I think it’d be a real nightmare to put a record out and sell 20 million copies and then that’s it.

Meaning of the quote

The musician Lenny Kravitz thinks it would be a terrible experience to release a new album that sells 20 million copies, but then that's all that happens. He's saying that he wouldn't want to just have one big hit and then nothing else after that. Kravitz wants to keep making music and connecting with his fans over a long career, not just have one huge success and then be done.

About Lenny Kravitz

Lenny Kravitz is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who has had a successful music career spanning over three decades. He is known for his unique blend of rock, funk, reggae, soul, and R&B, and has won several Grammy Awards for his outstanding vocal performances. Kravitz has also dabbled in acting, appearing in films such as Precious and The Hunger Games series.

More about the author

More quotes from Lenny Kravitz

I couldn’t tell you what I am going to do next ’cause I have no idea, but I am open to anything.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

It’s like a dream to come to Spain and stay for a couple of years and get somebody to teach me Spanish music.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

My dream is to become a farmer. Just a Bohemian guy pulling up his own sweet potatoes for dinner.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

The image that the public gets is whatever they perceive it to be. Everybody has an opinion, everybody has their own vision, so I don’t know what my public image is. I have no idea.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

God forbid you sing about love. It’s a lost concept.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

Oasis are not just influenced by the Beatles; they actually take stuff. Then they get praised.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I am trying to get closer to God.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

For the last few years, it’s been so chic for everybody to be miserable. Like if you’re in with the cool crowd, you can’t be happy.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

My mother gave lots of good advice and had a lot to say. As you get older, you realize everything she said was true.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I never sit down to write. When I’m moved, I do it. I just wait for it to come. You just hear it. I can’t really describe writing. It’s in my head.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

A lot of people pretty much only listen to the chorus.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I am not trying to change the world. I am just offering my gift that God gave me, and if somebody is moved by it, that’s beautiful.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I mean, there are only so many notes. What makes something original is how you put it together.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

When I was a kid and I bought a record, I ripped that thing open, I wanted to know who was playing what, what studio it was cut at, who was the string arranger, who was the engineer.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

The story that I wanna tell is pretty much about the way I grew up. Being bi-racial, growing up in a big city and being an artist.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I’m always sort of reflecting on what I do on what I’ve done. Usually before I make a new album, I’ll listen to the previous albums just to see where I’ve been.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

Music is my life, it is a reflection of what I go through.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

My career has been a gradual climb. I think that’s part of the reason why I’ve had longevity.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I wouldn’t play together with someone who likes to control everything like me.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

There are so many people that don’t believe in themselves and don’t have faith.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I’ve always been into films. I’ve been offered lots of films but they’ve always been these very stereotypical roles. They wanted me to play some gangster or street guy, or pimp, drug addict.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

The loyalty rate isn’t that high. I could have a big hit, then put out the next single, and they say, Oh yeah, who are you? Prove it again.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I knew what I wanted to do from the time I was 5.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I’m half Jewish, I’m half black, I look in-between. I dress funny. I play all these different styles of music on one record. It’s like, What is he doing?

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

My first guitar, a Fender Jazz Master, I traded it in for a Les Paul Deluxe.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I was taught by my grandfather that anything that your mind can conceive, you can have. It’s a reality.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

You’re never promised your next breath.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I identify with women more than men. I guess I have a strong feminine side.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

That’s a big gift when people say to you that a song helped them or brought them to some place in their life where they needed to be.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I don’t play the tuba.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

It was amazing to me that, all of a sudden, I was hearing my music on the radio and coming out of cars.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

Change is growth. For me it has been a very spiritual and musical rebirth.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

It’s very important to vote. People died for this right.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

People see my photos and think I labor over my image and I’m this cool, brooding artist. But I’m just having fun with it.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

If you listen to a lot of old funk records, the drums are really small. But you don’t perceive it like that because the groove is so heavy.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I don’t think about the styles. I write whatever comes out and I use whatever kind of instrumentation works for those songs.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I am still into the people I listened to growing up, so I completely remember what is like to be a fan, I haven’t changed.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

Today, people are more into the glitz and the glamour of everything. We don’t even read the inside of records anymore.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I’ve woken up from dreams and the whole song is there. I’m listening to it in my dreams. I consciously have to wake myself up and get a tape recorder because I hear it like a record.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

A lot of people don’t listen to the lyrics, really.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

If you ask a hundred people, they all give you different answers.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

The image is an image.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

If I were white, I’d get less criticism.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

God gave me the gift to be able to play instruments and I have to play.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I knew Slash in high school, but not very well. Just knew him as this kid that used to hang out in the hallway. Pretty much looked then the way he does now.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I’ve had to work very hard, and I don’t really have a category or fit into any niche, so each time I come out with a new record, it’s like, I’m a new guy.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I just need to know that I did the very best I could and that I was true to myself.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

You can be around 100 people and be completely alone. People don’t realize what it’s really like.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

We’re getting so pulled in by computers and technology, and our kids have their face in the computers all day. The human relationship is being diminished by this.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I’m more hungry now than I was 11 years ago. Which is great because I see a lot of artists that have been out for a long period of time. They get kind of fat.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I have a great time with my band and on the stage we get along well.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

Confusion makes people uncomfortable. They can’t put their finger on me.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

A dramatic thing, the first time you stand up to your dad.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I made the record that my life had me make. Each one is like a diary.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

There’s definitely an old school element to my music, but I also think it’s modern.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I’ve been compared to hundreds of artists, which just goes to show you that I’m not any one thing at all.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

If I had to associate myself with one song, it would probably be Let Love Rule. It’s so simple and to the point. It speaks for itself.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I wasn’t the kind of person that liked waiting for autographs or following them, I just liked to go to the shows, study their records, driving many, many hours to different states to go to concerts.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

God is always in my life, and that’s the most important thing to me.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

Every night is different, you never know what it’s going to be like. I remember every night. I don’t like to compare them.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I’m in this for the long haul. I’ve been making music my whole life.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

We weren’t put here to be miserable. We were put here to do the best we can, and we should take our energy and improve our state of being.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I think it’d be a real nightmare to put a record out and sell 20 million copies and then that’s it.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

I feel like I’m only in the beginning of my career. I’ve only made five albums. It’s not a lot.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

It’s a trip to have a Greatest Hits record. It’s a trip.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)

They think I’m being serious when actually I’m a very big clown. But you have to know me to see that. I’m constantly cracking up and cracking everybody else around me up.

Lenny Kravitz

American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor (born 1964)