Lenny Kravitz loves “the communion with the audience” while on tour

ABC/Randy Holmes

Lenny Kravitz is known for putting on a spectacular live show, so it’s no surprise he says it was a concert he went to when he was young that made him realize he wanted to make music a career.

Kravitz tells ABC Audio his first concert ever was the Jackson 5 at Madison Square Garden in New York in the early ’70s. It really convinced him music was what he should be doing, noting, “After that night, my life was never the same. I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

Lenny, who released the new album Blue Electric Light earlier this year, says for him, getting to play live is all about the people who come to his shows.

He shares that his favorite thing about performing is “the communion with the audience, being with the audience, being with the people that support you, that have made it possible for this music to live.”

Lenny has seen lots of fellow musicians in concert and while he does get inspired by what he sees, he doesn’t necessarily use that inspiration when planning what he’ll do onstage.

“I don’t really think about other artists when I’m preparing for something like this,” he says. “I’m just trying to represent the time and be, you know, as strong as I can be and to be as open as I can be to really share this experience with the people.” 

Kravitz in on tour overseas through August. So far his only U.S. shows are a five-night residency at the Dolby Live in Las Vegas in October. A complete list of dates can be found at lennykravitz.com.

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