[Music] I am a person who is living this dream this is a family home I wouldn't be here without family and friends and what they sacrificed how hard they worked as far as I'm concerned my music is to amplify love that's it this record it felt like a new beginning it felt like a rebirth as a human being I've never been in a better position no matter what's
going on if you back up far enough it's just another fine day in this universe and it's a fine day in Paris I know what you're thinking is it a fine day in Paris sure it was a moody sky that day but we came to the City of Lights to speak to one of its most famous residents Lenny in his beautiful home to talk about a brand new album Life Family Legacy but
first take a look at his beautiful grand piano couldn't help myself Zane SS good man I had to Bro been on mind don't let me interrupt s only two CES I know what's going on I've been Dy to see the uh the Kravitz Grand with my own eyes bro is a beautiful piece of inspiration behind this this is actually this this spot it was designed for this room this spot uh being next to this painting in
this stair this stairwell I wanted it to be uh based in African design yeah uh it all started with these legs yeah uh that were handcarved uh and then I just went from there picked the the wood and uh had these Artisans you know carving all of these um designs in the side uh all the metal uh is all hand formed wow really beautiful even the petals are like that
as well yeah yeah yeah beautiful look at the inside my God yeah it's real art man it's beautiful it's everything come together it's like your love of Music the thing that we know you for but also this beautiful Design's eye this love of art you are curator of the Arts bro there's no question just walking through this house you can tell it's the wonderful taste
man thank you sir good to see you man good to see you too where are we going through here yeah come on we go in the salon oh it's a beautiful day in Paris um how's rehearsals really good yeah and the band has a Vibe and it's starting to it's starting to happen yeah I saw your new drama play with you the other night when you were doing the
People's Choice Awards crushed that yeah and it must be interesting trying to figure out like how you're going to um you know renew the energy and the chemistry on stage I mean you've had some classic lineups I think about that Tony Craig Cindy lineup the 90s was just like Inc tank yes and then Jack D who joined us on base after that and then Gand dorsy is it true in fact I
know it is because we because this was brought up before that your bass player could have make an MTV Awards once and so not only could he not make it he was he was uh he was missing he was missing Tony uh had some Adventures he even got kidnapped once by two women yeah that but that's another story that's another story um in Australia um but yeah he was
missing an action and uh we were getting ready to do the MTV video awards and uh we had no bass player and I was just making a joke with Craig I'm like yeah we should call John Paul Jones uh that would be really cool uh cuz he would he would nail this song and you going to go my way was are you going to go my way Craig was like well call him I like he's not going to do it he
doesn't know me he's John Paul Jones you never met him I had not met him before I don't know how I got his number but somebody got it and I called him and I'm freaking out and I'm just like um John Paul Jones you know wow uh yeah he's like what do you so what do you want well you know I'm playing this award show and uh our bass players not
around and you know was wondering if you wouldn't mind playing bass you know for us knowing that the guy was going to say no yeah yeah sh you shot and he said of course I'll do it I'd love to do it and I was couldn't believe it he flew to Los Angeles we did one rehearsal what was it like when he fired out in the first time in rehearsal I mean that song
and there's no footage of that rehearsal I I didn't have cameras around a lot so you got the Riff going on H yeah and but the Bas comes in off the fact yeah and he's nailing it and we get to the break and he comes in with the line I was like you learned the line he must have been cracking up wow and it it it it was amazing it was so amazing for me to be playing with this giant and we
won the award which you weren't going to do until that performance and everyone's like we got give him the award it's beautiful to be here in this house man I do love Paris when did you come here for the first time first album yeah on tour promotion the American label that I signed to Virgin America that had just started really a couple years before believed in what I
was doing but and was the first label that oh thank you very kind thank you so much thank you was the first label people that you know understood what I was doing and and I got signed which was which is amazing cuz by the sound of it you didn't even understand what you were doing almost you just figured it out yourself I was just doing what I was
doing the music just came to me that love rule came to me and and everything I was doing before was me trying you know uh I liked so many different styles of music I could play so many different styles of music I could play all the instruments but the writing wasn't there yet I was searching and then all of a sudden I got this download and it came to me I love
how you say that how was a download I just love that because it was it it was not me and by the way it's still not me to this day it's still not me it's a beautiful observation to have so early on in your life and in your creative Journey because it allows you the space to let it come and to let go so I knew the difference cuz I was doing the
