Lady Gaga sat down for an extensive interview with the UK Times, in a piece published this weekend. The conversation is wide-ranging, and it’s pretty much the first big interview Gaga has done since she seemed to have a series of meltdowns over the past month, including one show where she rambled on and on about how she wanted to die. In the full Times piece (online here) Gaga seems the way she usually seems in interviews – funny, blasé, in transition and good-natured. However, there is a very odd moment where the interviewer is asking – in a nice way, not in a confrontational way – about Gaga’s health. Gaga mentions that her aunt died of lupus, and long story short, Gaga confirms that lupus is a genetic condition that she has been tested for, but she doesn’t confirm whether or not she has it. The Times interviewer points out that Gaga could be showing symptoms of lupus (like heart palpitations, shortness of breath, joint pain), and that we’re mistaking genuine health problems as her “meltdowns”. Here’s more from the piece:
Why does she keep collapsing? “My schedule is such that I don’t get very much time to eat. But I certainly don’t have an eating problem. A little MDMA [Ecstasy] once in a while never killed anybody, but I really don’t do drugs. I don’t touch cocaine any more. I don’t smoke. Well, maybe a single cigarette – with whisky – while I’m working, because it just frees my mind a little bit. But I care about my voice. The thrill of my voice being healthy on stage is really special. I take care of myself.”
On the stories that she was a total diva at the Met Gala: “I wasn’t nervous! To be honest with you, I don’t give a f*** about red carpets, and I never do them. I don’t like them. First of all – how could any of these outfits possibly look good with an ugly red carpet under them? It’s just visually horrid. Hollywood is not what it used to be. I don’t want to be perceived as… one of the other bitches in a gown. I wasn’t nervous. Don’t be SILLY!”
How does she keep depression at bay? “Prescription medicine. I can’t control my thoughts at all. I’m tortured. But I like that. Lorca says it’s good to be tortured. The thoughts are unstoppable – but so is the music. It comes to me constantly. That’s why I got this tattoo,” she says, proffering a white arm through the black cloak-folds. It is a quote from the poet and art critic Rainer Maria Rilke: “In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself: ‘Must I write?’”
On tatttos: “I think tattoos have power. I did it as a way to kind of… inject myself with a steadfastness about music. People say I should take a break, but I’m like, ‘Why should I take a break? What do you want me to do – go on vacation?’ ”
What’s the nearest Gaga has ever come to death? “I have heart palpitations and… things. [Recently.] But it’s OK. It’s just from fatigue and other things. I’m very connected to my aunt, Joanne, who died of lupus. It’s a very personal thing. I don’t want my fans to be worried about me.” Gaga confirms that lupus is genetic and that she’s been tested and says, “But I don’t want anyone to be worried.” Of course, she hasn’t said, outright, “I have lupus.” But the suggestion throws the whole previous year – being delayed on stage, cancelling gigs, having to call the emergency services – into sharp relief.
When was the last time you called for a doctor? “The other day. In Tokyo. I was having trouble breathing. I had a little oxygen, then I went on stage. I was OK. But like I say, I don’t want anyone to worry.”
On her best purchase so far: “I bought my parents a car. It’s a Rolls-Royce. It’s black. My dad’s very Italian, so I wanted to get him a real Godfather car. I had it delivered on their wedding anniversary. He thought I’d got him a dancing gorillagram,” she giggled. The car had a huge bow on it, and the message, “A car to last like a love like yours.” At first, Gaga’s parents just thought they had it for the day, to drive round in. When she told them it was theirs to keep, her father shouted “You’re crazy!” and burst into tears. “You see, I don’t really spend money and I don’t really like fame. I spend my money on my shows – but I don’t like buying things. I don’t buy diamonds, because I don’t know where they came from. I’ll spend it on fashion.”
On the late Alexander McQueen: “I miss Lee every time I get dressed… But you know what I spend most of my money on? Disappearing. I hate the paparazzi. Because the truth is – no matter what people tell you – you can control it. If you put as much money into your security as you put into your cars or your diamonds or your jewellery, you can just… disappear. People who say they can’t get away are lying. They must just like the… big flashes.”
