Lenny Kravitz on the Responsibility of Recording “Road to Freedom” for Netflix’s ‘Rustin’

Since first breaking through in 1989 with his hit album “Let Love Rule,” Lenny Kravitz has become known as a socially conscious artist with a strong sense of both musical history, and the regular kind of history. Kravitz’s mother Roxie Roker, who played Helen Willis on The Jeffersons, was an active member of the Civil Rights movement, and she instilled in her son a sense of responsibility to the cause of fairness and equality.

Throughout his career, you can hear that perspective on any number of songs. “Let Love Rule,” “Mr. Cab Driver,” “What the Fuck Are We Saying,” “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” “Black Velveteen,” “Black and White America,” “Here to Love,” and so many others. That sense of purpose continues with his recording “Road to Freedom,” for the Netflix film, Rustin, starring Colman Domingo as the great Civil Rights hero Bayard Rustin, and directed by George C. Wolfe.

In our conversation, we discuss the weight of recording the song, the short time he had to create the track, and how “Road to Freedom” is an extension of who he is as a person.

I should add that the person he is also happens to be one hell of a rock star.

Awards Daily: I saw Rustin a couple of months ago at the Virginia Film Festival and at that time I didn’t know that you were part of the soundtrack. I’m sitting there watching the film and then your voice comes through the speakers–there’s no missing it. One thing I’ve always thought about you is that you have a great sense of musical history and history in general. It’s always been threaded through your music, so you seem like a naturally good fit for doing this, but how did it come to you?

Lenny Kravitz: I got a call from one of the producers, Bruce Cohen, and he said he’d been talking with George Wolfe, and that George wanted me to write the end credits song for this film, Rustin. I was in Paris at the time, at home, finishing my album and a bunch of other projects, so I wasn’t sure if I could do it. I had so many things that I had to complete and of course they needed it yesterday. But the first thing was that I didn’t know what I should know about Bayard Rustin, which I was not pleased about. I grew up in a family that was involved in the Civil Rights movement. My mother and all of her artist friends, their theater, their art, their writing was in most cases geared toward the movement. As I said, I didn’t know enough about him and I immediately heard my mother’s voice saying you have to do this, and I felt a sense of purpose. So then I spoke with George. They sent me a copy of the film. I watched the film, and I thought it was excellent. I thought Colman really embodied this character and brought him to life, and I was ready to go. The only thing is, as I said, they needed it yesterday. I’m not one that sits down to write. I’m not one of those writers. I know writers that sit down every day at certain hours. It’s like an office thing. I’m the opposite of that. I really am just an antenna. I pick up what’s out there for me, so you don’t know what time that’s going to come in, right? There’s no schedule. I got quiet for about 48 hours. I was in my house. I was just thinking, and I sat down at the piano and I put my hands down. I felt something was coming after two days and the first chord was the first chord and it just started to come. So now I’m working on it, I write the lyrics, I begin to cut it. On this track, I played all the instruments except the guitar and, of course, the horns. I wrote the lyrics, sung it, turned it in, and thought, okay, that was it. There it is. 

George had a lot to say, (Laughs) and rightfully so. He’s the director of this piece, and I was there to not only write a song, but to serve the director, serve the film. When I’m making music for myself, I’m just making music. I don’t have to deal with anybody, anything, good or bad. Here we have a film that just went by for two hours, and whatever comes next can either tear apart what you just witnessed, or it can lift it, accompany it, and that was my job. Although I might have said things that meant the same thing lyrically, there are many ways to say that same thing. George was very particular about words and phrases. He’d say okay, try this. Come back at me. Now, not only are you rewriting words, now you have to sing again. I’m one that gets married to what I’ve done. I feel it. And I’m like that was it. That was the divine inspiration. Now I have to do it again. (Laughs). This went on for about three weeks. Now, mind you, it was due yesterday, but it took three weeks and after doing it many times and getting each word to be what George felt, it was finally done. And as I told him the other night, he was correct. It was a great experience to have to be accountable in that way. It was an honor and a pleasure and I learned a lot. I love the song. It feels so good. I think it really embodies the past, present, and future, because the road to freedom is never going to stop. We’re always going to be pushing forward, moving boundaries, and hopefully getting to a place where human beings learn how to live and work together, whenever that may be. I’m just really proud to be a part of something beautiful like this, a human being who did so much and will get noticed because of who he was.

Awards Daily: The responsibility of doing this song is not necessarily the same as it might have been for an action film, or a film based on a video game. You had a huge amount of responsibility. I assume you felt that.

Lenny Kravitz: This is a real human being, this is his legacy, this is his message. This is something that’s long overdue. That phrase just came to me, the road to freedom, that he and countless others have walked and will continue to walk. After speaking with George, I spoke with Colman. Colman and I are friends, and we did The Butler together years ago with Lee Daniels. He just embodied this human being, and so I asked him what his thoughts were, was there anything that he could help me with. He got quiet and thought for a moment, and it was so simple and beautiful, he said it’s about the work. That’s what I’m telling you, that it’s about the work. And of course, you see that Bayard was about the work. When his moment in the spotlight could have come at the White House, being invited, whatever that meant at that time, but it’s definitely some kind of triumph, right? He chose to pick up garbage and continue the work that needed to be done at that moment. It was just so egoless and just beautiful. I’m here to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Y’all go to the White House, I’m going to do what needs to be done right now here. I think also knowing how he may have been viewed and that (his sexuality) may have taken some energy away from the event (The March on Washington). Beautiful. They knew who he was. They knew what he was. He did what it took to get the job done regardless of his own feelings. I think everybody wants to be validated. Everybody wants to be told hey, good job. He was deep. He was able to bypass that need for validation.

