15 November 2013
Newsdesk
Lenny Kravitz has only ever let his life get out of control "a little bit".
The musician-and-actor formerly enjoyed partying and used to have a member of staff employed to roll him marijuana cigarettes. The 49-year-old star has now mellowed and focuses on working out and eating healthily.
"I eat some meat every now again but it has to be organic and grass-fed," he told British newspaper The Times. "There were some wild times. But I didn’t let it get out of control. Well, maybe a little bit. But I reeled it in. I’m balanced now. I’m chill."
Lenny portrays flamboyant Cinna in The Hunger Games movies, the second instalment of which, Catching Fire, is out this month. It's brought him a huge new fan base, with the star joking many are oblivious to his back catalogue.
"These kids come to me and they have no idea about my musical career," he said.
Lenny went to Beverly Hills High School in California, which is famed for the amount of stars who attended. When studying, it was music and not film which really captured the star's attention. He wasn't in the drama club and never made it on to stage.
"I played in the band," he said. "I would be in the pits with the orchestra playing percussion. We did a production of Oklahoma! and I looked up on stage and it was Nicolas Coppola, who later became Nicolas Cage. So I wasn’t acting in high school. Not on the stage at least.”
Lenny ended up leaving school early because he was so adamant his future was in music. He even changed his name in a bid to be recognised, going by Romeo Blue for a while.
"It just felt ridiculous. I was searching and experimenting until I said to myself, ‘You know what? I’m Lenny Kravitz. I’ve got to deal with that.’ I thought it was the most un-rock ‘n’ roll name you can have. ‘Lenny Kravitz?’ It doesn’t make any sense. So I took my name back and here we are," he explained.
