Patti Smith

And you found him.

You sought him out.

He was working at a bookstore in the village.

If you had not found Lenny K., do you think you wouldn't have been in a rock and roll band?

Because he has been your guitarist kind of forever.

Well, I can't say what would happen.

It was really Sam Shepard who suggested...

You know, I said to Sam when Robert helped me through Gerard Malanga to get my first reading, I said, I got to do something special because if I don't do something special, Gregory's going to, you know, throw tomatoes at me or something.

Gregory Corso, who was mentoring me not to be a boring poet.

And I said, I want to do something special.

And

Sam said, well, you have these.

And I said, well, I could sing a cappella songs.

And he said, well, do you know anybody that plays guitar?

And I said, well, this fella Lenny K mentioned he played a little guitar.

And I don't know how I would have evolved because the thing about Lenny that made him different from everyone else is Lenny was there to magnify my ideas.

He really – I'm not saying –

I'm not saying he was totally selfless.

He had a sense of himself.

But he was completely there for me.