Lenny Kravitz Looks Back on "Let Love Rule" Backstage in New York

Rolling Stone recently caught up with Lenny Kravitz backstage at New York's Fillmore at Irving Plaza, where the rocker performed a residency of five sold-out nights in celebration of the 20th anniversary of his debut album. "It's been 20 years now since I made Let Love Rule, and for me the record is still just as fresh as it was when I made it," Kravitz tells RS. "When I hear a recording, I can remember everything about my life at that time. It all comes back."

Kravitz says the album still sounds fresh because he went about recording Let Love Rule in an "organic way." "It doesn't have the sound of a certain era," Kravitz says, and the album does have a timeless quality — it certainly doesn't sound like it was recorded in 1989, and even Kravitz admits it doesn't fit into the archetype of what black men were recording two decades ago. "I've never fit in," Kravitz said. "I was supposed to be the an angry black man. I remember when I first started doing interviews, the big question was 'Why aren't you doing hip-hop?' "

For more on Kravitz, including his inspirations and his in-progress new album Negrophilia, be sure to watch our interview above and check out our Close-Up on Kravitz in our new new issue.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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