Lady Gaga Talks 'Chromatica' & Ariana Grande In New Interview with Zane Lowe!

Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande dropped their highly anticipated collaboration, Rain On Me, and in less than a week, Gaga will bless our ears with her new album, Chromatica.

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Talking with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Gaga opens up about the new album, working with Ariana and mental health.

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The beginning:

“I think that the beginning of the album really symbolizes, for me, what I would call the beginning of my journey to healing, and what I would hope would be an inspiration for people that are in need of healing through happiness, through dance.  And that’s in what I would call radical acceptance… For example, I know that I have mental issues; I know that they can be sometimes rendering me non-functional as a human. But I radically accept that this is real.  I forgive myself for all the ways I’ve punished myself in private. I’ve been open about the fact that I used to cut. And I’ve been open about the fact that I have had masochistic tendencies that are not healthy.  They’re ways of expressing shame. They’re ways of expressing feeling not good enough, but actually they’re not effective. They just make you feel worse.”

Gaga on ‘Chromatica:’

“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. You are connected to the whole world and we are one giant body. We are one full entity.  “And the whole you is having a whole human experience and there might be parts of your life that feel completely shallow or robotic or ancillary and unimportant, and that’s okay, but that suffering is a sign that you’re real and it’s a way to ground yourself.”

Gaga on sexual assault:

“I was sexually assaulted by a music producer.  It’s compounded all of my feelings about life, feelings about the world, feelings about the industry, what I had to compromise and go through to get to where I am.  And I had to put it there. And when I was able to finally celebrate it, I said, ‘You know what? I’m not nothing without a steady hand. I’m not nothing unless I know I can. I’m still something if I don’t got a man. I’m a free woman.'”

Gaga on her mentor, Elton John:

Gaga on Ariana:

“I said to her, “OK, now everything that you care about while you sing, I want you to forget it and just sing. And by the way, while you’re doing that, I’m going to dance in front of you.  And she was like, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God, I can’t, I can’t. I don’t know. Oh my God. OK, OK.’ And then I did it and she sang, and she started to do things with her voice that was different. And it was the joy of two artists going, ‘I see you.’  When she came into the studio, I was still crying and she was not. And she was like, ‘You’re going to be OK. Call me; here’s my number,’ and she was so persistent. She would try over and over again to be friends with me. 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. And eventually she called me on my s–t. She was, ‘You’re hiding.’ And I was … and then this friendship blossomed.  Working with Ariana was a very healing process for me too, not necessarily having a female artist that mentored me as I came up.  And being able to be with her and hold her and be like, ‘Anything that you feel chains you, any pop cultural construct that you feel you have to live up to, I’d you to please forget about it and be yourself.’”

And lastly, “I was just talking to my friends, and I was saying, ‘I can’t wait to dance with people to this music. I can’t wait to just go into any space with a whole bunch of people, and blast this as loud as possible to show them how much I love them.’ Until then, I hope that they listen to this record, and go on not only my personal journey with me, and dance through all the pain, but also go through their own journey, and dance through all their pain.”

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Chromatica is Gaga’s first album since her 2016 release, Joanne, and it’ll drop on May 29!