♪ i was born >> -- lenny kravitz, rock, soul, funk. he's impossible to pin down. he's been breaking boundaries from the day he was born. lenny kravitz on his music, his life, his loves. >> i just love women. they're incredible. they're -- i think they are god's most amazing creation. ♪ are you going to go my way >> lenny kravitz exclusively plus a never-before-seen look at work on his new album. this is "piers morgan tonight." ♪ lenny kravitz may just be the coolest guy in america. he has sold 35 million records. he's won four grammys. among his huge hits "let love rule" and "american woman." he plays every instrument you can imagine. he's never slowed down. he's here now. you are just the epitome of cool, aren't you, lenny? >> i don't know. >> the kind of guy we all would like to be, the kind of guy all our women would like us to be. >> i think you're doing pretty well, piers. i think you're doing pretty well. >> it's this huge presence. >> i'll play second to you in cool today. >> now you said it on the record. to be serious, i hope the answer is yes because it gives me some succor in this relationship we have, is being so cool itself a terrible burden? >> i truly don't think about it. i think if you asked my daughter, i wouldn't be so cool. >> your daughter is cool. >> she's extremely cool, beautiful, smart, amazing. >> how could she not be given the product of her parents, two of the coolest people. >> okay, okay, i'll buy that one. >> coolness runs in the genes, doesn't it? >> a little bit. a little bit. >> so how do you attain coolness? how does someone like me, over all the many talents i probably don't have, coolness certainly isn't one of them. how do you effortlessly, without any effort, get to be cool? >> what would make you cool is the fact you don't try. >> i'm trying too hard? >> it's when you're natural. >> see, this is what i think. this is one of the coolest things i've ever seen and this is typical lenny kravitz. this is an album cover which in itself is cool these days, right? secondly, amazing picture on the front. when i turn it over and there is your life in these extraordinary pictures. >> yeah. >> and i just haven't seen an album cover or inside cover, anything quite like this. for the theme that you have of this black and white america, there it is. and there you are, lenny kravitz, the product of a black woman and a white man in america, raised in the upper east of new york. your dad was jewish. your mom christian. an almost unique perspective on life. >> i had an amazing childhood. i talked to a lot of people who didn't like their childhoods. they would not go back. they found it to be sad and painful. i had the absolute opposite. i had a very rich childhood in the sense of experience. >> tell me about your parents. your mom was a famous actress. your dad was a television executive. tell me about them. >> my mother was born in miami, florida. her father came from the bahamas. she later moved to new york when the family moved to new york. she wanted to be an actress. and her father, my grandfather, was going to do whatever he had to do to give her the tools she needed. my father was born in brooklyn, new york. his father from the ukraine. my father went to the military at a very young age. he was a green beret. he was a jungle expert. he was pretty scary. when i was a child. >> yes. tell me about the mixture of your mom and your dad then. your dad is this tough, hard core green beret. your mom, from what i'm gleaned, a softer character? >> yes. >> a little bit more creative, statistic, giving that you side of it. but the combination pretty fascinating for someone going into the entertainment business. >> yeah. >> and watching the way you took off, you have that strength of character your dad had to not take no for an answer to do 0 things tour way, to seize the moment, if you like. >> well, because of my father, and just to let you know, i love my father dearly and at the end of his life we became closer than ever. but it wasn't always that way. >> your parents divorced. how old were you? >> i was 21. >> that's a hard age. you go it through this amazing upbringing. >> at that point you think, they've made it. but things happen. >> what effect did it have on you. >> it had a very deep effect on me. i was a mama's boy. i loved my mother. we were best friends, we were really, really close. and, you know, my father had his infidelities and so forth and they came out. they were quite deep, and i think she didn't know how to rebound from that. >> the relationship kind of exploded because it wasn't like she had seen this coming. >> i think, to be truthful, i think, you know, she knew the man. she knew who he was. apparently when i was a child my mother would have to go retrieve him from other women's apartments. >> really? >> with me in her arms, like ringing the bell. >> with you in her arms? >> which always reminds me that have scene from "goodfellas." >> i know that scene. i was just thinking that. >> you know, he had his demons. and i think that his father was the same. i think he tried to escape that because on his deathbed all of this came out. >> to you? >> yes. it was difficult but my mother taught me that's your father. regardless of what he did to me, he's your father and you have to honor him. you have to love him. you have to respect him. she would always refer to the bible and say that it says honor thy mother, it thy father. it doesn't say but, or, unless, if. it says honor them. and so that's what you have to do. her thing was always you do what you are supposed to do. don't worry about everybody else. so i was taught to be that way. and so i took care of him. i saw him. i loved him. but there was always a plate of glass between us. >> an emotional barrier? >> yes. it was difficult. >> so when you had this time with him, when he knew he was