Let Love Rule - Lenny Kravitz Page 0,77

my chest. I alternated between sleeping, dreaming, and staring at this tiny creature in my arms. As the days went on, Lisa and I deliberated on dozens of names until, one evening, Lisa looked at our baby and said, “This child is life. In Greek, Zoë means life. I believe her name is Zoë.”

BECOMING A VIRGIN

Back to the grind. I played my new songs for everyone. One of the first to hear them was Steve Smith, a Midwesterner connected to both Mom and Lisa. He’d started out as a wardrobe assistant on The Jeffersons and was now music supervisor on A Different World. I’d known Steve since I was a child, and when he said he loved my music, on a whim I asked him to manage me. It didn’t matter to me that he’d never managed before. I trusted my instinct, and I trusted him.

Steve got us meetings at major labels. Carol Childs headed up A&R at Elektra, the label that was just breaking Tracy Chapman. Carol liked what she heard but said she needed to hear me live, with my band. Well, I didn’t have a band. I explained that these were songs that I’d written, produced, and sung, playing all the instruments. Wasn’t that enough to figure out if I merited a deal? Apparently not. Elektra passed.

So did other labels. Some executives said the music wasn’t Black enough, while others said it wasn’t white enough. What the hell did that mean?

I didn’t know how to categorize this music any more than I knew how to categorize myself. I dreaded the prospect of going around town from office to office, playing my stuff for execs who just didn’t get it.

After weeks of rejections, Steve got us an appointment with Nancy Jeffries, A&R director at Richard Branson’s Virgin America, a relatively new label, on Alden Drive in Beverly Hills. Nancy lived in New York and spent weekdays in L.A. When we arrived at 4 p.m., she said she was on her way to the airport and had only five minutes. She urged us to hurry up.

I pulled the cassette out and played “Let Love Rule.”

Nancy listened carefully. When the song was over, she told us to wait right there. She left the room and then returned seconds later with Jeff Ayeroff, one of the label heads. She told me to play the song for Jeff.

I pushed the button and, like Nancy, Jeff was attentive. When the song was over, he asked if I’d mind playing it a third time. No problem. He called his partner Jordan Harris into the room. I pushed the button again. Nancy, Jeff, and Jordan were all in sync. They liked what they heard.

Nancy wanted to know if I had another song, so I played “Be.” Jeff passed a note to Jordan. He later showed me he’d written, “Prince meets John Lennon.”

Nancy said she had to run to the airport, but that Jeff and Jordan knew what to do.

What did that mean?

Jeff made it plain. They wanted to sign me. He wasn’t sure how he’d market this music or even whether the music would sell. He was sure, though, that the music was real.

I was stunned. I didn’t expect this.

I shook their hands and walked out in a daze.

That night, back on Milwood, we partied. Not wanting to get champagne all over the house, Steve and I jumped in the shower and sprayed each other with a bottle of Dom Perignon until we were soaked. Lisa caught it all on camera.

The following week, though, things got complicated. Benny Medina, who’d originally wanted to sign me and Tony LeMans at Warner Bros., a deal I’d nixed, heard about Virgin’s offer. He wanted to hear the demos, and when he did, he got excited and played the songs for his bosses. They told him to sign me.

Benny reminded me that we went back a long way. He’d known me since high school. He was a friend and a fan, and he should have first option. He said Virgin was cool but didn’t have the power of Warner Bros. Besides, he had been authorized to top Virgin’s offer.

Lisa and I talked it over for hours. I slept on it, and when morning broke, my head was clear. The Warner Bros. offer was hard to pass up. Although I would have gotten more money, I thought that if my first album didn’t have a hit, I might be over. Jeff and Jordan at Virgin believed deeply in the music