Q&A: Lady Gaga

When was the first time you stripped onstage?
It was the first real Lady Gaga gig. The bar was packed, and the crowd was full of fratty, drunk NYU students. They wouldn't shut up, and I couldn't play until everybody got quiet. So I took my clothes off — down to my panties, fishnets and white pumps. Then everybody shut up.

At what point did you start making dance music?
I was in New York, partying a lot at gay clubs and dive bars. I was out five nights a week. I fell in love with the Cure, the Pet Shop Boys, the Scissor Sisters. I got really fascinated with Eighties club culture. It was a natural progression from the glam, Bowie-esque, singer-songwriter stuff I'd been working on. I used to take my demo into clubs, but I would lie and say that I was Lady Gaga's manager, and that she was only available to play on Friday nights at 10:30 — the best time slot.

You're a budding fashion icon. What do you think of our new first lady's style?
I love it. I've been telling everyone that yellow was going to be the color of 2009. It's the color of sunshine and of joy. When I saw [Michelle Obama] at the inauguration, I was like, "That bitch is wearing yellow! I was right!"

On your new single, "Poker Face," you sing about "bluffin' with my muffin."
Obviously, it's my pussy's poker face! I took that line from another song I wrote but never released, called "Blueberry Kisses." It was about a girl singing to her boyfriend about how she wants him to go down on her, and I used the lyric. [Sings] "Blueberry kisses, the muffin man misses them kisses."

On the song "LoveGame" you sing, "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick." Where and when did that line come to you?
It's another of my very thoughtful metaphors for a cock. I was at a nightclub, and I had quite a sexual crush on somebody, and I said to them, "I wanna ride on your disco stick." The next day, I was in the studio, and I wrote the song in about four minutes. When I play the song live, I have an actual stick — it looks like a giant rock-candy pleasuring tool — that lights up.

In your liner notes, you thank your grandparents. What do they think about Lady Gaga?
They approve. My grandmother is basically blind, but she can make out the lighter parts, like my skin and hair. She says, "I can see you, because you have no pants on." So I'll continue to wear no pants, even on television, so that my grandma can see me.

[From Issue 1072 — February 19, 2009]

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