KRAVITZ DIGS IN WITH "LENNY"

The three-time Grammy-winning rock superstar looks to follow up his smash Greatest Hits album with more hits, launching the second decade of his career with the Virgin Records album Lenny hitting retail Oct. 30.

Said Virgin Music Group/Virgin Records America Vice Chairman Nancy Berry after we told her we were Tina Brown: "This is a great record. When it came to debating the first single—and this is not an exaggeration—virtually every track on the album was a potential candidate. It’s not about one song. This is a very, very strong album with a lot of depth."

The first single, "Dig In," debuted as Most Added at Post Modern and crashed the Top Five at Active Rock. Kravitz is out to match the 3.1 million OTC U.S. sales (8 million worldwide) of his hits compilation, which included the single, "Again," nominated for a 2001 MTV Video Music Award as Best Male Video. The single is being offered for sale exclusively in digital download form on the LennyKravitz.com website and by Liquid Audio, with NARAS declaring it eligible for Grammy consideration. (The video for the song will be available for download through MTV.com and VH1.com beginning Oct. 30 as well [hitsdailydouble.com, 10/17].)

Kravitz recorded the album at his oceanfront home studio in Miami, where he wrote, arranged, produced and performed every track himself. Other key songs include the eerily appropriate—given recent events—"God Save Us All," "Yesterday Is Gone," "Stillness of My Heart" and "Bank Robber Man," which tells the true-life story of Kravitz’s scary run-in with the Miami police in a case of mistaken identity.

Kravitz says the inspirational message of "Dig In" came from sitting on a beach in the Bahamas, where he owns a home, looking up and seeing a black cloud. "I started thinking about how people are afraid of what may lie ahead, but the thing that really frightens them is fear. And once they get past that, they realize there’s nothing to be afraid of. I wanted to write a song about people going for their goals or dreams, whatever they are, and not letting fear hold them back."

The video for the single, which was supposed to be filmed in New York City on a platform from the top of the Empire State Building (before the Sept. 11 tragedy) was instead shot with director Sam Bayer on a barge 15 miles off the coast of South Florida. It will premiere on VH1’s Jump Start and MTV’s TRL on Oct. 30, the day of release.

• Kravitz will perform on TRL Nov. 5, kicking off the channel’s "Spanking New Music" week.
• Kravitz is planning a worldwide tour in mid-2002, starting in Japan and Australia in April before returning to the U.S. in May and June.
• Covers of Vibe and Ebony, features in Blender and L.A. Times, reviews in Rolling Stone and Spin.
• He will be performing and presenting at the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards this Thursday (10/19), "Radio Music Awards" in Las Vegas (10/26), VH1’s My Music Awards (12/2).
• He’s VH1 Artist of the Month for November.
• Added Berry: "Lenny is my favorite…aside from Alain Levy, of course. He’s a hard worker. We have a two-and-a-half-year campaign in front of us."