The remarkable story of how Lenny Kravitz saved the life of a sex worker
Most rockstars have interesting lives and exciting stories to go with them. Lenny Kravitz is no exception; however, his stories started before he was ever well-known as a musician, back when he was just trying to get experience playing live on the club circuit.
As a budding musician, Kravitz couldn’t attend jam nights, so he needed to find a way to sneak out of his parents’ house. He would wait until they were asleep, crawl in their room and steal his mother’s car keys. From there, he would drive to jam nights and begin cutting his teeth as a live musician, an experience that would pay dividends when he eventually took to life on the road gigging.
It was during these early jam nights, though, that he met Jewel. Kravitz wasn’t yet familiar with having people trying to flirt with him, so when Jewel came over, he was more than happy as he wanted to play it cool and keep her engaged. Things were going well, but shortly into their conversation, Jewel started crying, which is when she confessed everything to Kravitz.
Jewel told Kravitz that she was a sex worker and had been sent over by her pimp. Her pimp knew Kravitz’s father, Sy, as they had worked together before in music studios. The pimp assumed that Sy had the potential to be a good returning customer and so wanted Jewel to get close to Kravitz in a bid to get even closer to his father.
Jewel wasn’t happy with her work and wasn’t comfortable with lying, which was evident in the fact that she couldn’t do it for longer than a few minutes. It’s hard to determine Kravitz’s mindset at the moment, but as a young man going to his first jam sessions, he was no doubt looking at the world wide-eyed and excited, with optimism in abundance, which is probably why, upon seeing someone so upset with their life, he was motivated to help them.
Kravitz turned up at Jewel’s hotel and drove her to his house. He managed to hide her in his bedroom for a little over a month through what can only be assumed to be a logistical nightmare worthy of a montage in a sitcom. Eventually, she was discovered by Kravitz’s cousin’s daughter, who was living with them temporarily.
Rather than turning her away, Kravitz’s mother decided to help Jewel and got her into an organisation called the International Council for the Abused and Neglected (ICAN). Once Jewel finished the program, she returned to her grandma’s. There were some more issues in the future with her Grandma, and the Kravitz family had to step in to offer help once again, but the result is that now Jewel is living a peaceful life out in Alaska.
As it turns out, behind the oversized sunglasses, questionable outfits and rock n roll, Lenny Kravitz has quite a big heart.