exercise of searching oh maybe if I put this together with this oh but I like a little bit of funk a little bit of rock and I'd been told for so many years that I couldn't do what I was doing when I would bring that music around it was always the story of it's not black enough it's not white enough it's too Rock it's too funky it's the you know people recognized my talent but didn't
want me to do what I was doing take your talent and do this this is the formula this is how it works this is what a black artist does these are the radio hits this is the sound of what's going on anyway back to Paris I got the download of let love rule I'd been shopping it I was granted a 5 minute meeting at Virgin uh with a woman named Nancy Jeff
who uh was an anr there came in played the cassette played let love rule played that song and then uh she said hold on a minute I'm going to go get somebody she went and got Jeff air off played the song He said hold on I'm going to go get somebody else he brought in Jordan Harris the three of them are sitting there then they asked me to play a few
other songs I did they kept listening and they were writing notes passing them back and forth I'm just sitting there I'm like this going to be another one of those situations yeah yeah I sat down they said we want to sign you you do you want to be with us and that's that's how it happened after being turned down time and time again so then when the record
was done and mixed and it was time for promotion what box was I going to fit in how are they going to promote me was a bit confusing so they sent me to Europe and so I went to London for the first time I went to London Paris uh Hamburg Germany and Amsterdam and that's when I came to Paris for the first time and I I absolutely fell in love and you fell understood you know
it's I think that you fit into into a finite and select group of of artists who really can only be defined by the by the genre of your name which every artist should be very very early on and I know that can be a tough road look it's LED you here and this place is beautiful and what an incredible life and we're going to celebrate it today
but through through the filter of your music and your new album but it hasn't all been easy like I I I know that it it it's there's been some tough times for you trying to figure out like how you turn people on and how people accept it you know it's always been a fight yeah you know it's it's been about uh moving walls you know but then I see you
perform that fire in you and in your band that fight you're never going to shake it right to to this day I'm so grateful that uh all these years later you know I'm still here I'm still hungry I'm still motivated I'm still inspired I'm just as inspired as I was when I was in high school I mean Absolut we're here we're here so what are we going to do right you know uh we have to keep
pushing and we have to keep growing and experiencing and learning and uh I wake up every day no matter how tough it is or what's going on or how much work or whatever the challenges might be I still wake up every day um with a thirst for life I love life you know um with with all that comes with it you surround yourself in this house or in this environment here and I'm sure it's the
same everywhere that you call home with reminders of your life there's beautiful beautiful portraits of your mother and beautiful striking portra of your grandfather in that room I I wouldn't be here without these people and what they did what what they sacrific how hard they worked my grandfather was born in inagua Bahamas uh had four brothers and sisters and a
bedridden mother father died and he had to become the man of the house at 9: so he had to provide for five six people and uh from nine years old from nine and he figured it out uh not only did he figure that out he then went to Florida to Miami met my grandmother I think they were like 16 uh when they got married uh and had my mother the year later ended up going
up to New York City to search for a better life figured it out sent for his family worked five jobs bought a house this is in bedy Brooklyn and made a way for my mother uh to be educated to go to college the first in the family to go to college went to Howard University studied at the Shakespeare Institute uh Stratford upon Avon uh in England and
uh all of that is the foundation that I'm standing on the foundation that Zoe is standing on and uh I take it very seriously and that's why I have all these portraits up you know my grandfather is over the table every day every meal um my mother is in the room there um it it still FS me still gives me power what are some of the Fondest
Memories you've had in here that you can share you know just just moments or or visits people have come through here just family and friends that come here this is a this is a family home it's also my daughter's home so when I'm not here she's here and she has friends over we like to just hang out cook eat listen to music Talk laugh you know it's just a it's it it's a home
and uh you know when I'm working uh with my band they live here um we live as a family which I think is important that's really important actually because I think that there's been this misconception because of the way that you've made your music and how you've you've managed your career um and also I think how you're perceived within the media or through
the lens of photographs and whatnot of being this loner and that doesn't sound like it's actually the reality at all it sounds like you love to be around a lot of people I love people but it's a very it's it's a very tight group of folks my friends and my extended family and my family but I love people and you like being on your own as well you like I do I like
