The “American Woman” crooner revealed the practical reason behind his rock star gym look that left the internet divided.
Lenny Kravitz is finally responding to that viral video of him pumping iron in the gym wearing a pretty unorthodox item: leather pants.
The rock star left the internet reeling last month after he posted a video of himself working out in skin-tight trousers. Social media users were left stunned and impressed by his choice of attire, which also included a mesh tank top and sunglasses.
In a new interview with Variety, Kravitz, 59, explained why he doesn’t mind breaking a sweat in the look that only he could pull off.
The “American Woman” crooner said he’s usually on the go, so he squeezes in his workouts wherever he can, and that often requires skipping a wardrobe change before hitting the weights.
“I’m coming from somewhere or I’m going somewhere [before the gym]. And I just don’t care. I’m gonna pop in, I’ve got 45 minutes, we’re gonna hit it and I’m gonna go run to where I’m going,” he said in the article published Tuesday.
“So I don’t do it for effect. I didn’t do that to be like, ‘Oh, let me be just so different and wear leather pants and glasses.’ No, it’s just me walking in off the street.”
As for the fans who were wondering about the sweat factor of wearing such snug pants, Kravitz revealed that his solution is skipping the leather pants on cardio days.
“I’m always working out in leather pants or jeans and boots and whatever — if I’m not doing cardio,” he said. “If I’m doing cardio, obviously I’m going to wear sweats because I’m going to be sweating all over the place. But if I’m lifting weights, I don’t sweat so much.”
Kravitz shut down the fitness experts who questioned the effectiveness of his workout in such an unconventional ensemble.
“I know what I’m doing and my trainer knows what he’s doing. And I know my body and what my body does and what it can do and how it feels and it’s all good. I trained with elite athletes, I trained with football players, NFL and NBA stars,” he said. “I trained with MLB stars, wrestlers, boxers. I’ve played with them all. I won’t mention names, but they’re all people you would know. And they’ll tell you I train very seriously.”
Kravitz also recalled the time “big athletes” made fun of him for “wearing jeans and a belt and boots” to the gym before hitting a sweat session with his trainer Dodd Romero.
“It’s funny because I remember once pulling my tour bus up to the gym after getting off a leg of a tour, going to see my trainer Dodd Romero who is the guy in the [viral leather pants] video who I’ve been working with for 25-plus years, and these big athletes saw me walking in and my trainer said ‘He’s gonna work out with us,’ he shared. “And they all started laughing.”
The “Hunger Games” star said he later humbled the critics after he “destroyed” them during the workout.
“Because I was wearing jeans and a belt and boots and whatever shirt I was wearing, and they were like, ‘We’re gonna work out with this little rock star dude?’ Like they were making fun of me. And I destroyed them. And they didn’t see it coming.”
Despite the mixed reactions over the viral video, which was shared on April 9, many of his fans praised the rock legend’s look as “the most rock n roll shit EVER” and “so Lenny.”
