So please welcome to the show lady gaga there she is looking beautiful oh my gosh you know the other day when we we uh played perfect illusion it’s just when i pushed the button you know the radio nerd kicked in and i’m like okay here’s a here’s a hit let’s see what the hell’s like and and i just got lost in the song and they actually said elvis wake up they had to do this because i had my headphones on listening to the music cuz i hadn’t heard it until we played it on the radio it just sounds so good thank you we’re ready for the new album when’s
It when are we getting the whole album uh uh really soon um i can’t give you the exact date yet but it’s coming this year and it’s not very far away and i’m actually going to be in the studio tonight with uh mark ronson who you know i basically executive produced the whole album oversaw the whole process tonight to continue finishing so um it’s come it’s coming out he’s been saying amazing things about it everybody’s been asking he’s like it’s so good it’s so so amazing he loves it he said well he’s this wonderful amazing talented producer
And totally embraced me as a female musician and we’ve been working for over six months together in the studio uh on the arrangements and writing um producing as well as bringing in other people we worked with beck um we worked with father john misty we worked with uh kevin parker from t andala worked with florence welsh it’s working with oh i love her her voice by the way woo w i know you know do you get as much do you have as much fun performing and having fun in life as you do collaborating with people merging with the minds and souls
Of others in in the business that’s got to be like a b of fun it’s so much so much fun especially if that’s what happens what’s not fun is when someone says they want to collaborate and i get sent like an an email with a track you know send us back your your melody uh let us know if you want to do this we don’t have time to meet up in the studio but if you could just lay it down not collaborate that’s not a collaboration to me you know so what’s been great about this is you know for example uh you know with beck who i
Made you know this this great dance song with you know which we didn’t expect to happen uh we just hung out for like an hour in malibu talking uh just shooting the breeze you know and um at the end of it i said so man i don’t know what you’re doing the rest of the tonight but we have a bunch of guitars if you want to play my hummingbird mark just got me uh we can go in the live room i i’ll get the piano going we’ve got a mic up mark can place some bass let’s just you want to just jam for a minute and that’s how
It happened and that’s just how it happened that’s how it should happen though i mean i think this this controlled all right let’s choreograph our time with this producer sounds like it’s just there’s no art to that that sounds like a meeting you know it’s like i don’t even know if it’s choreography as much as um the people involved not putting the creative process first right and somehow there’s other things that are more important that they don’t for some reason they don’t have time to be in the studio or figure out a way to
Have a meeting of those two people but you know if you don’t meet in the room and look each other in the eye i mean i can’t even tell you florence and i when we were working together we cried we laughed we hugged each other the the song that we wrote together um i wish i could tell you the name of it can i tell them the name of it okay it’s called hey girl no please don’t tell us the name of it okay no i just looked over at my manager it’s called hey girl it’s called hey girl yeah and so the lyrics of it in
The beginning are i say um hey girl can you hear me are you holding out your heart and then she sings to me hey girl do you feel me sometimes i go too far and i say hey girl it ain’t easy i know it’s pulling me apart hey girl don’t you leave me hey girl don’t you leave me hey girl hey girl we can make it easy if we lift each other we don’t need to keep on one and up another fantastic wow that’s the song and so like i said like you just can’t write i don’t feel like you can write a song with lyrics that you know really um capture the relationship
Between two people unless you know you have a real human connection someone asked me once what they or a many times i think what i thought it meant to be an artist and i said what i think an artist needs essentially more than discipline or even talent um is um a perspective so if you are always changing what you do based on what other people say you completely lose yourself and you become just you know something that’s constantly affected by what’s around you as opposed to stable and your own and like autonomous and your identity so
Many things have happened since last we saw each other i mean uh gosh the song with diane warren uh tony one in em exactly hello love her by the way diane warren writes the most beautiful love songs in the world she i’ve never heard such foul language from one human being in my life she’s fantastic love her unev uh of course uh gosh benn tony bennett saw you in concert with tony bennett it was amaz your first of all your costume changes alone were amazing but you guys just sound so great together gosh do i love
Tony you know he’s my neighbor really no he’s my neighbor i i literally just got in my mustang uh two doors down from him and drove over here i heard you came here in a convertible today with your top down yeah or your top up and your top down my top was down okay just but the car’s top was up okay oh no i’m sorry by the other way around your top was down your top was up by the way her parents are here we have to be very guarded with what we say we can’t get too too crazy what do you think my dad’s hasn’t seen it i
