Lana Del Rey Talks 'SNL' Performance

Lana Del Rey performs at Scala in London.

Andy Sheppard/Redferns

Just 36 hours after the most polarizing Saturday Night Live performance in recent memory, Lana Del Rey is in New York, eating a cookie. "I actually felt good about it," she told Rolling Stone. "I thought I looked beautiful and sang fine." But it's clear that Del Rey has been rattled by the overwhelming Internet vitriol hurled her way after her awkward renditions of two tunes, including the breakout single "Video Games."

How did it feel to sing on live TV?
It felt OK. The cast and crew said they loved it. I know some people didn't like it, but that's just the way I perform, and my fans know that.

Are you comfortable onstage?
I'm nervous. I'm not a natural performer or exhibitionist. When I was younger, I hated the focus, and it made me feel strange.

The backlash to that performance has been pretty harsh.
There's backlash about everything I do. It's nothing new. When I walk outside, people have something to say about it. It wouldn't have mattered if I was absolutely excellent. People don't have anything nice to say about this project. I'm sure that's why you're writing about it.

Have I given you the impression that I don't like your music? I do! Especially the song "Radio."
No. I don't know how you feel about it. It's not easy to gauge how people feel about it. I don't really want to go into it. But thank you, I love "Radio" too.

There's no confusing how Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield feels about Del Rey's debut LP. "Given her chic image, it’s a surprise how dull, dreary and pop-starved Born to Die is," says Sheffield. "It goes for folky trip-hop ballads with a tragic vibe, kinda like Beth Orton used to do. Except she could sing." Read the full Born to Die album review.

This Q&A by Austin Scaggs is excerpted from the February 16, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter