Aside from being a bona fide rock star, Lenny Kravitz is known as a man of style. In addition to his own incredible personal aesthetic, he’s also the creative force behind Kravitz Design, which has created and collaborated on everything from sunglasses to hotel suites to a collection of furniture for CB2.
So when the musician invited GQ into his home in Paris, France (where he lives when not in an Airstream to the Bahamas), it was no surprise that it was filled with stylish furniture. But what surprising was that Kravitz is an avid collector of pop culture artifacts, particularly from his personal idols.
Items from Muhammad Ali, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Prince and more have all made their way into Kravitz’s home—and surprisingly, a number of their shoes.
“There’s just something magical about James Brown’s shoes to me,” Kravitz says, holding up one of the many pairs of Brown’s boots he owns. “It’s almost as though they have superpowers—if you were to put these on, you would be able to dance like James Brown. These are magic boots.”
Kravitz also owns one of the Godfather of Soul’s jumpsuits, which he keeps in his James Brown-Muhammad Ali room, which also houses a pair of Ali’s boxing boots (with droplets of the boxing legend’s blood on them).
Elsewhere in his home are a pair of Prince’s heeled booties (along with one of his guitars and his personal tambourine), performance outfits worn by Jimi Hendrix, and a jacket that belonged to Miles Davis, gifted to Kravitz by ex-wife Cicely Tyson (similarly, Yoko Ono gave Kravitz one of John Lennon’s shirts as a spontaneous birthday present).
And this is only a fraction of Kravitz’s extensive collection, which can only be described as priceless. And along with the legacy he’s created for himself, he’ll be passing down all of his memorabilia to his famous daughter.
“Everything is Zoë’s. It’s family stuff,” he tells GQ’s cameras. “These are all things that made me, that influenced me.”