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On this day in vegan history · May 26, 1964

Lenny Kravitz Is Born

The future four-time Grammy winner arrives in New York City, decades before he becomes one of rock's more visible vegan raw-foodists, growing soursop and okra on his own land.

Lenny Kravitz Is Born
Wikimedia Commons / Lenny Kravitz

The facts

Born
May 26, 1964, New York City
Diet
Vegan, primarily raw, since 2016
Grows food
Farm compound in Brazil; garden in Eleuthera, Bahamas
Grammy record
4 consecutive wins, Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, 1999-2002

Leonard Albert Kravitz was born on May 26, 1964, in New York City, the only child of NBC news producer Sy Kravitz and actress Roxie Roker. He built a career on a blend of rock, funk, and soul that won him four straight Grammys, but by his fifties he had also become known for something quieter: a vegan, primarily raw diet he has kept since 2016. He grows a good share of what he eats himself, tending a farm compound in Brazil and a garden around an airstream trailer on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. There's no campaign attached to it, just a rock star with dirt under his nails and a plate that matches his politics.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. As you can see, I'm vegan and primarily raw.

    Lenny Kravitz

    Source: VegNews

  2. A great blessing of living here in the Bahamas is that I get to grow my own food,

    Lenny Kravitz

    Source: VegNews

Why it still matters

Kravitz never set out to be a vegan spokesman, but a working rock star who visibly grows and eats his own plant food, with no pitch attached, does more for the diet's image than a hundred press releases.

Sources

This history is still being written.

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