being around people as much as I like being by myself I need both uh I need time alone uh and I need time to feel people touch people have that uh back and forth you know it's it always balances itself out what's one of the most important trait for you in building a relationship with someone what do you search for ultimately as a as a as a quality of character honesty being
direct uh loyalty uh for that person to be truly who they are authentic you know be be you I'm quite non-judgmental I accept people for who they are whatever that is and if I choose to love you then that's what I'm going to do regardless of who you are what you are what mistakes you make because we all make them um if I'm in for the journey then I'm in for
the journey so you exercise Grace with people absolutely and I'll and I'll stick with you and do you exercise Grace in your own life I've learned to and I'm learning to yeah it's funny isn't I'm the last one to get that I'm hard on myself you are I'm extremely hard you've always been that way yes what do you think that comes down to I was raised to
work hard I was raised to have a solid foundation and to always be working harder to get to the next place you know my grandfather used to wake me up 5: in the morning when I was in junior high in high school uh which I hated to go to go into the backyard of my mother's house and prune the trees and chop the wood and I had to work you know and my grandfather
would lecture me all the time and uh with the greatest love and respect but when you're a kid you're not down for that and I watched my mother even in her success being on you know the number one television show scrub her own floors clean her own toilets clean the house do the thing was always about follow through you know doing everything properly to the inth degree and my
father was ex-militant right my father was a Green Beret I almost got sent to military school I was into this music and I I wasn't serious about my school work who got in between you and military school I think my mom stopped him from yeah from sting me there but I ended up leaving home when I was 15 anyway so but I I I finished high school I continued high school and got
my diploma and I had to do that for my mom you know yeah beautiful she would have freaked she would have freaked out I've heard the song and I've read what you wrote about your father and I know you've come to beautiful conclusion in terms of how he did the best he could all we can hope is that our parents do the best they can with what they have
and then we learned from that we Tred to do better and better and better but that conclusion came after you became a parent yeah and I wonder how challenging that was for you to have enough self a winers when you became a father to not fall into some of those byproducts of a of being raised by a strong parent in ways that you don't want to actually carry on I think you
either become that person or you go the other way and I went the other way absolutely and I had you know I had my mother who was soft and loving um still a disciplinarian but in a completely different way and I had my grandfather and I had my grandmother who loved me like no other my grandmother was the safest most beautiful warm place for me she was my refuge she
was total love and comfort so that's where flow SPI comes from it comes from that kind of love absolutely so I was born at home in in the bedroom and uh the moment I saw her the I'd never felt L like that before you know so it comes from comes from different places it's a crazy time you know you become a parent and then all of a sudden you your
dreams start to come true and yeah yeah all happened or at the same time it was at the same time marriage uh a child and and and uh this career starting all happened at the same time yeah when you think back to that particular time while we're there and we're talking about the first few albums new fatherhood marriage is running its course in whatever way
it's going to do that um what what was really that time about for you as a person as a human what you experiencing transla it was Life coming at you full speed and it was exciting and these were all new experiences being married having a child getting this record deal that I'd wanted you know since I was uh a young teenager and then my band was living with us we were
living in this Loft uh on Broom Street in in SoHo and there were like eight people on uh just like little p and mattresses it's like a Comm and pillows just living all it was it was just living all over the floor crazy with my wife with my child all of us in one place probably about the size of this room yeah it was a trip I mean we were just in it you
know Zoe's mom was was was filming the television show at the time with Cosby and uh she was just so down and she was there for the mission supporting me and uh it was a beautiful time for all of us for you know the musicians and uh my engineer uh Henry Hirsch that I was working with who deserves a lot of credit I mean an incredible the sound of
those of those albums I I listened to um mama said again the other day when always on the run drops in that was a great memory cuz you know that obviously always on the run was was with Slash yeah and uh we went to high school together yeah and uh yeah that's right that I I was at the American Music Awards this is after my first album so I hadn't started the second album yet and
Guns and Roses is sitting in front of me um and I see this guy and I'm like I know this guy and I'm looking at him I'm like wait a minute we went to high school together didn't we and then we both realized and so we exchanged num and kept in touch and he was just finishing a tour in in England and said he wanted to do something he jumped on the Concord which
