Lenny Kravitz

Thirty years ago, the soulful rocker recorded Circus, his most guitar-heavy album. Below, he and guitarist Craig Ross take a look back at a suite of songs born of jams, soundchecks and dreams

- MARK MCSTEA

WHEN LENNY KRAVITZ released Circus, his fourth album, in 1995, he was coming off the back of the career-defining, global success of 1993's Are You Gonna Go My Way. That album — and the single of the same name — saw him scoring huge success in every market around the world, maintaining his seemingly constant upward trajectory; his second album, 1991's Mama Said, had already comfortably surpassed the impressive sales of his debut, 1989's Let Love Rule. Kravitz and his longtime guitarist/collaborator, Craig Ross, sat down with Guitar World to revisit Circus, which has recently been rereleased as an expanded 30th-anniversary deluxe edition that sports a hefty helping of bonus tracks.

Q Circus came on the back of the huge success of Are You Gonna Go My Way, which had been your biggest record to date. Did that cause you to feel any pressure, either from yourself or your record company?

LENNY KRAVITZ: Not really; we were too busy. We were on tour a lot at that time, and we were basically almost making the albums back to back. We knew we just wanted to move forward. We began by renting a chateau in France, about two hours outside of Paris. We started to work on the songs without any preconceived notions or feelings; we were just geared to accept whatever was given to us. I don't try to control the record or say what theme I want or anything; I just go with whatever I feel.

Q Some of the original reviews of Circus called it a "spiritual concept album." Is that a valid description?

KRAVITZ: Music is always a spiritual situation, but I was going through a lot at that time. My mom had been sick and passed away, and I was dealing with the whole crazy explosion that the success of Are You Gonna Go My Way generated. Life was changing in all directions.