Lenny Kravitz has revealed that record companies often turned him away during the early part of his career, saying his brand of psychedelic funk rock "wasn't black enough."
Variety magazine quotes the four-time Grammy winner as saying: "I just knew that I was singing and performing my truth. This was a time right after everybody in the music industry was telling me that I couldn't do this sort of thing. I would take my music around to the labels, and I would get the whole 'It's not black enough' [response].
Wanting to do his thing, Kravitz, whose mother was a Bahamian-American actress and whose father, of Ukrainian Jewish descent, said he rejected deals that insisted on changes in his music.
Speaking about his debut album Let Love Rule, he said he borrowed money and went to the cheapest studios. When the situation turned bad, he even had to resort to living in his car, he told the magazine.
Let Love Rule and the 1991 follow-up Mama Said established Kravitz as a recording star.
The singer is currently on a world tour promoting his 11th studio album, Raise Vibration.
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