Interview: Lenny Kravitz

Following the release of his flower-powered 1989 debut "Let Love Rule," many critics pegged Lenny Kravitz as a less-than-inspiring throwback to late '60s rock. Eleven years later, as the Oct. 24 release of his first greatest hits compilation approaches, he's established himself as one of contemporary rock's more enduring voices.

Kravitz picked up the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in 1998 for "Fly Away," and walked away with the same award a year later for his cover of the Guess Who's "American Woman." He is now credited with three albums selling more than a million copies (his 1991 release "Mama Said," 1993's "Are You Gonna Go My Way," and 1998's "5"), and he has collaborated with the likes of Al Green, Aerosmith and Madonna.

SoundSpike correspondent Don Zulaica spoke with Kravitz about writing songs "on paper bags," a few of the cuts on the forthcoming "Greatest Hits" (Virgin), and the death of rock and roll.

SoundSpike: How did you decide to record the Guess Who's "American Woman?"

Lenny Kravitz: I always loved the song--the vocal was genius.

What did you want to do differently with it, if anything?

I just wanted to make it funkier. Not that the original isn't completely funky. It's funny, because as far as the production goes, there's no snare drum in that song. It's just claps, kick drums and hi-hats. So I broke it down, and somehow by breaking it down, it became funkier. If you listen to a lot of old funk records, the drums are really small. But you don't perceive it like that because the groove is so heavy.

What was behind "Rock and Roll Is Dead" [a song from 1995's "Circus" that reappears on "Greatest Hits"]?

That song was completely misunderstood. A lot of people don't take [the song] that one layer deeper--they hear the title and chorus and take it at face value. They think I'm being serious when actually I'm a very big clown. But you have to know me to see that. I'm constantly cracking up and cracking everybody else around me up. People see my photos and think I labor over my image and I'm this cool, brooding artist. But I'm just having fun with it.

You've got a new song on the album, the ballad "Again."

I recorded it five times before I was happy with it. I was going into the studio to record a sixth album, and all of the sudden this song came out of me and right about that time, we began talking about doing a greatest hits album. Out of all the stuff I'd recorded, that was the newest and I thought most appropriate to stand on its own. I felt it would be cool for this album because it's very sing-along-y. Very simple, but with a lot of feeling.

"Fly Away" has the same thing with the riff--simple, with feeling. How did that one come to you?

[That song] wasn't even going to be on the album. I just finished "5" and was at the studio one day trying out this guitar and amp, just jamming, and I started to play the chords. I started playing this riff because the guitar sounded chunky in that register and I thought it was kind of cool. I started cutting it and about an hour later I had a completed track. I thought it was a throwaway because it came out so quickly, but an a friend of mine told me it was a hit and begged me to put it on ["5."] So I stopped the pressing and added the song.

"Are You Gonna Go My Way" was kind of the same thing--completely unexpected, another one of those songs written in a day on a paper bag. Who knew? I had no idea. I mean, it was amazing to me that, all of a sudden, I was hearing my music on the radio and coming out of cars.