critics were mixed: some felt Lenny Kravitz was a gifted new artist, others felt he was overpowered by his musical influences.

Lenny Kravitz launched a LLR tour of Europe and the United States in support of the re-release.

In 1990, Lenny Kravitz produced the song "Justify My Love" for Madonna, which he co-wrote with Ingrid Chavez.

Lenny Kravitz appeared as a member of Peace Choir that performed "Give Peace a Chance" in 1991 in protest of the Gulf War.

Lenny Kravitz separated from Lisa Bonet in 1991, amid rumors of an affair between him and Madonna.

Lenny Kravitz produced the self-titled album Vanessa Paradis for French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis.

Lenny Kravitz played most of the instruments and co-wrote most of the songs on the album.

In 1991, Lenny Kravitz released his second album, Mama Said, which was his first album to reach the Top 40.

In 1993, Lenny Kravitz wrote "Line Up" for Aerosmith, and appeared on Mick Jagger's solo album, Wandering Spirit, on a cover of the Bill Withers soul classic "Use Me," and played guitar on the title track of David Bowie's The Buddha of Suburbia.

In 1993, Are You Gonna Go My Way was released, reaching number 12 on the Billboard 200 and Lenny Kravitz earned a BRIT Award for best international male artist in 1994.

The title track won a MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video for the video produced by Mark Romanek, in which Lenny Kravitz slung his dreadlocks and wore high-heeled platform boots.

One song, "Eleutheria," was influenced by the island Eleuthera in The Bahamas where Lenny Kravitz built a house and recording studio.

In 1994, Lenny Kravitz recorded "Main Squeeze" with Teena Marie from her Passion Play CD.

Lenny Kravitz made a video to pay tribute to Teena Marie when she suddenly died on December 26,2010.

Lenny Kravitz recorded a funk-rock version of the song "Deuce" for the KISS cover album Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved.

Roxie Roker, Lenny Kravitz's mother, died in California on December 2,1995, of breast cancer at the age of 66.

In 1995, Lenny Kravitz released the album Circus, which went to number 10 on the Billboard chart on the back of his past achievement.

Lenny Kravitz's cover version of the Guess Who's hit "American Woman" won him another Grammy at the Grammy Awards of 2000 and helped the Guess Who's song reach a new audience.

Lenny Kravitz worked on two songs for Michael Jackson's Invincible album released in 2001; a snippet of "Another Day" was leaked, and the full version was officially released on the album Michael in 2010.

Lenny Kravitz co-wrote the song "God Gave Me Everything" with Mick Jagger in this period, appearing on Jagger's 2001 solo album Goddess in the Doorway and in the film Being Mick.

In 2001, Lenny Kravitz participated in a benefit auction for the Red Hot Organization, in conjunction with Amazon.

Lenny Kravitz wrote the song "Bank Robber Man" after the Miami Police Department detained and cuffed him while walking to the gym with his trainer because police stated that he matched the description of a bank robber.

The bank teller who was robbed was then brought to the scene and said Lenny Kravitz was not the bank robber.

Lenny Kravitz was the subject of a photo book by former chief photographer for Rolling Stone, Mark Seliger.

In September 2002, Lenny Kravitz appeared alongside other rock stars in the episode "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" of The Simpsons.

In early 2003, Lenny Kravitz released the track "We Want Peace" as a download-only track as a protest against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he performed this alongside famous Iraqi singer Kazem Al Saher at Rock the Vote.

Lenny Kravitz appeared on Unity, the official album of the 2004 Athens Olympics, and performed a cover of "Have You Ever Been " on the album Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix.

From March 2005, Lenny Kravitz toured all over the world with the tour Electric Church, which ended at the Brixton Academy, London in July 2005.

Lenny Kravitz served as the opening act for Aerosmith who are long-term friends of Lenny Kravitz on their fall 2005 tour.

In January 2006, Lenny Kravitz contributed "Breathe" to absoluttracks, a project sponsored by Absolut Vodka.

Lenny Kravitz appeared in the audience of Madonna's Confessions Tour during numerous shows.

