Lenny Kravitz is a rock god. He won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance four years in a row. He’s played with music titans such as Mick Jagger, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Jay-Z. Sold 40 million records. Still, it took rock critics years to catch on to his greatness. “There was this one article that, at that time, said, ‘If Lenny Kravitz were white, he would be the next savior of rock ’n’ roll,’” the musician recalled in Esquire’s latest cover story, speaking about the early days of his ascent. “I got a lot of negativity thrown at me by all these older white men who weren’t going to let me have that position.”

So, when Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner made headlines this past September for telling The New York Times that women and artists of color were not as “articulate” as the white rockers he chose to feature in his book The Masters in discussing the importance of rock ‘n’ roll, Kravitz was very disappointed—though, perhaps not shocked. “The statement alone, even if you just heard about the man yesterday, was appalling and embarrassing,” Kravitz said. “And just wrong.”

But it doesn’t stop with Wenner. And Kravitz is perhaps more confused by his reception at Black entertainment outlets. “To this day, I have not been invited to a BET thing or a Source Awards thing,” he told Esquire. “And it’s like, here is a Black artist who has reintroduced many Black art forms, who has broken down barriers—just like those that came before me broke down. That is positive. And they don’t have anything to say about it?” Kravitz still can’t make sense of the reception he’s received over his career.

“I have been that dream and example of what a Black artist can do,” he said, but “I’m not here for the accolades. I’m here for the experience.”

Assistant Editor

Josh Rosenberg is an Assistant Editor at Esquire, keeping a steady diet of one movie a day. His past work can be found at Spin, CBR, and on his personal blog at Roseandblog.com.