Lenny Kravitz - A Long and Sad Goodbye - Lyrics Meaning

This 2008 track was written by Lenny Kravitz as an ode to his father who died of leukemia in 2005.

In an interview he said, "My dad and I made peace with each other a few weeks before he passed...we didn't have the greatest relationship because he had cheated on my mom and I was basically a mama's boy." On the day his father left the family home, he had had nothing to say to his son other than, "you'll do it too."

The pain of that day can clearly be heard through the lyrics but the overriding emotion in the song is love. Many of the lines ask a question and just by listening we begin to share his need for some answers yet we also feel a sense of time running out; maybe it's too late, maybe it doesn't really matter if we never know.

In the same interview, Kravitz said, "I realized a lot of my demons I had to battle came from moments like those. But we got over it, and that song is about that catharsis."

The song takes us through the hurt he felt himself and the pain his mother suffered. It becomes hard to imagine any form of forgiveness being possible but the last line is a real heart-breaker when we realize that despite it all he still loves his father and doesn't want to lose him. I defy anyone who has ever lost a loved one not to cry over that final word, `stay.'