Gaga on how most acts are “lazy”: “I hate big acts that just throw an album out against the wall, like ‘BUY IT! F*** YOU!’ It’s mean to fans. You should go out and tour it to your fans in India, Japan, the UK. I don’t believe in how the music industry is today. I believe in how it was in 1982.” She explains she doesn’t mind about people downloading her music for free, “because you know how much you can earn off touring, right? Big artists can make anywhere from $40 million [£28 million] for one cycle of two years’ touring. Giant artists make upwards of $100 million. Make music – then tour. It’s just the way it is today.”
She’s already written her new album: “I don’t understand bands who say they’ll tour for one year, then record the next. I make music every DAY! I can’t talk about it yet! But everyone’s going to f***ing know about it when it comes out. You know when people say, ‘If you could say one sentence about who you are, what your life is?’ It’s that. For the whole album. Because I recently had this… miracle-like experience, where I feel much more connected to God.”
On religion: “I will say that religion is very confusing for everyone, and particularly me, because there’s really no religion that doesn’t hate or condemn a certain kind of people, and I totally believe in all love and forgiveness, and excluding no one.”
Would she play for the Pope? “Yeah,” Gaga says. There’s a pause. Perhaps she considers her current stage show, and the section where her male dancers grab their gigantic, fake white penises, and bounce them off their palms to Boys Boys Boys. “Well. I’d do an acoustic show for the Pope,” she amends.
On going out: “I really love a dingy, pissy bar. I’m really old-school that way.”
[From The Times Online]
The rest of the piece goes on and on. Gaga invites the lady out on the town in Berlin, and they go to a sex club and they get hammered. It actually sounds like a lot of fun – I would love to go get drunk with Gaga at a Berlin sex club. After the initial conversation about lupus, Gaga and the interviewer don’t talk about it anymore. It kind of makes sense, doesn’t it? I guess she could have lupus. Either that or she’s just been overworked and exhausted and she’s tired of being “Lady Gaga” 24/7. Either/or.
Header: Lady Gaga in NYC on May 13, 2010. Credit: WENN.
Germonetta, you are beautiful x
It’s never lupus.
Except that one time. It was lupus.
I’m betting this is a stunt, as usual. Sorry to hear about her aunt, my sister has lupus too (she’s not dead though). It sounds like the magazine did all the speculating though.
My mom’s got lupus. Some days she’s great. Other days she can’t get out og bed. If she does have lupus, I hope that she takes care of herself.
i hope with gaga simply mentioning lupus that additional people (who don’t really know about the disease) will look it up on-line and get more informed.
all lady caca is is one big stunt.
agreed, this is just another stunt and attempt to make herself more interesting, and a lot of really great artists make records, and tour but without the backing of popular radio and crap loads of marketing money,
they DO NOT make millions a year…
what an ass, can she just go away already, this women thinks way to much of herself and her knock off music.
My mom has lupus too. She has been in remission for years (thank God), but I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I have a handful of autoimmune issues (eczema being one of them) & I really hope I won’t develop anything else later in life
@a – I hope so too….if she mentions it, maybe more people will become informed about this terrible disease. when i got diagnosed with lupus, all i could hear in my mind was george costanza running around screaming, “is it lupus? is it lupus?”
Gaga go away…… please. Get help, go to church ,do something.
My heart goes out to all the lupus sufferers. More information needs to get out on Lupus.
Blessings to you, Bodhi, city and ViktoryGin’s mom.
i hate it when celebs pretend or insinuate they have some disease or condition just to get a little PR, like this chick with lupus, megan fox saying she’s bipolar, etc. if you have a disease it’s great to use your fame to educate people, like micheal j. fox with parkinson’s, T-Boz from TLC with sickle cell, etc. or you can keep it to yourself if you’d prefer. but to play the “guess what ailment i’m pretending to have” game is really obnoxious and offensive to people who truly do suffer from these things. when you have bipolar, or lupus, or cancer, or diabetes or whatever it isn’t really as awesomely interesing/excting as these famewhores make it out to be.
“I don’t buy diamonds, because I don’t know where they came from. I’ll spend it on fashion” … which came from the diligent, blistered hands of Chinese children
Pills aren’t a single solution to depression. Talking to someone about why you’re going through it all is goes with it. I’ve been seeing a therapist for five years and took medication when needed at close observation so I wouldn’t crash. PILLS ARE NOT A MIRACLE PILL.
