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MUSIC

Lenny Kravitz lets it rip on stage in Sweden

US artist Lenny Kravitz made headlines when he rocked his pants off at a rip-roaring gig in Stockholm last night – literally.

Published: 4 August 2015 11:05 CEST
Updated: 5 August 2015 07:00 CEST

Kravitz performed to an audience of thousands of cheering fans at Stockholm's biggest theme park – Gröna Lund – on Monday night.

And the rock legend, who is not known for pulling any punches on stage, went all in to offer his Swedish audience the whole package. Yes, the whole package.

For as Kravitz crouched down in a laws-of-physics-defying way right at the start of the energetic performance, he managed to split his leather outfit at crotch level – leaving the artist with a gaping hole in his trousers.

And if there was one thing we did not know about the 51-year-old artist before that we know now – it is that he does not wear underwear. Let's just say the audience went nuts.

The Local is unable to publish picture proof of the revealing incident, but curious readers may click on the tweet below. Warning: contains nudity. Do not click if you are at work.

After leaving the stage for several minutes, the rocker reappeared in a new pair of trousers. And that's how you crack into the history books, folks.

“The producer stepped up and said that they had 'some problems on stage'. A bit later Kravitz came out wearing other trousers. He said 'sorry, I ripped my trousers',” a member of the audience, named only as Sara, told the Expressen tabloid after the show.

“It was insane, I killed myself laughing. And then I called my mum who was there at the show as well. Her reaction was the same and she almost killed herself laughing too,” she added.

Behind hits such as 'It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over', 'American Woman' and aptly titled 'Fly Away', Kravitz has sold almost 40 million albums worldwide and holds the record of most Grammy Awards in the category Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

He commented on the incident in Stockholm late on Tuesday by tweeting a screen shot of a text message from fellow rock star Steven Tyler, of Aerosmith fame:

It is not the first time a world artist has a mishap on stage in Sweden this summer. But while Kravitz suffered only an awkward wardrobe malfunction, rocker Dave Grohl broke his leg in concert in Gothenburg in June.

The 46-year-old Foo Fighters frontman made headlines around Europe when he spectacularly returned after being briefly rushed to hospital to complete the show in a cast.

CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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