Quote Of The Day By Lenny Kravitz: 'I Wasn't Comfortable Being Myself Yet ...'

Few musicians can claim the career and icon status that Lenny Kravitz has amassed. The rock star was performing music at only 11 years old; he'd quickly become a multi-instrumentalist, partly as his attention excitedly roved from one instrument to another, and partly because he'd already wanted to be a musician for years.

These early musical interests would pay off when Kravitz signed with Virgin Records and released "Let Love Rule" in 1989, which was his first charting song and cemented his legacy in stone. Throughout his career, Kravitz was nominated for nine Grammys and won four for best rock vocals. In 2024, he won the Music Icon award at the People's Choice Awards.

As of mid-2026, this absolute rock star has released several multi-platinum albums, with total sales exceeding 40 million, and has nearly 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone. Kravitz has seen his "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over" and "Again" peak in the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and his "Greatest Hits" album take the No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200. Kravitz has even branched into acting, with appearances in the Hunger Games franchise and "The Butler," and he's a frequent flyer on "hottest man" lists. And all of this — his status as a rock and cultural icon, his top-tier musical talent, and his climb to success — is why Kravitz is today's quote of the day.

"I wasn't comfortable being myself yet, and I thought Lenny Kravitz was the most ridiculous name for anybody trying to make music."

Lenny Kravitz delivered this quote in Paris during a 2014 interview with Classic Rock. During the interview, Kravitz said he wanted to make a career of music since he was a small child, as if he knew he had a path to follow. He also discussed how he went by the name "Romeo Blue" for a time, shirking "Lenny Kravitz," as well as the issues he faced breaking into the music industry.

While this quote might look like a personal identity crisis on the surface, in the context of the broader interview, it shows a professional struggle where Kravitz's identity — and the musical style influenced by his identity — strained against the '80s music industry's preconceived and segregated genre categorization; a struggle his identity was part of.

During the Classic Rock interview, the rock icon Lenny Kravitz talks about musicians during the '80s going by flamboyant names, suggesting that his own alter ego was a way of trying to fit a sort of pre-planned blueprint for becoming successful. But this particular quote gets deeper the further you dive into the context.

Kravitz himself didn't think his name was particularly rock 'n' roll, yet the core of the quote ties into how his music and identity were perceived by the music industry at large. Because Kravitz's mother, Roxie Roker, was Black and his father was Jewish, he and his music didn't fit the neat little box the record labels, radio stations, and listeners expected it to. Kravitz outright said, "I either wasn't black enough or wasn't white enough. [His music] was rock but it was funky, it was R&B but it was too rock," and that he was stuck in the middle of a musical landscape and messed-up '80s music industry that was divided along racial lines.

Anyone facing the same issues would likewise have a hard time being comfortable with themselves, and since one's name is so intimately tied to their identity, trying to imitate successful musicians could easily seem like the right way forward. And that's where the real truth of this Kravitz line lies.

• "I think my past recordings are wonderful, but my head is in the future."

• "My life is totally consumed with the creation of music."

• "I'm attracted to people who have a style nothing to do with what I like, but that's authentic to them."

• "I'm still learning to trust myself and my artistic vision. Hopefully, all of us can do that our whole lives"

• "I like to mix things that are very grounding with very glamorous elements. But that balance has to be right."

• "I try to keep a bit of home within my spirit always."

• "I just love using different mediums to express myself."