Yeah, I’m starting to like Gaga, despite myself.
I wouldn’t wish lupus on anyone. My aunt was just diagnosed with lupus earlier this year. It’s a terrifying illness for our whole family. Every time my eczema acts up or a cold sore blisters half my face, I get a little more uncomfortable knowing someone in my immediate family has been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder.
So I can understand that whether or not she’s actually been diagnosed with lupus, it’s something that weighs on her mind.
She’s a dingbat
Hey … it could very well be something serious like lupus. And it’s no laughing matter. I certainly hope she’s not full of it on this one, but at the same time, I don’t wish lupus on anyone.
Gaga needs to give credit where credit is due (Grace Jones, Madonna, not to mention Michael Jackson, Prince…), but “borrowing” aside, she’s a phenomenally charismatic performer and entertainer. She’s got more talent and guts than most pop artists (think Miley Cyrus) and I commend her for that.
I agree Original Kat, Scotchy, Meme this disease de jour to keep me in the spotlight is growing tired. Could someone please inform as to the actual size of the venues she’s performing in and the number of attendees – I just don’t get the feeling she’s playing in old school stadium rock size venues. This is just as endless comentators have said overhyped glorified been there done that club music. I’ll take Corinne Rae Bailey and Sade over Lady CaCa.
Gaga does give credit to those she borrows from and looks up to and are he inspirations, I’ve read articles about that. Anywho, I won’t speculate on the lupus, because I don’t know much about the disease, so I can’t say it’s a stunt or not real. But I can only imagine, lupus, like many other conditions…is a serious one. She should seriously go the doctor and get diagnosed and checked. I just hope she isn’t faking or making anything up, any condition isn’t funny or it isn’t a trend to made a mockery of. And the reality is even for the people who seriously have issues, nobody is perfect, even the most so-called “normal” people have issues and phobias and paranoia of many things.
if she has lupus she would not be able to do half the things she does…it is debilitating….
I agree with #15, I’m starting to like her against my will too… she just seems very smart, funny and down to Earth.
hahaha “A little MDMA [Ecstasy] once in a while never killed anybody”
It’s true folks, the fact is deaths from E are actually rare. If 1 million people drank alcohol and another million took E, there’d be over 500 deaths from alcohol, and barely 7, from ecstasy. You tell me which one’s safer.
@Andreas – Where the hell are you getting those numbers from?
I hope she doesn’t have lupus.
For those here that do, or have loved ones that do, or other autoimmune issues, please also get your vitamin B12 tested. Pernicious anemia is an autoimmune disease that is considered rare, and most doctors don’t know much about it so it’s not typically tested for. Your number should be between 350-900, and it shouldn’t go down much at all, as B12 is stored in the liver and takes years to be used. If someone has symptoms of pernicious anemia, they have been undiagnosed for at least 5-8 years, and it’s fatal if left untreated for too long. Folic acid anemia usually goes along with pernicious anemia, as does iron anemia, so if you’re deficient in those, please make your doctor test your vitamin B12, too. Always get your number; don’t let them tell you it’s “normal” because most of the doctors I’ve dealt with still think under 200 is low, when in reality under 200 is risking permanent spinal cord damage and 350 is low. Low B12 can be caused by pernicious anemia and also things like chemotherapy, which destroy the intrinsic factor in the digestive system. My mother developed p.a. because she had to have the shots like my sister and I receive monthly, but hers was caused by the cancer treatment while sister and I have true p.a.. It’s best to get one’s B12 tested yearly during the physical, or more often if there is concern over the number.
Y’all are in my prayers.
@ gg, thanks 🙂
@ EMV,
Actually, when you are in remission (basically when the disease’s symptoms are virtualy inactive), you can be quite physically active. The flare-ups, however, are indeed extremely physically limiting.
L
Everyone is cursed with something in this life. I’m cursed with Colitis- like Chrones disease. I guess you just have to focus on something else to occupy your time with. If it’s not lupus, it’s cancer; if it’s not cancer, it’s some other disease, and so on! Like in certain movies- “life’s a bowl of sh%$t, when you look at it!!” (Monty Python).
Appreciating the commitment you put into your blog and in depth information you present.