02.19.12 Lenny Kravitz @ MGM Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV

Lenny Kravitz is mesmerizing

Lenny Kravitz show tonight. Once again I only caught a couple of songs - but Jesus does this man have charisma. I'm not a fan of tattoos, nose rings, leather jackets, guitars or tough men but wow, Kravitz has something that just makes you adore him. 

The day started out late for me. Because of KMA/Ali 70 the night before I was in no hurry to get back to the arena. Luckily my man Dave was there to pick up the slack. He's one of my supervisors. Without him I'd lose my mind. He babysits the early shift so I can sleep in. I thank God for him every day we have a show. 

I got in around 2ish I think. Things were quiet. I was thankful for a small show after the night before. Quel nightmare. Lenny's production team was awesome to work with. Love tours like that. No major egos, just pure teamwork and a let's-get-it-done attitude.

The only major drama revolved not around the show but autographed guitars and meet & greets. Yeah, really important stuff. Autographs and m&gs are the bane of my existence. Spoiled people meeting people they probably don't really give a shit about otherwise. Real fans hardly ever get access like rich people. That's life. It isn't fair. The only 2 artists I can think of that actually do m&gs with true fans are Lady Gaga and (yeah, you guessed it) Chris Botti. 

What is all the fuss about?

So all day 6 v-shaped guitars were sitting in my colleague Jay's office. He was tasked with getting them signed from our executives so he dumped the pain onto me. He's a good guy and I had a good relationship with the tour manager because of the m&g crap so I said I'd do it. After speaking with the tour manager he says, "No prob. Just put the guitars in Lenny's dressing room and I'll get them signed." Excellent. Check that off the list. Then I check my CrackBerry and the executives are asking that 2 of the guitars be personalized, not only with a name but with certain wording. Are you fucking kidding me? It's not enough you rich bastards are getting a free, personalized signed guitar but you want something specific written on it? Things like that make me realize I work in fantasyland - a place where people with real problems and real life strife don't exist. I'm seriously embarrassed to ask the tour manager for Lenny to do this. He just kind of smirked and told me to write a note and stick it on the guitars. "If he does it, he does it." Yeah, and I'm Lucy Liu. But I do my due diligence and write a note next to both guitars. 

Onto the next drama - the m&gs. One was planned. Completely. It was a group of radio winners from a local station coordinated thru the tour. It happened after the sound check around 5.30ish. The one that I was coordinating wasn't even on the tour manager's radar. I was the one who broke that news to him. Luckily we had already established a good rapport or he'd be like, "Who the fuck are you and why should I give a fuck about your m&g." Turns out he was on a couple of emails from our execs so all was well in the land of Oz. The casino m&g was to take place @ 8.45ish. Well, 8.30p rolls around and I head down the dressing room hallway to find the tour manager. He wasn't even on site which meant Lenny wasn't on site yet. Not good. Not good at all. Around 8.40p Kravitz arrives avec tour manager extraordinaire. Thank you Baby Jesus. I ask him if he's all set and he breaks the bad news to me. Since his guy (Lenny) was running late he wants to do the m&g after the show. 

Let Love Rule on the b-stage

Aw FUCK. Deja vu Bocelli. I went thru this once with Bocelli. His management agreed to do a m&g with our casino before the show. Bocelli wasn't feeling well so he asked to do it after the show. So I'm the ass who has to break the news to the casino guests, the ones we all suck up to and bust our asses for because they spend shitloads of money and make the world go 'round. They took it well. After the show, Bocelli decided to hop in his vehicle and do a "runner." That means they go directly from the stage into their car and leave the venue. No Shower, no changes, just outa there. So I had to go back to these guests and tell them that Bocelli had left the building and there would be no m&g.

Anyhow, back to Lenny. So I looked at the tour manager and said, "He's gonna do this after the show, right?" like a child begging for a piece of gum. "He will be there," he says with complete confidence. 

Last carrot cake.
Chef Jacque is leaving. I'm heartbroken!

Show was awesome - so I'm told. Truthfully, once I found out this m&g was going to be after the show I headed up to Seablue for dinner. After this weekend I'm ready to sit and relax a bit. As always Seablue does not disappoint. After about and hour I head back down to see a couple songs and make sure the m&g happens. I catch Let Love Rule where Lenny goes from the stage, thru the audience to the b-stage by the mix and back to the stage again. God, he's so sexy. 

Lenny finishes his set and I head to the dressing room looking for my man. After about 10 minutes, I see my man with 2 signed guitars in hand. Thank you baby! I call Jay on my Nextel and tell him to get his ass down to Lenny's dressing room - I've got the guitars. Check that off the list. Then the tour manager tells me to get the people lined up and ready to roll. Meet & greet is on. We stage the 25 peeps at the end of the dressing room hallway. Eventually they all get their pic taken with Lenny and all go home happy. 

Another night bites the dust. Oh, and incidentally, Lenny did kinda personalize the guitars. He didn't write the specific notes the people wanted but he did write their names on the side of the guitar. 1 outa 2 ain't bad. Ain't bad at all.

Set list
Come On Get It
American Woman
Always On The Run
It Ain't Over Til It's Over
Mr. Cab Driver
Black & White America
Fields of Joy
Stand by My Woman
Believe
Stand
Rock & Roll is Dead
Rock Star City Life
Where Are We Runnin'
Fly Away
Are You Gonna Go My Way
Push
Let Love Rule