When I heard the news that Big Lenny had passed away just a couple of hours ago my heart literally sank. I saw a video by Johnny Bravo and hearing what Johnny had to say about Lenny was 100% on the money. After all, he and Lenny had a very special relationship. Lenny trusted him with his story and gave him an exclusive interview that he had not given to anyone else up until that point.
Lenny was a major force of The Delray Misfits and during the days of IronMag TV we really wanted that whole crew to have a show with us. It was my job to try to secure the deal and unfortunately very much like with Bostin Loyd we were unable to strike the right number. These guys were ahead of their time. They were getting hits unlike anything you’d ever seen before and they weren’t just little videos of 5 or 10 minutes. These guys had a podcast that sometimes would go in excess of 3 hours and their viewers and listeners hung in for the whole ride.
And actually to say they hung in there is the wrong idea. They were entertained beyond their wildest dreams from beginning to end. And even if the podcast lasted three or four hours, their listeners were left wanting more. And this is because of the fact that Lenny likes the other guys in The Misfits crew were as real as they got.
Even though we saw Big Lenny talk a great deal on camera for the various podcasts and outtakes he really was a very quiet person. He was also very humble. I know that a lot of media outlets like to promote alter egos sometimes in order for an individual to get famous and in so doing they take liberties to color an image, they oftentimes get carried away.
Now I’m not going to tell you that Lenny was a cookie cutter by any stretch of the imagination because to say such a thing would be blasphemy. Lenny was not a feelings kind of guy. He didn’t tiptoe around controversial topics. He was very much the kind of guy that would drop the mic and say what needed to be said. He would say what came from his heart. But he was also not a person that was out to hurt anybody.
I don’t think that he took any pleasure in making anyone uncomfortable and I certainly don’t think he had it in him to be rude or nasty to people that didn’t deserve it. He wasn’t a cookie cutter but he wasn’t an asshole. Lenny was a very humble guy who really loved bodybuilding, loved lifting weights, and loved shooting the shit when it came to muscle and fitness. He could talk hours and hours about anabolic steroids, prohormones, and the value of good nutrition when it came to building lean muscle tissue.
I would say that Leonard was somebody that really loved his friends. I only met him a couple of times but I really think that when I met him at the Ruby that first time back in 2017 is when I really got a strong sense of who he was and what he was all about. I covered two Ruby Classics and met him at both of them. But the one he competed at with Dale and Jason that was the one that I think really was Lenny to the core. I not only saw him backstage oiling up but I was also able to see him interact with Andrew, Brad, Jason, Cornelius and the whole gang.
Lenny was very much his own man. While I would say that initially Jason needed the Misfits I would say Lenny was more or less the driving force. He didn’t need the Misfits anymore than he needed any media outlet. He was a walking talking show in and of himself. but that being said he was humble to the core. He really believed in what they were all about and what they were all about was realness.
The Delray Misfits were not cookie cutters and they certainly did not play by the rules. And that’s a big reason why we wanted them at IronMag TV. We wanted a crew of renegades that did things by their own standard. Gregg Valentino, Big Frank, guys who were bodybuilding outlaws. Guys like Chris “The Goon” Griffin and Big Mike Cox. Guys that knew anabolics, used anabolics, and put together physiques that really truly presented that freak factor. And that is something that Lenny chased after.
I will never know what was going on with his gut and I will never understand why he couldn’t create the physique that he envisioned but my goodness did he try. If all it took was heart and discipline, Leonard would have built a Mr Olympia level physique. This is a guy who loved every minute in the gym and who gave his heart and soul on stage. He may not have had the genetics or the aesthetics of a Frank Zane or Robbie Robinson but he had the heart of 10 bodybuilders in one. And I believe that being on RX Muscle, being interviewed by the likes of me, of Joe Pietaro of MuscleSportMag, and being talked about on the message boards was very important for Leonard. I also think sitting down with Johnny Bravo really was kind of like the beginning of it all. He was able to sit down with somebody who had a real interest in his life, who worked with tremendous production value, and who really went to bat for him.
Because that’s the thing, Johnny is not just an interviewer, he was a friend to Lenny. He was a friend to Jason. He has been a friend to pretty much everyone he has worked with and that also speaks volumes about him as a journalist and as a content creator. Because not all journalists are content creators. It takes a certain type of individual not only to create the content but to promote the content and be beloved at the end of it. I don’t know of a single person that has worked with Johnny Bravo who after the fact dislikes him or regrets having made the decision. And the reality of the matter is Lenny and Johnny put together a fantastic documentary. One that is worthy of being watched for years and years to come.
I think that really what Lenny wanted was to live the life of a professional bodybuilder. He may not have ever earned a pro card and he may not have ever competed as an athlete at the Arnold or the Olympia but he certainly got the next best thing. He had hardcore fans that looked up to him, hardcore fans who relied on his advice. He also created a brand. He was an instrumental part of The Delray Misfits and he will continue to be in posterity. Even though I regret never having been able to work with him, I can only imagine the trouble we would have gotten ourselves into. It’s one of those things that unfortunately we never had the opportunity to experience but I’m just glad that I was able to interact with him on whatever level I was able to. I’m glad that I have videos of him backstage at StrengthAddicts living his best life. I’m also glad that I was able to interact with him directly in person. Again Lenny will go down in bodybuilding history as one of the best.
He was a real guy. He was an everyday guy. He was aomeone who loved bodybuilding; someone who didn’t have dishonesty in him; someone who truly was the same person on camera as off camera. And for that he has my respect and that of countless other bodybuilding fans. At the end of the day I will tell you, I was and I am a Big Lenny fan. Some were fans and friends.
It would be categorically inaccurate for me to say I was his friend because I literally only met him a couple of times, but I would most definitely say that I’m a fan of his and I think that a lot of people maybe don’t understand what he was all about. Hopefully they will posthumously. He really helped a lot of people. And that’s just scraping the tip of the iceberg. I would not be the least bit surprised if Lenny helped tons of people through social media and personal interactions that I honestly have no idea about. That’s just the kind of guy that he was. That’s the kind of heart that he had.
Rest in peace, Big Lenny. you will be missed. We will remember you forever, here, at Iron Magazine.
As always, thanks for reading my article. I hope that you will copy and paste a link to this article on your social media feeds. It will help to get the word out and honor Leonard. We should all take the next few days to honor him on social media. He was a great man.