Think my my father’s uh i think the jig is up a star is born yeah you’re working on that currently or is it done is it in the can as they say uh no it’s not in the can we’re currently working on it and um gosh bradley cooper is amazing to work with he’s so talented he’s so fun he’s really my friend uh and it’s so good to have you know someone that you’re friends with that you know kind of knows what your life is like and that’s in the public eye and the the story of a star is born which is a very classic story really is kind of hinged
Upon uh i think um actor actors and directors and songwriters that understand what it is to uh live a life in music and in show business so uh it’s it’s kind of this amazing experience it’s soul searching it’s fun uh and i’m going to learn a lot i mean i really want to become a better actress you know so who better than to do that with them with bradley uh in a stars born are you guys bringing some of the original music back or is it new music is it music at all uh i’m doing the soundtrack i’m the executive producer it’s not a silent abstract
Performance it’s not it’s not black and white maybe i should let maybe i needed to say that though because it’s it’s me okay no but for instance ever evergreen a huge song it’s the album’s just going to be an egg the song evergreen from the original star with a star in it do you do ever do you do evergreen i am not going to um give away anything about the film in that way i want everyone to exper i will say that cu your manager in the room ruining it for everyone he was hoping you were going to do a duet today no no
I wouldn’t i did bring the lyrics and the music to every you just hit it let let me see how i can do this no i’m not you’re not i don’t want you to sing i’m singing to you karaoke karaoke version no this is to you this is a gift to you oh my god this is a gift to you i don’t want you to perform i want you to relax and just let me give you a gift oh i’m relaxed come on bring up the orchestra what i want to know is if new york is relaxed listening right now love soft as an easy chair that’s beautiful elvis love fresh as the morning
air one love that is shared by two we’re almost done i have found with you that’s beautiful like a rose under the april snow april snow i was always certain love would grow love will grow love a ageless and ever green ever green seldom seen you and i why does this feel like the disney verion each night of i feel like maleficent going to come out and try to kill one dress beginning well anyway i want to give you a little part
One my favorite songs this is why i can’t wait for this movie to come out when will the stars born be out do we know first of all that is not um the way that the music’s going to sound exactly was not that was not a snippet that was not a cut um uh but i’m i’m so exc i will tell you that when i’ve read the script you know i’ve been reading the script obviously and preparing and i laugh cry smile get excited and like completely sob reading it it’s really beautiful and new when you’re trying to grow up yourself when
You you yourself are trying to live your life and learn what the universe is throwing at you at the same time you have all these other factors coming at you that are brought on by your success as a musician as an as an artist and and it’s got to be i don’t know well here’s what here’s what i would say if i could kind of bring it back to my uh first single a little bit just because i do think that every song on that every song on this album is completely autobiographical not that the others weren’t these are just you know implicitly related every
Single song to actual things happening in my life whether they you know are metaphors or uh about a few different things with perfect illusion you know i think some of the way that you could understand how it feels maybe to be me trying to be human and also being a star is it’s so weird to say that i know um is that i’m a perfect illusion to so many people um and the truth is that it’s very hard for me to have a human connection with others that i don’t know because they feel that they’re looking at an image uh that somehow belongs to the
World um and they’ve seen so many images of me and i i’ve given them those images you know and i also i’m an illusionist in a lot of ways and that i love to create things that are absurd and strange and to transform so that’s also part of what i’ve made so it’s not something i really can fully complain about so what i’ve been doing for the past few years is uh figuring out how can i make a record that connects to people on a human level who maybe think there’s no way that i could ever relate to something that lady gaga
Feels about life or what she goes through what her day is like she’s a you know a pop pop alien or whatever you know people think i am you know and what i found making the record and what perfect illusion is also about is kind of saying you know what i still feel the blow but at least now i know it wasn’t love it was a perfect delusion i’m over the show but at least now i know it wasn’t love it’s saying that you know it’s okay that sometimes i have contact with people that i don’t have a true love exchange with right it’s okay
That’s just something i have to accept because there’s perfect delusions all around us even on the internet right no matter who you are no matter who you are you just might not be really connecting with somebody because you found them online or you saw a picture of them and they’ve changed it or whatever social social media has totally turned us all into to that right but then there’s other times now that i can see what the real human connections are because i’ve acknowledged that there are ones that aren’t actually real when you were a
Little girl you grew up listening to z100 thinking i want to hear my song on that radio station and so bad used to used to record us on cassettes and come home and listen to them and your mom and dad would say turn that racket off please they wouldn’t say turn that racket off i would just be really late for school and they’d come off and they’d come up and turn it off but you had these dreams gaga you had these dreams of one day doing something have you done that yet in part two what are your dreams now here on september