dying, do you think because he realized he wasn't going to be around, this was the last chance to have that conversation with you? >> i think he honestly had a spiritual awakening because he -- and i don't want to paint him as this, you know, horrible man. if i ever bumped into anybody that knew him, oh, your father, he's so lovely, he's so charming. he's wonderful. he was a wonderful man. >> there are many people who have this kind of emotional -- >> well, that had a lot to do with it because part of what he admitted to me when he was dying was that he was brainwashed in the military. he said i was brainwashed. i thought i had to be this way and i was so young and i was trained to be this way. and he said that it always felt like there was a monkey on his back and he couldn't get it off. >> what did he say to you when he finally opened up. >> he made mistakes. he wished it wasn't the way it was. he wished he could have changed it. he didn't know how. and he just admitted it and it was beautiful. from that moment on, he lived another maybe month. it was the best month of our lives and it made up for everything because it's one thing to have your father in front of you and see him and say, you know, hello and hug him and kiss him. whenever i would be close to him it always felt a little strange like we'd hug and it would be uncomfortable. and after that experience in the hospital when everything came out and he explained himself, i could actually lay in the bed with him, i could rub his head, i could hold him, and it was beautiful. >> what an amazing thing. >> yeah. >> was your mother still alive? >> no, she wasn't. my mother's been gone for 17 some odd years. >> she didn't know you had this amazing time with your father? >> no. >> how do you think she would have felt about that? >> wonderful. she loved him to the end. >> because she knew that side of him as well. >> yeah. >> she knew he had it in him. >> of course. and my life wouldn't be what it is without the two of them, without both side. i believe god puts things in front of you the way they need to be. it was all wonderful. it was all wonderful. i don't look back on it with any kind of animosity or ill feelings. it was the way it's suppose d t be. >> i want to talk more about black and white america. we have a black president in america. do you think that america is more or less racist because that have? >> obama is black? 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[ timer dings ] got to go. priority mail flat rate shipping at usps.com. a simpler way to ship. just because helen says she has a maid twice a week -- >> twice a week is a cleaning woman. we're going to have a real maid with a cleaning uniform, one that fits my position. i worked my way from the bottom up to the top. >> so does a gopher. >> tom, it feels so good to disagree with them again. >> your mother in the classic tv series "the jeffersons." very interesting because in that she played half of a mixed race marriage. >> what are the chances of that, right? >> and she was in real life. >> i remember when she auditioned, she was at the time in a play on broadway called "the river nigel" with the negro ensemble company and she got the call from norman leer. he had seen the play and she flew out to california to audition. she auditioned. he loved her. and he was getting ready to hire her. this is 1974. and so norman leer sat her down and said, look, i want to you play this part but, you know, are you going to be comfortable playing the wife of a white man? and she pulled out her wallet and had a picture of my dad and said, this is my husband. and he said, oh, great. you've got the part. >> an amazing thing. very groundbreaking time. >> kids in school -- because my father was white, they assumed that was my father. >> confusing. >> yeah. >> what are your memories of that? was it very controversial at the time in the sense did it attract racists? did they try to protest about it? >> most definitely. my mother used to get hate mail, death threats. people couldn't deal with it. that was the first interracial kiss on prime time television and it was quite controversial. to me, no. it was completely natural. >> because you'd seen her with your dad. >> i grew up in a house i had no idea about racism or prejudice. no idea. >> did you get picked on at all once the tv show took off? >> yeah, but harmless. kids used to call me, you know, zebra or panda or my mother was mrs. night and my father was mr. day. ridiculous things kids say but it never bothered me. >> obviously since barack obama became president there's been a big debate about whether they feel instinctively america has gotten more or less racist as a country. since the first black president. what do you think? >> it's funny because i've been in europe touring a lot lately. the first question they always request because of this album, is racism over in america, what does that mean? they think it's over. are things better? are things great? yes. it's nothing like it was 40 years ago. but we still have a long way to go. what i think is interesting and what prompted the song "black and white america" is i had seen a documentary. i don't know the name of it or what it was, but there was this group of americans saying this was not their america. they were not happy with what america had become. they wanted it to go back to what it was, say, 100 years ago. they had plans on assassinating the president, all this horrible stuff. and it's just amazing there are people still like that. but there's kind of a tug of war going on. in a lot of senses, because we've moved forward in so many ways that people would like it to go back. >> there's a line here i got from the notes in the album. martin loout uther king had a v and that's a fact. he died so we could see this was his mission. don't look back. there is