got into New York City like at 8:30 in the morning or something and uh came to my place he had me search for uh like a gallon of vodka and uh a gallon and a bag of ice which it like you know by the time he got to me it was like 930 : a.m. ended up going to a NE banging on neighbors doors got the Vodka got the ice we took the train to Hoboken where the studio
was with the Vodka couple guitars bag of ice that was slowly melting got to the studio and uh we just did it how much fun for you having spent the majority of your time on your debut album which broke you out M all on your own that can be only by the way people always go like amazing you played everything it's like yeah that's not always it's not what I
wanted I I wanted to have a band I wanted to have that experience of being in the studio you know having all these people uh you know and rubbing all these ideas together working off of each other slash must have been probably your first actual taste of what that felt like yeah yeah it was great and that that track it's still one of my favorites I mean
I'm not surprised that after that he was so teed up around around how you going to go my way it was so teed up because people forget they know all these songs like it ain't over and all these amazing anthems and stuff but mama said had to work its way into people's homes oh yeah that's a hardworking album I feel like are you going to go my way was the breakout moment the video was
represented the song the song represented the by the way that took time that that single was about to die we were working that thing MTV uh was playing it like late at night but they weren't giving me the the heavy rotation at the you know at the prime time but then it broke it just like one day it just broke and then it never went away you've written songs about this it's
never been your design to be famous no you've been very clear about that it was it was about being a musician right I in my mind uh I was going to be playing in clubs or the street or a restaurant or in studios or like whatever it was I I want to play music and I really wanted to be a studio musician I mean that that was kind of like the fantasy like I'll
do session you know this is in the day of sessions where where the top session guys were you know doing sessions all day long from one Studio to the next playing on this record and that record then this record then that you know yeah I thought that that would be cool you know and even when I was in bands I was not the front person I was fine with that
then it all just kind of came together I don't I don't I don't know what happened but uh I ended up singing and uh which I obviously had done before when I was in the boys choir I mean I I I had a classical career for you know from from 11 to 15 uh singing classical music with the California boys choir and you know recording with Zubin MAA and you know
touring and performing with the Metropolitan Opera of New York City and I mean um but when my voice changed I I stopped singing so how did how did Fame sit for you let's look at the '90s real quick because a lot of younger artists and and and people are fascinated with the ' 90s right now it's a it's a it's a time that I think cuz it's just pre-
internet and everything is loud and fame is real and success is big but there's no internet to divide it up into this kind of democratic opinion right it's a crazy combination of of exceptional if you're in it exceptional noise but no one can kind of reach you or touch it we're all just passively observing it and supp beautiful man it was beautiful please imate I didn't I didn't
know it while I was in it of course cuz when you're in it you're in it of course you there was still the element of Mystique which I like all the artists that I grew up listening to watching had Mystique you only knew so much uh maybe they'd be in a magazine I remember running to magazine shops because you know the group would be in the magazine just just to get a picture
that's as close as just to just to look at them and then maybe they'd be on some television show if it was Don kushner's Rock concert or or whatever it might be uh uh The Midnight Special so I grew up in that era so here we are in the 90s now and I'm thinking it's not as cool as that time but it actually was it actually was you know even just simple
things like I was looking at some old footage again the the other day of the audience it was uh from this concert film and documentary I did call alive from planet Earth which I love and we're playing and I'm looking at the audience and they're so free I forgot they were so free and people were on each other's shoulders and people were just grooving
and dancing and celebrating and there wasn't one phone you know it was before that time where people could just be in the moment to experience something and not have to prove that they were there most of us didn't even bother to bring cameras cuz it's like who wants that in your pocket yeah all you had was the ticket and yes and MTV was the
Catalyst I mean there was the radio and there was MTV do you remember when you realized that the walking down the street in New York was not going to be the same again during the second album it ain't over till it's over it became a big pop hit and you know as I said I was still taking the train to the studio I remember walking down Broom Street uh which led to the Holland
Tunnel so there'd be a lot of traffic there at certain times yeah and all the cars would be just sitting there in gridlock and I started hearing my songs coming out of out of the cars was a very big moment for me to hear that it blows your mind it still blows my mind actually it's like wow people are listening to this or I'd hear it coming out of a window
