I just woke up and I’m blown away by the news. This man changed my life. I’d have to write a book to describe what he meant to me. I would not be here without his influence on my life. The fact that I got to know him and make music with him is a blessing from God in the highest order. What he gave the world with his art is immeasurable. My deepest condolences go out to the family. Rest sweetly dear David.
Lenny Kravitz Reveals the Reason ‘People Are Blown Away’ by the Bahamas
“It’s my country,” the star has said. “I’m so proud of the Bahamas. It is a magical place.”
The Bahamas has a new ambassador — though many people might not associate him with the Bahamas at all.
But let’s be clear. Lenny Kravitz — archetypal, leather-pants-wearing, immensely influential rock star — is a through-and-through Bahamian. And at least in the Bahamas, everyone knows it. His mother, actor Roxie Roker, was first-generation Bahamian-American, and he has spent his recent years living on the archipelago — on a plot of land he bought back in 1989, on the skinny, 112-mile-long island of Eleuthera.
Kravitz recently made a stateside appearance to announce his partnership with Bahamas tourism on their latest marketing campaign, speaking on a panel with Minister of Tourism Dionisio D’Aguilar and Ministry Director General Joy Jibrilu. “It’s an honor, after all these years,” he told them, “after being raised as a proud Bahamian by my mother, my grandfather, my cousins — it’s an honor to be here representing my country.”
After the the event, Travel + Leisure was able to sit down with Kravitz for an exclusive interview. Read on for more of the star’s thoughts on his island home.
His roots in the Bahamas run deep.
Although he grew up in New York and Los Angeles, Kravitz reaffirmed during the panel, “the Bahamas has been in my soul, and in my life, since I was a small child.”
“I had my Bahamian training,” he continued. “I would go to Nassau every summer with my mother…we would land, and that door would open, and you would feel that air coming through — that tropical air, the humidity — and it was incredible. You’d get greeted by a steel band.”
