More Lenny Kravitz Asshattery (with bonus CanCon!)

Lenny Kravitz says Guess Who’s American Woman still relevant
By Angela Pacienza
TORONTO (CP) — Five years after he made the Guess Who’s American Woman a smash hit again, Lenny Kravitz says the song is more relevant than ever — only most people have no idea what it’s about.
“It’s a very appropriate song right now. It’s an anti-war song,” he said in a recent telephone interview prior to announcing his North American tour dates, including one stop in Toronto on Sept. 15.
Unfortunately, he says, most young people are usually more consumed with the chorus than absorbing any message from the lyrics.
“They don’t get it. People don’t listen like you think they do. It’s weird,” said the 40-year-old singer. “You play that song in America and they’re like ‘Yeah, American Woman!’ I always think ‘You guys realize what this song’s about?’ It’s pretty funny.”
Playing it to an understanding Canadian audience is among the reasons Kravitz says it was important for him to include at least one Canadian stop on his tour.
“I eventually want to do a whole run of Canada like when I did Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. I haven’t done that in years.”
This tour, says Kravitz, is shaping up to be extra special.
“This is probably the best tour I’ve done in a long, long time as far as how I’m feeling and how I’m connecting with the audience,” said Kravitz of the shows to promote his latest release Baptism. “I’m just in a really good place.”
Now that he’s on the road — Kravitz recently finished dates in Japan and Europe — he doesn’t have to contend with the paparazzi circus that followed him around earlier in the year when he was romantically linked with Nicole Kidman.
“I’m not a celebrity. I’m a musician. I’m an artist,” he said forcefully. “If I happen to be out with somebody and they catch me in a photograph ... there’s nothing I can do about it. They have the right, unfortunately, to lie and to invade your life.”
While Kravitz is known to have a life of decadence, including lavish homes in the Bahamas, New Orleans and Miami, he says he makes sure to avoid celebrity circles.
“You don’t see me at the opening of every letter. I’m not about that.”
He wrote about his distaste of star culture in the song Flash on the Baptism record.
“It’s about people that live for the attention and the limelight, being on the red carpet, being in front of the cameras but don’t really have any substance,” he said. “We live in a culture where everybody wants to be famous but what does that mean? Does that mean you’re good at something? Does that mean you’re blessed with talent? No. You can be famous for anything today. It has nothing to do with substance.”
Kravitz will be showing off his substance on stage by playing drums, bass and piano on top of his lead vocal job.
The rocker recently bought a trumpet and hopes to master the valves by the end of the tour with the help of his travelling percussion section.
That’ll help with his next project, a funk record he’d started working on last year but changed direction midway to write Baptism instead.
“I didn’t finish it because I was inspired to do this,” he said. “It was just something that needed to come out now for me creatively. (The funk record) will come out next.”