Lenny Kravitz

Leonard Albert Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and actor.

Born in New York to TV news producer Sy Kravitz and actress Roxie Roker, Kravitz was exposed to the entertainment industry at a young age.

Kravitz grew up in a musically diverse environment, without a religious upbringing.

His childhood was split between Manhattan and Brooklyn, leading to his early passion for music, inspired by several genres and seeing The Jackson 5 live.

Leonard Albert Kravitz was born on May 26, 1964 in New York City, the only child of NBC television news producer Sy Kravitz (1924–2005) and actress Roxie Roker (1929–1995).

His mother came from a Christian family that was of African-American and Bahamian descent.

Kravitz's father was of Russian-Jewish origin.

Through his mother, Kravitz is a second cousin of television weather presenter Al Roker as their grandfathers were brothers.

He 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.

During his early years, Kravitz did not grow up in a religious environment.

After a spiritual experience when he was 13, he started attending church and later became a non-denominational Christian.

Kravitz grew up spending weekdays on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with his parents, attending P.S. 6 for elementary school, and spending weekends at his grandmother Bessie's house in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.

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

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

He began playing the drums and soon added guitar.

He grew up listening to the music his parents listened to: R&B, jazz, classical, opera, gospel, and blues.

He said, "My parents were very supportive of the fact that I loved music early on, and they took me to a lot of shows."

Around the age of seven, he saw the Jackson 5 perform at Madison Square Garden, and they became his favorite performers.

His father, who was also 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, Kravitz relocated to Los Angeles with his parents when his mother landed her role on The Jeffersons.

At his mother's urging, he joined the California Boys Choir for three years, where he performed a classical repertoire, and sang with the Metropolitan Opera.

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

It was in Los Angeles that Kravitz was introduced to rock music, listening to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Kiss, Pink Floyd, and the Who, and he said he was "attracted to the cool style, the girls, the rock 'n' roll lifestyle."

During his junior high school years, he was also introduced to marijuana; he has stated that he was a "pothead" during his youth.

His other musical influences at the time included Fela Kuti, Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, Pharoah Sanders, and Miles Davis.

Later influences came in the form of John Lennon and Bob Marley.

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

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

His parents divorced in 1985.

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

With record labels still telling him his music was not "black enough" or "white enough," Kravitz decided to record an album on his own under the name Romeo Blue.

Despite the challenges of being classified by record labels, Kravitz persisted with his 1989 debut album "Let Love Rule."

This debut marked the beginning of a career characterized by a blend of rock, funk, reggae, hard rock, soul, and R&B.

Kravitz has had hit singles, including "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over" (1991) and "Again" (2000), each of which reached the top 10 on the Billboard Top 100 chart; other hits include "Let Love Rule" (1989), "Always on the Run" (1991), "Are You Gonna Go My Way" (1993), "Fly Away" (1998), and "American Woman" (1999), each of which reached the top 10 on the Alternative Airplay chart.

His other albums include "Mama Said," and "Are You Gonna Go My Way."

Kravitz has won several awards, including the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, which he received 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 performer.

He has won other awards, including American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Radio Music Awards, Brit Awards, and Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.

Kravitz has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and was ranked 93 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".

Aside from his music career, Kravitz has ventured into acting, with appearances in films including Precious (2009) and the first two The Hunger Games film series (2012–13).

He has also set-up Kravitz Design Inc. Kravitz's personal life has been marked by his marriage to Lisa Bonet, with whom he has a daughter, and relationships with prominent figures in the entertainment industry.