Awards Daily: In your music, you have taken your influences and turned it into your own thing. What I noticed when I first listened to “Road to Freedom” was that sound of the horns that open the song. And then as I was reading the press notes, I didn’t know you pulled in a ringer with Trombone Shorty.

Lenny Kravitz: George had the idea about the trombones. He didn’t tell me how to use them or when to use them, but he said I want trombones. They were an energy for him. They were a character for him. You know these trombone choirs that you have in the Carolinas that play gospel hymns? Beautiful. He wanted that sound. He wanted that soaring sound of the trombone. So, I happen to know the best trombone player there is. I’ve known him since he was 16, 17. I used to live in New Orleans, and we were introduced by a mutual friend. Trombone Shorty has been playing trumpet and trombone in the streets since he was a kid, literally a child. I hired him to go on a world tour when he was 17. He had to get a note from his mother. (Laughs). He played with me for some years and then went on to do his own thing. He’s just so exceptional, an exceptional human being and an exceptional musician and educator. I called him. He was on tour. I was in Paris. He had like 48 hours off in between a couple of shows and came out. I had the arrangements in the song ready for him and he just killed it and then played that opening solo over the chord structure. When the movie ends, goes to black, and you hear that da da da da and it goes on into that beautiful intro, it just really sets the tone. He blessed me by coming out and putting his sound and his spirit on the record.

Awards Daily: What I think makes it so perfect too is that the Civil Rights movement went through the South and through the black churches, and the song has that Southern sound like you’re talking about pulling in from Louisiana, but also the use of the gospel influences as well.

Lenny Kravitz: The choir I had to have. I knew right when I wrote the song—gospel choir. I grew up singing in the choir. There’s nothing like that harmony and that sound, especially of a gospel choir, for that lift to represent the people, the movement. That just took it even higher.

Awards Daily: You were talking about the theme of the song about being the road to freedom. There’s the lyric “until the war is won.” That was not sung just from the perspective of the time in which the movie takes place, I don’t think. Tell me if I’m wrong, but it was sung from the perspective of the fight doesn’t ever really end.

Lenny Kravitz: Absolutely. When you say you’re fighting this battle till the war is won, that means you are there. That’s from generation to generation to generation to generation. As the last line says “So much work to be done.” We’re just getting going, and for those people at that time to do what they did, it was absolutely incredible to be up against those kinds of forces and negativity and evil in so many cases. The powers that be were over them, just knocking them down. It’s amazing what the people before us accomplished. We have so much of a responsibility now to do more, myself included. I represent that in my music. I’ve done that since day one, since “Let Love Rule,” and I will continue. That’s my small way of doing it, my way of expression. I have always used music to express that and never veered off. But there’s so much to be done.

Awards Daily: You were making reference to the fact that you didn’t know who this character was, and I think that was true for so many of us.

Lenny Kravitz: I was embarrassed. How could I not know? Besides his name, how could I not know the details about this man? That was another reason. Hearing my mother’s voice that I have to do this, to be part of, in my small way, part of that promotion, part of that storytelling.

Awards Daily: You mentioned your mom a couple of times. I thought of her recently, before I even knew that we were going to be able to speak, because of Norman Lear’s passing. It reminded me of what an impressive woman you came from.

Lenny Kravitz: She was incredible, what she did in her time. Being a young black girl in Brooklyn, New York saying she wanted to be an actress. Her father made sure that she had all the tools that she needed. He worked five jobs and hardly slept. My grandmother scrubbed floors. My mother scrubbed floors through school, cleaned houses, and my grandfather took her to the theater. My mother ended up going to Howard university, went to England to study Shakespeare at the Shakespeare Institute. Most people know her from The Jeffersons, obviously, which is a legendary iconic thing, but she was in the Negro Ensemble Company in New York City, and that whole group of people that helped us to advance was incredible. For her to be part of the first interracial couple on primetime television in 1975, my God. It seems like, oh what’s the big deal? In ‘75 it was still a big deal.

Awards Daily: I write obituaries for the site, so I wrote for Norman Lear, and I discovered that The Jeffersons is still the second longest running TV show with Black leads.

Lenny Kravitz: Ten years, eleven seasons. It was incredible how long that show lasted.

Awards Daily: Obviously you got a Golden Globe nomination yesterday, I know that’s not why you do the work, but I’m sure it’s nice. When you put together that recognition, the reviews of the film, how people talk about this movie, how they feel about it, to be a part of something that is both recognized critically and by the audience, it has to feel really amazing to be a part of this.

Lenny Kravitz: Absolutely. And yes, I do the work to do the work and it’s the journey, but I was quite surprised. I didn’t even realize those nominations were coming out and the phone started ringing in the morning. I’m happy that it’s for this. It’s about Bayard Rustin, period, and all the people that did the work and that continue to do the work.