Lady Gaga felt she'll be a 'bad influence' on Ariana Grande and avoided her before they became good friends
Lady Gaga recently appeared on Zane Lowe's Apple Beats 1 radio show to talk about a wide variety of topics, including her new music, and her various relationships with Ariana Grande, Sir Elton John and alcohol. In the course of the interview, Gaga also talked about the things that make us all remarkably human in retrospect. Speaking about Ariana Grande, the 34-year-old singer, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, revealed that it took a while for their friendship to truly blossom, mostly because she was ashamed of her own personal issues, and was worried that she would project it on Ariana as well.
Grande had been through a lot in recent years, including the Manchester concert bombings and the death of her ex Mac Miller. Gaga didn't want to add to the load, saying "She [Ariana] was so persistent. She would try over and over again to be friends with me." The 'Born This Way' singer also admitted, "And I was too ashamed to hang out with her because I didn't want to project all of this negativity onto something that was healing and so beautiful."
But thankfully Grande didn't give on the friendship, Gaga admitted. "Eventually she called me on my s***. She was, 'You're hiding'. And I was like, 'I am hiding. I'm totally hiding.' And then this friendship blossomed." This eventually resulted in their new collaboration 'Rain On Me', which is now out.
Gaga also revealed that she had a difficult relationship with alcohol, saying, "I've flirted with the idea of sobriety. I'm not there yet, but I flirted with it throughout the album." The singer admitted, "It's something that came up as a result of me trying to work through the pain that I was feeling." The singer also revealed, "But part of my healing process was going, 'Well, I can either lash the hell out of myself every day for continuing to drink, or I can just be happy that I'm still alive and keep going and feel good enough. I am good enough... I'm perfectly imperfect.'"
Reflecting on her personal demons, such as her tendency to self-harm and her belief that she didn't "deserve good things," Gaga revealed, "These are some of the things that I've been through. And then I stopped and I forgave myself, eventually. But I think I forgave myself because I decided that I was human and that made me feel better. I was like, "'Oh, I'm doing this incredibly human thing, even though I feel a plastic doll. Look at me, I'm so f***ing human.'"
Speaking about her new album, 'Chromatica' which is out on May 29, Gaga shared, "If you're listening to this album and you're suffering in any type of way, just know that that suffering within itself is a sign of your humanity and you are not broken."
The singer also credited her friend Sir Elton John for getting her through difficult times, saying "He's been my mentor for a long time. I mean, he's always challenged me to keep my head above water and something that I always appreciate is that he knows when I'm down. He just does." She added, "Elton's always really challenged me to take care of my artistry and to really take care of myself. And I really, really honor that about him. He is so, so uniquely special. He's such an inspiration. For me, it's been so important because, I have also a very close relationship with his husband, David."