Leonard Albert Kravitz, known to most as Lenny Kravitz, was born on May 26, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York. An only child, Kravitz is the product of an interracial marriage. His father, Sy Kravitz, is Jewish; his mother, Roxie Roker, who died of cancer in 1995, was African American.

It took Kravitz time to find a record label that could market an artist who stirred everything from psychedelic rock and funk to R&B and hard rock into a deliciously retro but entirely fresh stew.

His mother came from a Christian family that was of African-American and Bahamian descent. Kravitz's father was of Russian-Jewish origin.