Lenny Kravitz: It's all about me

Lenny Kravitz makes the recording studio his "thing".

The multitalented star put singing aside to play the role of Cinna in the first two instalments of The Hunger Games franchise.

Now he's going back to his roots and is back with album Strut, which was released last week. The 50-year-old is happy to be making music again, but also likes the distance acting gave him.

"When I'm in the recording studio, it's just me. It's my thing, my music, my production, whatever I want to do is me, me, me, me, me," he explained to British magazine The Red Bulletin.

"That's the way it is, but then to be able to get together with a group of different people and serve somebody else, serve a character, serve a director – I like that a lot. It just takes me away from myself."

Lenny released his debut album Let Love Rule in 1989 and Strut marks his tenth record. After so many years in the industry, he can't help but feel a little jaded about the way things are run.

He was with Virgin Records for 20 years, but released his last album, 2011's Black and White America, via Atlantic Records. It really hit home for him how tough the industry can be.

"That was the biggest mistake of my musical life," he shuddered. "It was horrible. They just f**ked me. It was bad.

"They don't have the money they used to have, everybody's job is on the line. One day this person is running it; two weeks later it's someone else, but they let me down.

"They led me to believe things were a certain way and they weren't."

Lenny has already released singles Sex and The Chamber from Strut.