Leonard Albert Kravitz was born in the New York City borough of Manhatta on May 26, 1964, the only child of actress Roxie Roker (1929–1995) and NBC television news producer Sy Kravitz (1924–2005). His mother came from a Christian family of African-American and Bahamian descent. His father descended from Russian and Ukrainian Jews,[a] with one of his great-grandfathers hailing from Kiev. Through his mother, Kravitz is a second cousin of television weather presenter Al Roker as their grandfathers were brothers.During his early years, Kravitz did not grow up in a religious environment.[9] After a spiritual experience when he was 13, he started attending church and later became a non-denominational Christian.
Kravitz’s father was a Green Beret, while his uncle, Leonard M. Kravitz, was a Private First Class. Kravitz would be named after Leonard, who was killed in action in the Korean War at the age of 19 while defending against a Chinese attack, saving most of his platoon in the process; he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross but was denied the Medal of Honor.[15] In 2014, he posthumously received the Medal of Honor in a ceremony that awarded it to 23 other servicemen who were passed over because of their ethnicity.[16] Kravitz grew up spending weekdays on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with his parents, attending P.S. 6 for elementary school, and weekends at his grandmother Bessie’s house in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Kravitz began banging on pots and pans in the kitchen, playing them as drums at the age of three. He decided that wanted to be a musician at the age of five. He began playing the drums and soon added guitar. He grew up listening to the music his parents listened to: R&B, jazz, classical, opera, gospel, and blues. He said, “My parents were very supportive of the fact that I loved music early on, and they took me to a lot of shows.”[17][18] Around the age of seven, he saw The Jacksons perform at Madison Square Garden, and they became his favorite performers.[19] His father, who was also a jazz promoter, was friends with Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Short, Miles Davis, and other jazz greats; Ellington even played “Happy Birthday” for him on his fifth birthday.[20][21][22] He was exposed to the soul music of Motown, Stax, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight, The Isley Brothers, and Gamble and Huff while growing up, who were key influences on his musical style. Kravitz often went to see New York theater, where his mother worked, and she encouraged his dreams of pursuing music.
In 1974, Kravitz relocated to Los Angeles with his parents when his mother landed her role on The Jeffersons. At his mother’s urging, he joined the California Boys Choir for three years, where he performed a classical repertoire, and sang with the Metropolitan Opera. He took part in Mahler’s Third Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl. It was in Los Angeles that Kravitz was first introduced to rock music, listening to The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Creedence Clearwater Revival, KISS, Pink Floyd, and The Who,[19] and he said he was “attracted to the cool style, the girls, the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.”[19] His other musical influences at the time included Fela Kuti, Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, Pharoah Sanders, and Miles Davis.[19] Later influences came in the form of John Lennon and Bob Marley. Kravitz attended Beverly Hills High School, where he was classmates with Maria McKee, Nicolas Cage, and Slash. In 1978, he was accepted into the school’s well-respected music program. He taught himself to play piano and bass and made friends with Zoro, who would later become his long-time collaborator.[23] Kravitz wanted to be a session musician, and also appeared as an actor in television commercials during this time. His parents divorced in 1985, which had a profound impact on him. His relationship with his father became very strained,[24] and he focused on his music to help him get through this period.
