We travel to France to talk to the legendary rock star, raise some vibrations and get the selfie to prove it
I'm at the old abbey in Hautvillers, France, where champagne was created by Dom Pierre Pérignon late in the 17th century. Some 300 years later and the brand that bears his name has become one of the world’s top champagne houses, with marketing budgets to match.
I have been flown here to interview Dom Pérignon’s latest collaborator, the legendary, Grammy-award-winning purveyor of the super-fly, Lenny Kravitz. We are in a stone chalet ensconced in a small wood a short distance from the abbey. It’s one of those defining moments in the annals of Cool Things I Have Done. Of course, in this picture-or-it-didn’t-happen age, I must ask for the obligatory selfie.
He happily agrees and, as I get up to move closer to him, he says smoothly, “No, stay there. I’ll come over to you.”
He leans over my back and drapes his left arm on my shoulder, the same heavily tattooed left arm that is responsible for some of the most earth-shuddering guitar riffs in rock history. Just as I take the shot, he forms his hand into a fist of brotherhood, and I’m pretty sure that means we’re now bros. I’m feeling very awesome and a little destabilised by this rock god’s common courtesy.
The Kravitz-Pérignon collaboration
For someone who spends most of his time in public on stage with his wild hair flailing as he blasts another power chord to thousands upon thousands of screaming fans, Kravitz is surprisingly sedate in person, his voice soothing in contrast to the gutsy vocals that characterise his biggest hits.
He is considerate and interested in others. In fact, he’d make a consummate party host. Any initial eyebrow-raising caused by the Kravitz-Pérignon collaboration quickly gives way to respect for the whizz who came up with this inspired pairing.
Previous Dom collaborations were curious, cerebral exercises in design, viz. Marc Newson’s bulbous, lime-green objet and David Lynch’s explorations of white-hot metallurgy. Kravitz’s name brings a lush soulfulness to the series, something that seems natural for a champagne house that, more than any other, epitomises the good times.
His role as the house’s creative director will last three years. This month sees the unveiling of the first phase of the partnership, a campaign based on a series of images conceived and photographed by Kravitz himself. While Kravitz has previously released a book of photographs, this is the first time his images have been used by a brand.
See also: 5 Things To Know About The Kravitz-Pérignon Collaboration