Guitarist, composer and writer Lenny Kaye was a member of the Patti Smith Group and has been Smith's most frequent collaborator. He wrote the liner notes for Nuggets (1972), which included one of the first uses of the term "punk rock". He was also a close friend of expatriate Australian rock writer and journalist Lillian Roxon.

He also co-authored Waylon Jennings' autobiography (Waylon: An Autobiography, ISBN 1570424357)