of of a building you know and then I got on the train one day and people started to uh react yeah and that was sort of the end of that then I started taking a taxi you know and then I got a a VW van that I used to drive us to the studio in but um yeah it was it was a transition because I I grew up in the streets you know of New York and la and I love the
street and I'm still in the street I have to maneuver a different way and I have to be aware of things but um it was very strange to have to sort of curb the natural way that I maneuver I feel like that's been very much the balance that you struck in the way that you live here we are in the middle of Paris I mean I know through the camera you look outside
and think we could be anywhere else but but trust me this is Paris but then you also have this beautiful retreat in Brazil mhm and you've also chosen to live in the Bahamas and had a place there for a long time what Drew you into the contrast between the city kid who now has the space tucked away right well the Bahamas was was family it's different right so natural for me
growing up in the Bahamas you know going twice a year my mother always sent me down to the Bahamas I'd spend Summers there I'd spend Winters there so after I got my record deal when when we used to get advances I bought property in the Bahamas yeah because I thought well if I'd ever make another doll at least I got somewhere to go yeah yeah smart I
can build a shack you know and I bought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle no so SM those those are the two I still have it though those are the two things I bought and and you know the Bahamas just mean so much to me it's a place where I can just be me I'm just a local yeah um the Bahamian people are very special people yeah and my roots are there and I'm very
comfortable there and uh you know I lived in an Airstream trailer for 15 years there was something I loved about getting off of tour and going to this place where it was this really limited space you only have room for what you really really need what's one of your favorite memories of writing a song at the when you were living in the aing
like just in that simple environment where it was just you and your oh it was just just waking up in the middle of the night and having an idea grabbing the guitar and you know just sitting in there writing it was Heaven it still is I mean when I'm there making the records most of the writing happens in my sleep wow yeah I'm just an antenna so I'm being given whatever's transmitted
to me and it tends to happen between like 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. you know whatever Vortex it is it opens between in those hours and uh I'll just hear it and I hear it like a record playing in my head so it it already exists so then I have to wake up you know grab the phone grab a guitar a lot of times I don't even grab the guitar I'll just start humming
the melody and then humming the chord structure sometimes I'll grab a guitar um and then hope that I put enough information down so that I'll recognize it when I wake up sometimes I wake up I'm like what the is that yeah it's horrible you know um but that's how it works and then I wake up go to the studio walk over to the studio yeah and
start to make this thing that I've been given you know well that's super ego- free it is and but it makes it so much easier and so much more magical because it's not limited by a thought process my thought process and I fought with tracks sometimes I'm this beat I don't it's not what I wanted or the vibe or what is this style and then I'll try to change it to make it hipper
maybe in my in my mind and then I'll work on it work on it where I'm like nope and I'll go back to what it was even if it was odd to me but I do have a new found acceptance of my music cuz when I'm done I'm done yeah and I go on to the next thing and in these last few months of listening back to a lot of the records yeah and the master tapes because I'm teaching musicians what I
need them to learn I've been sitting there going W this is pretty good yeah that melody or that thing or wow like I never thought about it it's a beautiful thing to listen back to something you did so many years ago and hear things you didn't hear or appreciate it yeah you thought it was just whatever but actually it's very special so that's a
beautiful gift to be given at this point my life to really appreciate and see what it is and feel what it is it's very much in keeping with this new album with blue electric light you said something when you returned with tk421 that really stuck with me and I've wanted to talk to you about it since which was this feeling of renewal I don't think I ever had more
fun making a record uh as blue electric light there was something about well there was there was a few things going on Co was happen happening the world was shut down and I was in the Bahamas after a few weeks this whole feeling of I don't have to be anywhere I don't have to do anything I don't have to turn something in or show up it was like what's going on I got
into this place of uh really living in the moment you know we all talk about living in the moment not thinking about what we've done or what we're going to do but living in the moment which is this place that I think so so many of us want to be in yeah and I got to exercise that because there there was no past or future it was like here I am now don't
know what's going on I just have to be here and I'm in the middle of all of this beautiful nature this music started coming we'd be in the studio every day I want to go down can we go down yeah let's go down Studio I I want to see what you make music kid [Music] [Applause] [Music] cuz I came get to be alive oh this is a spot wow so this is not where you made the
