Lenny Kravitz glad he walked away from Marvin Gaye role

Lenny Kravitz is glad he walked away from the Marvin Gaye biopic because he didn't feel right portraying the soul legend at the lowest point in his life.

Director Julien Temple cast the Fly Away singer as Gaye in Sexual Healing, which focuses on the later years of the Motown star as he lived in Europe, trying to put his past drug abuse behind him, and wrote the hit song of the same name.

The Hunger Games actor jetted off to Belgium to soak up his hero's life in Ostend and prepare for the role, but he dropped out of the project before production began.

Opening up for the first time about his decision, Lenny told Rolling Stone that he didn't feel right about the part.

"I did the whole thing. I stayed at Marvin's apartment. I went to the gym where he was training for boxing, the church where he sang the Lord's Prayer," he explained. "I just didn't feel right about it. I can't even tell you what it was. There were some business and financing things going on which had nothing to do with me. I just gracefully bowed out with due respect to the director, who's wonderful and I really like as a person. In the end, I'm glad that I didn't do it."

Lenny was subsequently replaced by Law & Order star Jesse L. Martin and the biopic finally went into production in 2013, although reports surfaced at the time that it had stalled due to cashflow problems as well as scheduling and location issues. It is still listed as being in post-production on IMDb.com.

In his new memoir, Lenny recalled learning about Gaye being murdered by his father at the age of 44 in 1984.

"I was sure it had to be a sick April Fools' joke, but it wasn't," he wrote in Let Love Rule. "When I later learned that Marvin Gaye, Sr. was his son's murderer, I shuddered. I knew about father-son rage. I understood how fury could turn violent. But this was an outcome beyond my imagination."