no division. don't you understand? in 1963 my father married a black woman. when he walked the street they were in danger. and then it goes on, very personal, very poignant. i mean, my sense, i've been in america the last six or seven years, what it did was highlight racism in a way that probably hadn't been since the '60s. it focused people's minds. and that in itself is not a bad thing even if it's painful in the short term. >> no. it brings it all out. >> i thought his speech on race when he talked about his upbringing, for me it was such a beautiful moment because there was a politician standing up there that understood exactly what i understood. both sides equally. and that was a beautiful moment because i thought he really laid it out. >> do you know him? >> i don't. i spoke to him once on the telephone. >> i heard, and you can correct if it's wrong,that conversation the president said to you, i have a woman next to me who went to high school with you who says, tell lenny kravitz he's hotter now than he was in school. >> you have it verbatim. so i want to know who you're talking to. that was exactly the conversation. >> the president rang and filled me in. >> i figured. >> so that was right. who was the woman? it wasn't michelle. >> no, no, no. >> do you agree with that assessment? do you think you're hotter now han you were in high school? i called you cooler. >> again, this whole hot/cool thing, i really don't relate to it. >> let's take a little break while i cool down. i want to talk sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. enough of this political stuff. let's get stuck in the real stuff. 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[ female announcer ] do you have enough crescents? ♪ lenny kravitz in the studio working on his latest album. it's a great album. >> thank you. >> really enjoyed listening to it. let's talk about women. you have something that women like. it's not just your musical ability. >> and what is that, piers? >> even my wife as i left today, gave birth to our child ten days ago, said i will never leave you for lenny kravitz. wasn't happy. but you have gotten this magnetic appeal to women. how do you feel? >> how do i feel? >> don't try and be too modest? >> no, no, no, i love women. i think that's the fact that i grew up around a lot of strong women. >> what did your mother tell you about women and how to treat them? >> well, to treat them with respect and so forth. >> you're a single man. is it changing, that situation? is it near to changing? have you got anyone? >> i would like to it change. i think it's a good time for that to change. >> what is it you love about women? >> i just love women. they're incredible. they're -- i think they are god's most amazing creation. >> are you easy to be with? >> am i easy to be with? >> you seem so effortlessly charming. most musicians are quite neurotic, difficult, edgy. it's the nature of the beast. >> i wouldn't say i'm the easiest person to deal with. i can be both. i can be very easy to deal with and i can be difficult depending on what's going on. because my life is a bit crazy. moving around, a different country every day, long tours. it's not easy to build something. >> very hard for relationships. >> it's an occupational hazard. it's difficult. >> do you worry that some of your father's behavioral issues rubs off? >> completely. i'm completely aware of that. and it's something that i have fought and that i consciously continue to fight and pretty much work my way through it. it took a long time. and i'll share something with you. i don't like to say it but i think you'll understand. when my parents split, my mother sat me down with my father and basically said, you know, your father is going to leave. this is what happened. blah, blah, blah. i already knew but she wanted to have this conversation with the three of us. and then she looked at him and said after she explained the whole scenario and he was getting ready to leave, his bags were at the door. and she looked at him and said, what do you have to say to your son? and he walked up to me and he looked me in my eye and he said, you'll do it, too, and he walked out. >> wow. >> that's quite deep. >> how old were you? >> 21. and i was a young 21. i was a young 21. i don't think i realized what that moment did until so many years later. >> what did it do? it put something in me. it was just bizarre. i think -- i think the reason that he said that was because his father had done exactly the same thing. and he had ill feelings towards his father because of what he did to his mother. so i think that he just thought this was just the way it was going to be. >> and was he right? >> was he right? >> was there a moment for you when you did something and you thought, my father was right? >> oh, yeah. there were times where i did not behave properly. there were times i was not respectful. there were times i was just out on a limb. but i did let him know it was really detrimental. >> you've been out with some of the most famous women in the world, allegedly. >> mm-hmm. >> madonna, naomi campbell, the list is long and illustrious. all it's cracked up to be? f famous sex sim bombs? >> people are people. everyone on your list i did not go out with, by the way. >> really? disappointing. >> you know if you're walking down the street with somebody and they get a picture and it comes out in the paper, then you're going out with them. but, yes, there have been -- there have been many and they have been wonderful experiences. >> you are 47 now. >> yes. >> i'm 46. >> you have to call me sir. >> you look about ten years younger than me. but do you dream wistfully of getting married, having more children, that kind of conventional thing? >> i do. >> something your mother certainly dreamed of. >> i do. and i wanted it for some years, but i wasn't