new album you in the Bahamas but so what this place was just waiting for you to come back this is my yeah my home studio here right right but yeah the album was made in the Luther what's that feeling like when you walk into a room like this and you have no idea what's inside you and what's ready to come out that feeling that the environment is just
waiting for you can you have you gotten any closer to kind of figuring out how to describe that feeling it's new every time that's the beauty of it it's new every time it's uh magical every time the element of surprise you don't know what you're going to get yeah and uh that makes it interesting do you think that taking the time to put the first sort of 25 years
of your life on the page do you think it was a contributor to this feeling of renewal did it clear out a lot of stuff and make room for new energy and new I think it did it also brought me back to that time especially my teens you know I'd never thought about writing a book and it happened I met David Ritz and he challenged me he's like you should write
a book and I'll help you and uh I thought I don't know if I have anything interesting to to write about the way I look at my life is my life yeah it seems ordinary to me um but he said you're going to find the stories and you're going to find the meaning and uh we worked on it wrote this book let love Rule and that exercise was the greatest form of therapy I could have ever had so I was
able to back up see certain things for what they really were and as I was writing about my dad who you know I L but we had a very complicated relationship I saw him as this character and I took that personal thing off of it and how I felt about it my feelings and I was like I kind of like this guy you know I I understand him you know he's doing the best
that he could do with what he had what he had experienced what he went through with his father and different things in the military and being brainwashed to be this sort of person that he really was not cuz I found out about that when he was dying that he had he expressed that he'd been brainwashed to some extent and that he'd always been trying to get this
monkey off of his back but he couldn't and this is why I behaved this way or that way which was enough for me because I never got explanations as a kid or even as an adult he wasn't very expressive and here he was expressing and that was enough for me anyway wrote the book went through this therapy um explored my years as a teenager which I had you know I never
thought about that time really in depth like that since I've said about this album that this is the record I didn't make as a teenager before let love Rule and I think that because I was spending so much time reflecting on those years and those experiences took me back there and without me even realizing it until I was already a few songs in um I had waken up
you know I'd stirred up that that uh that time and the vibe that I was in and the sort of music that I was making because there is a little naivity in the best possible way in some of the the keyboard sounds you know back then people were figuring out what those instruments did for the P out old keyboards that I had at that during that
time yeah and they'll with you and uh they will do what they want to do and drum machines and things that I was doing at that time and this record is a bit of that and two of the songs even from high school really yeah where did you even find those all cassettes holy that a friend had I didn't even have it what mm so you just reached out and like hey have you got
any old cassettes no he just told he said I have this these cassettes and which two songs uh heaven and bundle of joy what did you feel like when you heard those songs back for the first time that's been like a trip it was great and they were great memories cuz those two songs I done with a guy that I knew since junior high school and we were like brothers and it's in the book
but it was wonderful go back and transcribe the parts uh I mean they sound like they did I I spent a lot of time making sure every sound was perfect sounded like it did then uh all the parts Etc from this murky cassette tape I wanted to honor that time and also honor my friend I also feel when I listen to the album like you are leaning into that space
that a few artists indulged in authentically at that time Prince being a very clear example of that the drum sounds that particular drum machine is just the sign of the times era Dr yeah he own he he owns the lind drum right the lind drum you know they were on so many records by so many artists um but he he really took that and it just became part of the fabric of of of his sound uh
for so long um so yeah I so yeah I was pulling out the things that I was using that you knew him right Prince very well very well what's one of your favorite memories of spending time with Prince God I've got so many we spent so much time together yeah you know he used to call me in the late late at night to uh meet him at a club to go play you know just
set up and go and go play uh you know an audience would be there obviously knowing that that that we were coming um those were really great nights that were just so free and fun uh just going to his house to watch funny movies or comedians he he he was really really funny he had an amazing sense of humor um hanging out with him here in Paris when he had an
apartment uh before I had my house um and I was dating Vanessa parody at the time and we'd go over there you know Prince is very competitive he's a very good ping pong player he's very good at pool basketball everything and uh we went over there one night and uh Vanessa was really good at pool and she kicked his ass oh and uh that that was a hard one for him uh