Lenny Kravitz later joined Madonna live on stage to play guitar on the song, "I Love New York," at the last of four Paris shows.

Lenny Kravitz founded a design firm named Lenny Kravitz Design, stating if he hadn't been a musician he would have been a designer.

On July 7,2007, Lenny Kravitz performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth in Rio de Janeiro, making him one of three major international rock stars to perform two huge free concerts at the world-famous Copacabana Beach along with Macy Gray and the Rolling Stones.

Lenny Kravitz had already played there on March 21,2005, drawing 300,000 people on a concert of his own.

Also in 2007, Lenny Kravitz released a version of "Cold Turkey" by John Lennon on the charity CD Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.

Lenny Kravitz spent time recording his latest album, It Is Time for a Love Revolution, released February 5,2008.

Lenny Kravitz was on the song "Whole Lotta Lovin'" along with Rebirth Brass Band, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, and Maceo Parker.

The original video for "I'll Be Waiting" was shot in Central Park in New York City with Marc Webb directing but that video was later shelved and a new version, which Lenny Kravitz co-directed with Philip Andelman, was filmed in Lenny Kravitz's New York City recording studio.

On January 17,2008, Lenny Kravitz embarked on a nine-city mini-tour to promote his new album It Is Time for a Love Revolution.

On February 11,2008, Lenny Kravitz was admitted to Miami Hospital suffering from severe bronchitis.

Lenny Kravitz's illness had forced him to postpone Canadian dates and his trip to Europe to promote his album It Is Time for a Love Revolution.

On July 15,2008, Lenny Kravitz was honored in Milan, Italy with the key to the city in a special toast ceremony for his work with the United Nations Millennium Campaign to end world poverty.

Lenny Kravitz made his feature film acting debut in Precious which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009.

On his Twitter page, Lenny Kravitz said that the album title was Negrophilia but then "felt like something else".

In 2011 Lenny Kravitz was honored with one of the highest cultural awards in France when he was made an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by French cultural minister Frederic Mitterrand in Paris.

Lenny Kravitz stated he was "particularly touched" to receive the award in France as his success in the country pre-dated his success in the United States and still enjoys great record sales in the country today.

Lenny Kravitz joined other American recipients such as Martin Scorsese, George Clooney, and Bob Dylan.

Lenny Kravitz played the part of Katniss' creative stylist, Cinna, in the first two Hunger Games films, The Hunger Games released on March 23,2012 and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire released on November 22,2013.

In 2014 Lenny Kravitz released his tenth studio album Strut on his own Roxie Records via Kobalt Label Services.

In 2015, Lenny Kravitz performed alongside Katy Perry at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show.

In 2015, during a guitar solo at a concert in Stockholm, Lenny Kravitz squatted down, causing his leather pants to rip.

Lenny Kravitz did not face any legal repercussions from the incident.

BMG had acquired Lenny Kravitz's music publishing rights in 2013, as part of Virgin Music Publishing.

In July 2022, Lenny Kravitz was named one of 2022's Most Beautiful Vegan Celebrities by PETA.

Lenny Kravitz Design Inc is a New York City-based company founded by Lenny Kravitz in 2003.

Lenny Kravitz Design focuses on commercial, residential and product creative direction and design.

In 1985, Lenny Kravitz met Cosby Show actress Lisa Bonet backstage at a New Edition concert in California.

In 1987 Lenny Kravitz moved back to New York City, where The Cosby Show was produced, to move in with Bonet.

Lenny Kravitz, still known as Romeo Blue at the time, suddenly found himself in the headlines of tabloids.

Lenny Kravitz dated French singer and model Vanessa Paradis from 1991 to 1996.

Lenny Kravitz began dating Brazilian model Adriana Lima in 2001, and they lived together before becoming engaged in 2002.

Lenny Kravitz currently owns a house in Paris, a farm compound in Brazil, and a trailer with the surrounding land in the Bahamas.

Lenny Kravitz follows veganism with a primarily raw vegan diet, and uses his land in Brazil and the Bahamas to grow his own food.

Lenny Kravitz is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism, with whom he worked on a radio PSA.