LET LOVE RULE | BOOK REVIEW
Lenny Kravitz with David Ritz (Little, Brown)
Here is something to spend those book vouchers on: the multi-talented Lenny Kravitz’s autobiography, whose soul and funk-infused rock music has won Grammy Awards and sold millions over the last three decades. Acting roles in The Hunger Games and others have also featured prominently. Let Love Rule takes us on a journey that meticulously covers the first 25 years of Kravitz’s life, up to the time of holding out for and getting the record deal that he wanted.
Most rock stars like to spend about three pages on their childhood and jump forward to the time that was spent recording at Electric Ladyland after spending the night taking drugs with various supermodels, but Kravitz’s first autobiographical instalment concentrates on his early life and how it shaped him – and an interesting read it is. “Despite the drama and dysfunction I will regale you with, my story is not one born of darkness. My youth was filled with joy, and I was surrounded by what felt like endless, unconditional love,” writes Kravitz, who also recognised the duality of his existence: “Black and white, Jewish and Christian, Manhattanite and Brooklynite.”
Kravitz had a difficult relationship with his father, Sy Kravitz, a high-powered news executive and strict disciplinarian. Mother Roxie Roker, a renowned TV star, was more easy-going. Despite tension at home and struggles at school, Kravitz Jr found joy in music, empowered with soul in one fist and rock in the other. Indeed, Let Love Rule is rich in cultural and social history, starting off with Kravitz’s parents romancing in a cellar club in Greenwich Village in 1963 as John Coltrane plays live in the background. Soul music was always being played in the Kravitz household, and Roker appeared in 1974 blaxploitation film Claudine, part-soundtracked by Curtis Mayfield – who became a massive influence on the young Kravitz, as was seeing The Jackson 5.
From discovering soul and funk in New York to “digging” Black Sabbath while hanging out with the Dogtown Boys skate crew in Los Angeles, Kravitz seemed to always be in the right place at the right time, but what is evident is that there has always been a driven determination of where he personally wanted to end up as an individual. What makes Let Love Rule engaging is the energy, honesty, humour and most of all positivity that Kravitz exudes on every page. Roll on the next instalment.
Price: £20. Info: here
words DAVID NOBAKHT