going to visit Michael Jackson you know he'd yeah pick me up we'd go see Michael in the studio and just mess with him and which is crazy because the stories were always that Prince and Michael were these kind of arch rivals in the Arts I mean I don't know about that I'm sure there was some kind of you know healthy competition or whatever the opposite but it w it was
more about having fun and sort of um joking around with him like let's go let's go with Michael you know you must have been tripping out there must have been a healthy level of impostor syndrome just being in that room for a second because of those two people being mean those are two people that I grew up with and that I studied and that I that
were my teachers and I was actually sitting between the two of them crazy and I kept going like this and like this and I felt very normal you know they were both in Full full drag you know full makeup full hair just as as we and I'm like this you know I got and Michael was fascinated with my dreadlocks he's like what do you do and what do you do what's your you know
touching my hair crazy but um I was sort of the wild uh organic one you know and uh they were very done but but both of them were really beautiful people and you know Prince was very giving and very always speaking to me about certain things that he thought I should know and teaching me about the business and he also cared about people's Spirits I
remember sitting in his car for like two hours once he wanted to show me this purple car he'd gotten it was this Prowler uh Chrysler Prowler or what I think that's what it was called and he took me down to see it he had just got in it and next thing I know we're sitting in the car for 2 hours having Bible study like he's giving me a lesson and we had a lot of respect for each
other as as musicians and as human beings you got as close as anyone will get to him on stage to witness that ability what did you learn or what was it like to be that close to him from a musical chemistry point of view I mean it the Friendship is beautiful but you're like was it was somewhat intimidating yeah um he's just that good yeah he's just that good you know being
in the studio with him we used to play uh with our bands together or just he and I um being that he and I both played everything everything we just go in the studio I'd grab something he'd grab something then I'd go there and then I'd get on the drums then we'd switch guitars and you know we'd make tracks did you ever record any of it yeah there's recordings and there's
also um sort of things that he would call you know sort of momentos like there's Prince tracks where I'm singing background and you don't know wow and I can't tell you because he would he always wanted it to remain just a part of the experience I'll give you that but amazing but and if I played it for you and you you'd say oh wow that's you yeah
and it's only me it's not me mixed with him it's only me you know I think about you as a collaborator on records and for someone who can play Everything yourself you have had such a rich life of collaborating with people um you know is there another one that really jumps out um that that you really felt was like a great turning point for you a great
learning for you MC Jagger yeah I love that song M Jagger God gave me everything yeah he came to my place in Miami and uh that's that's a great team up that I'd written the track I had a little bit of Melody but I didn't want to finish it because I wanted him to come up uh with the verses especially so I played him the track I sang him the basic Melody of the hook
and he said okay I I'll be right back he asked for a pad and a pen and he went into this little corner of my house for about 30 minutes yeah comes back with the words he's got it so I said okay why don't you go in there and do a do a vocal in his mind he was doing a dummy vocal it was just a guide vocal so he goes in there and I'm sitting behind the
console we start he starts singing it and the fir Craig was sitting next to me and I looked over at Craig and I said holy it sounds like MC Jagger yeah like yeah it's all of a sudden it was a record and it that was blowing my mind to hear his voice coming through the microphone into the studio on this song that we're writing and so he comes out he kills it
one take comes out and he says yeah that's cool but I'll get the real vocal later and I'm thinking to myself are you out of your mind that vocal was incredible feel pitch everything uh rhythm day after day after day after day he kept going in to sing it again and again and again do you know what he was looking for maybe it was it happened too
fast sometimes you think well if it just happened like that you know I need to work on it or make it better I don't know what he was thinking he maybe he didn't like it that much and he and I got into it a bit and that's my man I respect him so much and love him so much he's he's he's been a great friend uh throughout about all these years but I said this vocal is
incredible and finally after doing it like 10 times he finally gave in and I thought thank God and that's the vocal you hear on the record one take yeah done yeah I love that song the chemistry between the two of you is amazing I think about the idea of manifestation a lot especially when I talk to artists who grow up listening to these amazing musicians they become a
part of your life a part of who you want to be through your own identity and then you end up sitting in a car for two hours with Prince or yeah recording when I when I produced Michael Jackson and he like yes all of these people uh were examples to you all these people turned you on all these people educated you damn Lenny I forgot you actually produced Michael Jackson I I've
