Lady Gaga wants to live 'more of a life of solitude' and misses the culturally rich time before social media

Virgin Radio

3 Mar 2023, 11:04

Pop sensation Lady Gaga has revealed she wants to swap the stage for a quieter life and is craving 'time to be alone’.

She told Wallpaper magazine: "I’m actually really interested in living more of a life of solitude. It’s really nice to just have time to be alone, and be expansive, and know that you’re enough. I wish I could tell my younger self that.

"When I was younger, I spent a lot of time alone writing music. But the more successful I became, the more I felt like I needed other people to tell me I was great."

Talking about being inspired as a teen, she added: "When I was about 14 years old, I read a book called Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. And I have a [line from the book] tattooed on my arm.

"I got it in Osaka, when I was 23. 'In the deepest hour of the night, ask yourself if you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. Look deep into your heart where the answer spreads its roots and ask yourself, Muss ich schreiben? (Must I write?)'.

"If I wasn’t successful in the way that I am today – I’m very grateful for my success – I’d still be doing it, I’d be on the Lower East Side. I would do it no matter what. Absolutely, 100 per cent.

"I know that because I actually don’t spend a lot of time in Hollywood. I might look like I do, because sometimes award season happens and you see me on red carpets. But I’m very much at home working… that’s the thing that really makes me happy."

She continued: "I wish that I could give everyone that is an artist in the world the opportunity to live a week of my life. When I was 18 on the Lower East Side, I had so many artistic friends and nobody knew who we were except for each other. And we used to put on shows for each other at local places and we would show our artwork, paintings, photography, poems, music, performance art and everything.

"We had no social media and nobody knew who we were. And it was so rich, the culture… I don't mean it in a bad way, culture changes. There is a presentational quality and a pressure that we all feel now. Today, I was working all day, and I thought, 'Oh, my! Should I get dressed up and put on a dress, or fix my hair before I see everyone?' And then I said, 'No, no, I'm an artist, this is how I dress when I work.'

"And I felt confident in coming in here today and just being myself with you. This is me offering my cultural self to you. This is how I look when I'm with my friends who are musicians. This is how I look when I'm with filmmakers. This is how I look when I'm with actors, singers.

"Culture is immensely important. It affects politics, it affects humanity, because politics affects humanity. It affects society, and I think that we could put a lot more importance on it being not financially rich, but emotionally rich."

Here's the latest on the Glastonbury Festival 2023 line-up.