The 'Let Love Rule' singer recalls in his new book how Berry Gordy's son, Kennedy, approached him with the song at his mom's house with the first LinnDrum drum machine.

• Oct 13, 2020

AceShowbiz - Lenny Kravitz almost made Rockwell's "Somebody’s Watching Me" his first hit after Motown boss Berry Gordy's son offered him the song.

Kennedy Gordy and Lenny were pals at Beverly Hills High School in the early 1980s and they used to hang out at Berry's Bel Air mansion, where guests would include Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson, and in his new book, "Let Love Rule", Lenny recalls the day his pal presented him with a song he had written.

"On any given day at the Gordys, Diana Ross would be lounging by the pool," Lenny writes in the recently released book. "Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye would be playing cards in the den. The house was heaven!"

One day, around 1982, "he called to say he'd written a surefire hit that was perfect for my style," Kravitz tells Rolling Stone. "I had to hear it right away. 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. 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.' "

But Lenny turned the tune down and Kennedy went on to record the song himself, under the name Rockwell, with the help of pals Michael Jackson and Jermaine Jackson.

"Somebody's Watching Me" became a huge hit around the world in 1984. Lenny's debut, "Let Love Rule", scorched the charts five years later.