got to ask before we get unfortunately it ended up on a wack album but it was uh you still had the experience yeah and it was uh cuz a bunch of nonsense on that record but we recorded it for the Invincible album and at the time when when we were done they thought it was like a bit too Rock for that record for whatever reason I don't know
because Michael always had like a cool Rock track whe it was dirty Diana or beat it or whatever I mean of course he had Eddie Van Halen on Beat It Michael said okay I'm going to hold it for the next record and he would call me all the time he was in remember he was in the Middle East like living for a while and he'd call me and and just to talk and then we would talk about the
song He's like I love that song I can't wait to put it out I'm going to put on the next record and then he passed and then they made that Michael album and it got put on that record but I'm really proud of the track the track is beautiful he sang his ass off cuz he could produce himself I mean he he was that human being right who knew his way
through every element of the creative process so to sort of be of any influence in that environment with him must have been he wanted me to write a song for him produce it yeah he said you come up with it I had a matter of days to do it I had nothing and it came I recorded it finished the track played the instruments got it together he came in uh I wrote the words down for him and
I um I had a dummy vocal on there that I kept playing to him to him and uh he went in the vocal pooth and he said uh you you stop me when I don't do it right he just learned the song so you know anybody would be you know not remembering everything at first and I thought how am I going to push this button and tell Michael Jackson to stop singing but you know we got into it we
had we had a lot of fun yeah um I laugh so much with him he's super funny and uh a perfectionist and a gift of an experience what a life I mean there is something to be said about you know allowing the universe to do its work if you show passion for the Arts and what somebody does then inevitably if you're lucky you'll find your way into their
sphere and you know you touch on that on the new album fact the album starts like that I mean you know just another fine day right in this Universal this IDE of letting of giving over to that how do you practice that because it's a feeling but but in order for it to be truly effective it is a discipline it requires you I believe to commit to that which is a process letting go yeah
and the most important one and letting God as that as they say in that phrase um acceptance knowing what's important knowing what you can change and what you can't uh staying in gratitude regardless of the situation um because in the scheme of the universe how small are we no matter what's going on if you back up far enough it's just another fine day in
this universe the universe is going to continue we got to get our together we have to learn how to coexist we have to learn how to work together we have to learn how to settle disputes with without violence we have to learn how to deal with each other you've never shied away from those subjects in your music it's great that people want to go and dance
to to your at your shows and sing along and pump their fist and close their eyes and get lost in these in these songs that really are predominantly focused on the idea of spreading love absolutely that is your Mantra you've honored it all the way through from the beginning but even on your first album you know Mr cab driver you have no problem calling out what you
no in your music that's what the music's for somehow it's been this way I've been consistent as far as I'm concerned my music is to amplify love that's it and that that's my commitment and it's natural it's not something that I'm thinking about I'm saying this is what I do and so this I'm going to stick to it no it's just it I can't help it it's
what I do you clearly have gotten to a point in your life now where you are hyperfocused on your physical and mental spirit wellbeing absolutely M we were joking upstairs about the pull-up King yeah well you know in my mind you are just walking past a gym and there's just a bit of equipment I had no I had to go meet my trainer right I had an hour so the way I work you know when
we have time when we can match up I got to do whatever I got to do oh I can take you now or where are you okay boom I go I don't care what I'm wearing right I I've worked out in everything um yeah now if I'm doing cardio no I'm going to put on something that I can sweat in sure if I'm lifting weights uh they the pants and big boots I don't I don't
sweat so much I show up in what I show up in and uh it's funny because uh I also train with professional athletes uh NFL players major league baseball players wrestlers boxers they'll see me come in in some jeans and boots and like you know one of those shirts that my daughter talks about you know that was brilliant and they they laugh we're going to work out with him wearing that
and then I destroy you've always taken care of your of your physical well-being but your energy is amazing you you will literally be turning 60 I mean it's it's coinciding I don't know if that was by Design the release of the album no no just worked up you're going to celebrate absolutely going to have a pot every 10 years I do and it's going to be lovely
and for me me it's more about celebrating the people that make my life that's what I'm celebrating and the fact that we're still here and so blessed and healthy have options uh have food on the table and and and shelter and you know friends and it's a lot so uh I'm going to celebrate life uh gratitude and thank God for for uh where I am