Lenny Kravitz returns to the UK in 2009 to play series of small dates at O2 Academy venues around the country
Lenny Kravitz tickets are on sale from 9am on Friday 13th February.

There may have been other “retro” rock acts before him, but Lenny Kravitz was one of the first to not be pigeonholed to a single style as he touched upon such genres as soul, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk, and ballads over the years. He looked back to such ’60s/’70s classic rockers such as Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Bob Marley, and the Beatles for inspiration. Kravitz found a kindred spirit in engineer Henry Hirsch (who would stick by Kravitz throughout his career). With a back-to-basics approach, his style was quite refreshing in the humorously gaudy late ’80s.

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He inked a recording contract with Virgin Records and issued his debut release, “Let Love Rule”, in 1989 which included, “Mama Said”, and the Led Zep-like funk rocker “Always on the Run” (a collaboration with Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash), as well as the mega hit with the Curtis Mayfield-esque soul ballad “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over”, which confirmed that Kravitz’s success was no fluke.

But the best was yet to come for Kravitz. His third release, 1993’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way”,
is often considered to be the finest album front to back of his entire career, and with good reason: Every single song was a winner, including the up-tempo anthemic title track, which turned out to be one of MTV’s most played videos for that year. The album was a massive hit and Kravitz became an arena headliner stateside, as well as being featured on countless magazine covers.

Despite an almost two-year gap between albums, it was Kravitz’s fourth release, Circus, that spawed the biggest hit of Kravitz’s career, “Fly Away”, almost a year after its original release. With the single’s success, Virgin decided to cash in on the album’s sudden rebirth by reissuing it around the same time with a pair of extra added bonus tracks, one of which became another sizeable hit single, a remake of the Guess Who’s “American Woman” (which was used in the hit 1999 comedy movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me).

Kravitz’s first best-of set, the 15-track Greatest Hits, was issued as a stopgap release in 2000, while his sixth studio release overall, Lenny, was issued a year later. Kravitz’s last album, released in 2008 was “It Is Time for a Love Revolution”.