12th 2016 like what are your dreams for the future now do you do you keep dreaming do you still have dreams you know what i i always had dreams to make music and to play out and be an entertainer and be on the radio i could never lie about those dreams i’ve always had dreams of being an actress in a big movie i always wanted to be the leading lady for you know a huge hollywood actor that was a dream of mine i i thought i think i could do that i think i could be a great leading lady but now you know and also a lot of what the album is
About you’ll understand more when you know the name of it honestly my goals are to have balance in my life and to make all the people that are around me feel it’s equally important important as my career these are your dreams yeah because cuz the other dreams you just mentioned seem to be coming true or if not already have come true well i feel that a lot has i feel that enough has come true in my life that i want to continue and keep working hard but you know i missed out on years of spending time with my baby sister and uh years
Having dinner with my dad and seeing my grandma and my other grandma and my my mom i’ve missed birthday days i i care about being uh an artist but you know i don’t think it’s really fair or nice to say that just because i have this high-profile job that i can cancel dinner with my dad but maybe this will make you a different kind of artist as you shift into a life of one where you find balance balance is so important you’ll have to let me know because that’s what that’s what this album you know on this album i would say i’m my
Father’s daughter and my mother’s daughter and my sister’s sister and my grandmother’s both of them granddaughter and my friend’s friend um on this record i’m i i i closed my eyes and i envisioned who i would write the album for like i kept thinking like i kept seeing somebody i kept telling mark in the studio there’s this girl i keep seeing this girl and he said okay what who is she what does she look like and i said her hair is back and it’s off her face and she’s got no makeup on and she’s got some like uh heirloom family
Jewelry like maybe a cross from her aunt you know and you know her grandma’s old engagement ring and maybe like a plaque that has her name on it and she’s got one kid in one hand and a glass of paggio in the other and a and a one of those t-shirts that you buy from like dwayne reed or something rolled up jeans you know not an expensive outfit and her other two kids running around her right and she’s got no husband or uh boyfriend maybe who knows and she’s at my concert and she’s standing in the way far back
In the field with her kids running around and that glass wine and she’s just crying her eyes out in the middle in like middle america somewhere and she just feels like she knows exactly how i feel and that somehow i understand everything that she feels i said that’s what i keep seeing and i told mark like i think it was two weeks ago i just started crying we were finishing up this song that we did and um he said what’s wrong i said i don’t know it’s just the weirdest thing i’ve been writing this music for this woman
And i realized that it’s me wow i realized that woman is me what i hear on the album of myself which may not be what anyone else hears which i always find funny you know sometimes like i give interviews and say oh this is what the song is about or what it me to me and someone’s like that’s not what the song is about that’s not what it is but you know it can be whatever to anyone that’s the idea the idea is to make a classic right so and a classic could speak to anyone but on this record i think some of like my maybe it’s like my italian
Catholic upbringing guilt a little bit you know of being like always wanting to be good girl you know and just being naturally rebellious i realized that that toughness about myself also has a vulnerability to it and that being tough is not a bad thing and i’m from new york and i’m a little bit tough or very tough right and i’ve worked very hard and i used to feel kind of bad about what a kind of tough chick i am you know why can’t i just be a good girl for my family and i i learned that everything that my family’s been through and that
I’ve been through in my life has made me the tough person that i am and that that pain and that toughness is exactly what connects me to that girl in the field you know to get into the music industry you don’t have to just find a producer with a hot track and write a big hot song you know what you can do is is really just practice your instrument and practice writing and and actually just focus on becoming a musician and playing out and become discovered you know because that’s what mark and i did and now we’re just putting around town in
Hollywood and new york writing songs as if it was you know 10 or 15 years ago and that’s the freedom in it we don’t have to chase finding you know the hot track because it’s within us the story that the truth is that we’re really just too upand coming new york musicians and see it just never changes yeah and it just never you will never change you always had that within you but it took some special wiring to figure out how to get it up
Behind the Illusion: Lady Gaga Opens Up About Fame, Family, and Finding Her Human Connection in ‘A Star Is Born’
In the world of pop music, few figures have been as meticulously crafted as Lady Gaga. Known for her avant-garde fashion, “pop alien” persona, and theatrical performances, she has long lived in the public eye as a series of shifting, spectacular images. However, in a recent, deeply personal conversation on the Elvis Duran Show, the woman behind the curtain—Stefani Germanotta—stepped forward to reveal that the very fame she dreamed of as a child has become a complex “perfect illusion” that she is finally ready to dismantle.
