Lenny Kravitz Reveals Rockwell Originally Offered Him ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’
When Kennedy Gordy created “Somebody’s Watching Me,” he knew he had a hit record on his hand. He later released the song under the moniker Rockwell, with help from Michael Jackson, who sang the iconic chorus, and his brother, Jermaine. The classic would go on to spend 19 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 2.
But, in his new memoir, Let Love Rule, Lenny Kravitz revealed he was originally offered the popular song, and he expounded upon what happened in a new interview with Rolling Stone. While attending Beverly Hills High School in the early 1980s, Kravitz formed a fast friendship with Gordy. One day, Gordy previewed Kravitz a song he had been working on and suggested that he sing it.
“He came over to my mom’s house with the first LinnDrum drum machine which was really big and heavy and he had some sort of Roland keyboard,” the rock crooner recalled. “He’s like, ‘I got this tune for you and I think that you’re really gonna dig this. And he sings me the song and he gets to the hook and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s good.’”
Kravitz admitted that he briefly considered it, especially because of the Motown connection thanks to his father, Berry Gordy. But he ultimately passed on the offer.
“I was like, ‘It’s really good, but it’s you. You should do this, man,’” Kravitz explained of his reasoning. “At that time, [Kennedy] wasn’t thinking about himself as being an artist. Maybe he was thinking more about being a producer and a writer. But he offered me this song and next thing you know, the months go by and I was like, ‘Holy s**t!’ I hear this song on the radio and the rest is history.”
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