Lenny Kravitz opened up in a wide ranging interview about performing with Nicolas Cage back in high school.
The 57-year-old singer was born in New York City, but moved to Los Angeles when he was 10 when his mother Roxie Roker signed on to play Helen Willis on The Jeffersons.
Kravitz – who opened up about marrying again – graduated from Beverly Hills High, where he went to school with guitarist Slash, Gina Gershon and Nicolas Cage.
The singer was asked if he ever kept in touch with his creative classmates, admitting he doesn’t see Nicolas Cage much but revealed they both performed in Oklahoma.
‘Well, I don’t see Nicolas Cage very much, but he was in our school. His name was Nick Coppola at the time,’ Kravitz said in the Esquire interview.
Opening up: Lenny Kravitz opened up in a wide ranging interview about performing with Nicolas Cage back in high school
Performed: The singer was asked if he ever kept in touch with his creative classmates, admitting he doesn’t see Nicolas Cage much but revealed they both performed in Oklahoma
Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola, and he admitted to changing his name to avoid any potential nepotism, adding his stage name was inspired by the Marvel character Luke Cage.
Kravitz added, ‘I remember doing a play with him. I was in the orchestra and Nic was on stage. It was Oklahoma.’
‘He was singing and dancing and acting and I was playing drums. It was a good time,’ Kravitz said of the high school production.
Kravitz also added, ‘I just saw Slash, who I went to high school with, and Gina Gershon.
Growing up familar with the spotlight, Kravitz was also asked what he, ‘learned about fame with a mom in the spotlight?’
‘I learned you can make fame be what you want it to be. It doesn’t have to consume you or tear you apart or change your character,’ Kravitz said.
‘The first season of The Jeffersons when we moved from New York to Los Angeles, my mom took two city busses to get from Santa Monica, where we were living, to CBS on Beverly Boulevard, cause she was a New York woman. She’s like, “We take the bus. I’m from New York. That’s what you do,”‘ he recalled.
He added, ‘After the first season, of course, she could not, because she was highly recognizable, but we had no maid, we cleaned the house ourselves, so I was very fortunate to have that as my example.’
Name change: Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola , and he admitted to changing his name to avoid any potential nepotism, adding his stage name was inspired by the Marvel character Luke Cage
Orchestra: Kravitz added, ‘I remember doing a play with him. I was in the orchestra and Nic was on stage. It was Oklahoma
Spotlight: Growing up familar with the spotlight, Kravitz was also asked what he, ‘learned about fame with a mom in the spotlight?’
Fame: ‘I learned you can make fame be what you want it to be. It doesn’t have to consume you or tear you apart or change your character,’ Kravitz said
He admitted that, ‘as a teenager, I didn’t understand it at all until I became older because I was like, “Where’s the fancy car? Where’s this? What are we doing? Why are you cleaning the house yourself? Why am I cleaning the house myself?” But Thank God.’
The musician, 59, has remained on good terms with his ex-wife Lisa – Lenny gets along with Bonet’s now estranged husband Jason Momoa, and the children Lisa shares with Jason even refer to the rocker as ‘Uncle Lenny.’
Yet Lenny doesn’t perceive their relationship as especially extraordinary. ‘I wouldn’t think of it as this heroic feat,’ he told the magazine. ‘This is just normal to me.’
Jason recently stepped up for Lenny when the rocker was unable to attend the New York premiere of daughter Zoe Kravitz’s film The Batman – an act the musician called ‘beautiful.’
‘”I got you,”‘ Kravitz recalled Momoa assuring him. ‘”I’m going to this one. I’ll be there.”‘ Momoa followed through, attending the star-studded premiere with his children, daughter Lola Iolani and son Nakoa-Wolf.