As she prepares for the release of her fifth studio album and her highly anticipated leading role in Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born, Gaga is in the midst of a profound creative and personal pivot. This isn’t just about a new sound; it’s about a search for the human connection that her superstardom often obscures.
The Myth of the “Hot Track”
Gaga’s new musical chapter is being spearheaded by executive producer Mark Ronson, but the process has been far from the typical industry standard. Gaga spoke candidly about her distaste for modern “collaborations” that consist of impersonal emails and remotely recorded tracks. “What’s not fun is when someone says they want to collaborate and I get sent an email with a track… if you don’t meet in the room and look each other in the eye, that’s not a collaboration to me,” she stated.
Instead, Gaga and Ronson spent six months in the studio, bringing in a diverse group of musicians including Beck, Florence Welch, and Kevin Parker from Tame Impala. The goal wasn’t to chase a “hot track” or a radio-friendly hook, but to return to the basics of being a musician. Gaga described an impromptu jam session with Beck in Malibu as the catalyst for one of the album’s standout dance songs. This organic approach—sitting in a room with guitars and a piano—is what Gaga believes creates a classic.
The “Perfect Illusion” of Celebrity
The album’s lead single, “Perfect Illusion,” serves as a direct commentary on the lack of authentic connection in the digital and celebrity age. Gaga admitted that for many people, she is an illusion—an image that belongs to the world rather than a human being. “It’s very hard for me to have a human connection with others that I don’t know because they feel that they’re looking at an image,” she explained.
This realization led her to seek out a sound that bridges the gap between the “pop alien” and the “tough New York chick” she truly is. Gaga shared a moving vision that guided the album’s creation: a woman in Middle America, standing in a field with her kids, hair back, no makeup, holding a glass of wine, and crying because she feels that Gaga—and only Gaga—understands her life. “I realized that woman is me,” Gaga admitted, her voice thick with emotion.
A Star Is Born: A Soul-Searching Experience
While finishing the album, Gaga has also been immersed in the world of cinema, working alongside Bradley Cooper in the latest retelling of A Star Is Born. The role has been more than just a career move; it has been an exercise in vulnerability. “I really want to become a better actress,” Gaga shared, praising Cooper’s talent and friendship.
The story, a classic tale of the highs and lows of show business, resonates deeply with Gaga’s own journey. She described the experience as “soul-searching” and admitted to sobbing while reading the script. For Gaga, the film is a chance to explore what it means to be a leading lady in a way that is “new and beautiful,” focusing on the universal struggle of trying to grow up and find yourself while the world is constantly projecting its own expectations onto you.
Reclaiming the “Good Girl”
Perhaps the most poignant part of Gaga’s current journey is her focus on finding balance. After years of touring, recording, and living in the spotlight, she is prioritizing the relationships that existed long before she was “Lady Gaga.”
“I missed out on years of spending time with my baby sister, having dinner with my dad, seeing my grandma,” she revealed. Gaga’s new goals are remarkably grounded: she wants to make sure her family and friends feel as important as her career. She spoke about her “Italian Catholic upbringing guilt” and the struggle of being a “naturally rebellious” person while still wanting to be the “good girl” for her family.
On this record, she isn’t just a pop star; she is her father’s daughter, her mother’s daughter, and her sister’s sister. The pain and toughness she inherited from her family’s history are now the very things she uses to connect with her audience.
Back to the Beginning
As Gaga continues to finish the album with Ronson, she feels a sense of freedom that she hasn’t felt in years. She described themselves as “two up-and-coming New York musicians” putting around town and writing songs as if it were a decade ago.
This return to her roots is her way of shedding the “illusion” and finding the truth in the music. Whether she is driving her Mustang to the studio or sobbing over a movie script, Lady Gaga is no longer interested in being the spectacle. She is looking for the real human connection that has been there all along, just waiting for the lights to dim and the costumes to be put away. As she told Duran, “Enough has come true in my life… but I missed the simple things.” With this new era, she isn’t just making hits; she’s making her way back home.
