With an upcoming album slated for release at the end of this month, Lenny Kravitz covers the September 2011 Style issue of UPTOWN Magazine.

Here is what the The “Citizen Of The World” cover-hunk had to share with the publication – which is currently on newsstands.

On the year his dad surprised him with tickets to see the Jackson 5 live at
 Madison Square Garden:

“I remember all the flash bulbs going off. They sang “The Love You Save” and 
I lost my mind. Aretha Franklin sat next to us; she had on this white fur stole
 with the matching fur hat. The music just hit me.”

On being teased in school as a child and called “zebra” because of his Jewish father and Black mother

“I was the kid they knew was different. They knew who my parents were
and would call them Mr. Day and Mrs. Night, or they’d call me zebra.”

Friend and musician Jill Jones shares that when the family moved to L.A. for his mother’s acting gig (Roxie Roker on The Jeffersons) he was enrolled in high school but rarely attended

“Lenny would move easily through all the groups. There were black kids who hung together in the cafeteria, the geeks, the Asians, surfers, the rocker kids. He 
hung with all of them.”

 On his close relationship with Teena Marie, who was like a big sister:

“She would cook a lot. It was her and
 Penny Johnson, Rick James’ little sister. They looked after me, fed me. She took
 me to concerts. She took care of a lot of folks. The big reason why I am here 
[is] because of this sister. She was for real. She was self contained,
 a multi-instrumentalist, a writer, producer. She was so talented.”

On his current “status”

“I am single and open and waiting.”

On how his enviable 
resolve and calm shape his life as well as his music:

“All of my albums are all
 over the place musically. I have a difficult time making a record and staying 
on one path, I just do what I feel, and 
it just comes out.”

Don’t forget to get a copy of his album, Black and White America slated for release on August 30.