Creating a new Deluxe Edition of his platinum 1991 sophomore album “Mama Said” — which comes out June 5 — sent Lenny Kravitz back to a time when the rocker says “my world was just spinning.”
Just
off touring to support his debut album, “Let Love Rule,” Kravitz
tells Billboard.com that, “It was a crazy time. My ex-wife (actress
Lisa Bonet, who he divorced in 1993) and I were going through
issues. I just had my child the year before (‘Let Love Rule’ came
out). I was adjusting to success and…fame. It was a lot to deal
with. I ended up kind of going into hibernation, ’cause at that
point I went through a pretty serious depression. I just let all
these feelings out onto the songs. It was very cathartic for me.”
The
venting struck a chord with Kravitz’s burgeoning audience, of
course. “Mama” made it to No. 39 on the Billboard 200 but more
importantly gave Kravitz a No. 2 Hot 100 single in “It Ain’t Over
’til It’s Over” and a Top 10 Alternative Rock hit in “Always on the
Run,” with guitar by high school pal Slash. “That changed things,”
he notes. “That was the first time I would walk outside and hear the
songs coming out of people’s cars and out of stores in New York
City. I was happy about that; I grew up wanting to get a record deal
and make records people listened to, and now it was happening. But
it did change the perspective.”
