A Quote by Lenny Kravitz

I've always had to deal with being biracial, even in music. When I came on the scene, I'd go to these record labels, and they'd say things like, "Lenny Kravitz. That's a weird name." I'm brown-skinned and I've got these dreadlocks and I've got this Jewish last name.

Lenny Kravitz

Quote Topics

Always Being Biracial Brown Came Deal Dreadlocks Even Go Got Had Jewish Labels Last Lenny Like Music Name Record Record Label Record Labels Say Scene Things Weird

Quote Author

Lenny Kravitz
American - Musician
Born: May 26, 1964

I went to so many record labels - name any one - and they all turned me down. For some reason I just got the thumbs down for years and years. It sounds like I'm making that up, but it's true. I'm too serious about music and my creations to take just any kind of deal. There were a couple of companies that wanted to put me with a producer, and I said, "Well, I just produced my last album," and I wasn't about to go backwards.

Shuggie Otis

When I say my work is travel, that's what I'm doing. And part of being biracial and multicultural is I'm always playing with genre and genre expectations. So even if I say I'm doing straight memoir, you'll see that I'm doing weird stuff with the structure. I've got images, I've got lyrics, and I've got journalism. I really try to not get stuck in genre expectations.

Faith Adiele

Dad's Jewish and Irish, Mom's German and Scotch. I couldn't say I was anything. My last name isn't even Downey. My dad changed his name when he wanted to get into the Army and was underage. My real name is Robert Elias. I feel like I'm still looking for a home in some way.

Robert Downey, Jr.

My mom's last name is Bob. My dad's last name is Waksberg. Every time I try to get a ticket at will call, they say last name. And I say, Bob-Waksberg. And I see them looking under W. I go, no, Bob-Waksberg. And they go, no, last name. And I go no, my last name is Bob-Waksberg.

Raphael Bob-Waksberg

I've never talked about being Jewish in a promo ever. But my name is just so blatantly a Jewish name. It's not like my name is Maxwell Jacob Smith.

Maxwell Jacob Friedman

Barack Obama was speaking to a Jewish group, and he told them that his name Barack is the same as the Jewish word 'baruch,' which means one who's blessed. That's what he said, yeah. Obama had a harder time explaining his middle name, Hussein. Things got quiet there.

Conan O'Brien

When I first came to New York I was a dancer, and a French record label offered me a recording contract and I had to go to Paris to do it. So I went there and that's how I really got into the music business. But I didn't like what I was doing when I got there, so I left, and I never did a record there.

Madonna Ciccone

My real name is Chord Overstreet. I actually got my name because my dad is in the music business as a songwriter. I was the third one in my family born, and there are three notes in a chord, so that's how they came up with my name.

Chord Overstreet

It is true you can be successful without [college], but this is a hard world, a real world, and you want every advantage you can have. I would suggest to people to do all that you can. When I dropped out of school, I had worked in the music industry and had checks cut in my name from record labels and had a record deal on the table, and when I wasn’t successful and Columbia said, ’We’ll call you,’ I had to go back and work a telemarketing job, go back to the real world, and that’s how life is. Life is hard. Take advantage of your opportunities.

Kanye West

I had a good start. I did a record with Beyonce. I did a record with Lenny Kravitz. I put out my second collection of music and then my second collection of clothes.

Saint Jhn

The name Air Supply sort of came from nowhere. I get a lot of my things in dreams and I just had a dream about it one night, and I woke up and said that's just got to be the name. That was in 1975.

Graham Russell

Lenny Kravitz was the biggest gentleman on set. He always helped the ladies, like by pulling out the chair for them. If we were both walking, he would always stop and let me go before him-little things like that.

Willow Shields

I started training wrestling in the pre-social media era and I was very cautious - I thought, 'I can't have people know my real last name.' So I changed my last name to End because I always called myself 'The End.' I thought that was cool. I thought I'd take my real first name and my 'fake' last name, and that's how I came up with Tommy End.

Aleister Black

I became part of a drag family, which is where I got part of my last name, Davenport, from. I got the name Sahara from one of my favorite performers at that time, Sierra. I was like, 'I'm black, so I should be the African one, Sahara.'

Sahara Davenport

We humans have had from time unknown the compulsion to name things and thus to be able to deal with them. The name we give to something shapes our attitude toward it. And in ancient thought the name itself has power, so that to know someone's name is to have a certain power over him. And in some societies, as you know, there was a public name and a real or secret name, which would not be revealed to others.