Outrageous, weird, dazzling, fascinating, genius, special, shocking, genuine. So many things were said about this singer who managed to become a real pop phenomenon in such a short period of time. And even though people found it rather hard to accept her strange style and unique views, Lady Gaga soon came to be one of the most fascinating artists ever seen. The 25-year-old singer covers ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine and talks about being herself and people’s negative reactions towards her wardrobe, videos and behaviour, being poked and probed, her high school years, her fans and being criticized for just wanting to seek attention and shock.
In fact, the singer is addressing her critics directly in ‘Rolling Stone’, saying that, “I have attention. Is it that you believe that I am attention-seeking or shock for shock’s sake, or is it just that it’s been a long time since someone has embraced the art form the way that I have? Perhaps it’s been a couple of decades since there’s been an artist that’s been as vocal about culture, religion, human rights, politics.” Then she adds that, “I’m so passionate about what I do, every bass line, every EQ. Why is it that you don’t want more from the artist, why is it that you expect so little, so when I give and give, you assume it’s narcissistic?”
Lady Gaga loves to be onstage and her amazing shows are the best proof in this sense. “When I am not onstage I feel dead. Whether that is healthy or not to you, or healthy or not to anyone, or a doctor, is really of no concern to me. I don’t feel alive unless I’m performing, and that’s just the way I was born,” she told ‘Rolling Stone’.
Lady Gaga loves her fans. She had the words “Little Monsters”, which is her nickname for her fans, tattooed on her arm and she says they are part of her person. “We have this umbilical cord that I don’t want to cut, ever. I don’t feel that they suck me dry. It would be so mean, wouldn’t it, to say, ‘For the next month, I’m going to cut myself off from my fans so I can be a person.’ What does that mean? They are part of my person, they are so much of my person. They’re at least 50 percent, if not more,” the singer says.
Now she is a star, yet she was an outsider in high school. “Being teased for being ugly, having a big nose, being annoying. ‘Your laugh is funny, you’re weird, why do you always sing, why are you so into theater, why do you do your make-up like that?’ . . . I used to be called a slut, be called this, be called that, I didn’t even want to go to school sometimes,” she confessed.
Before the Lady Gaga revolution begun, the singer was scrutinized and had to face people’s criticism. She started at a high pitch, yet she was blamed for relying just on her outfits and outrageousness. “Being myself in public was very difficult. I was being poked and probed and people would actually touch me and touch my clothes and be like, ‘What the f*** is that,’ just so awful. It was like I was being bullied by music lovers, because they couldn’t possibly believe that I was genuine,” Gaga told the magazine.
On May 23, 2020 the pop phenomenon released her third album, ‘Born this Way’. But, what inspires her? In Rolling Stone, Gaga reveals that she recently got a lot of inspiration from an unlikely source: Rocky IV. “My favorite part is when Apollo’s ex-trainer says to Rocky, ‘He is not a machine. He’s a man. Cut him, and once he feels his own blood, he will fear you.’ I know it sounds crazy, but I was thinking about the machine of the music industry. I started to think about how I have to make the music industry bleed to remind it that it’s human, it’s not a machine,” she says.
Photos courtesy of Rolling Stone