la la, watch out the romance ♪ >> larry: international superstar. style icon. ♪ self-proclaimed freak ♪ i want to kiss you ♪ >> larry: lady gaga gives us a backstage pass into her unique world. ♪ next on this special 25th anniversary edition of "larry king live." ♪ can't read mine, can't read mine, no can't read my poker face ♪ >> larry: on this, our 25th anniversary week here at cnn, we're so excited to welcome lady gaga to "larry king live." she is the grammy-winning singer, songwriter, musician, performance artist whose provocative videos have been viewed more than one billion times online. and later in the show, we're going to give you a sneak peek of her latest video "alejandro." she just received five world music awards in may and is one of the top winners at the 2010 brit awards. lady gaga has sold more than 15 million albums and 40 million singles worldwide. and "time" magazine recently published this annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. lady gaga was on the cover as one of those people. were you surprised at that? >> yes, of course. i was so surprised. i didn't even imagine that i would make the list at all. and i was so excited, and i am very blessed to have the wonderful fans that i do who voted for me. should i call you larry or should i call you king larry? >> larry: well, king larry would be a great honor, but let's do larry, and i'll do gaga. >> okay. >> larry: okay. you were born stefani -- how did you come up with lady gaga? >> well, it was actually a nickname that some of my friends called me in new york. i was doing these performance art pop music pieces in the city. and they were a bit on the eccentric side i suppose. so people started to call me gaga after the queen song "radio gaga." >> larry: at what age growing up, gaga, did you know that you wanted to be a performer? >> in the womb, larry. in my mother's warm womb. >> larry: at your birth. >> yes, at my birth. i guess you could say it's always been my destiny to be a performer. i used to perform even just in restaurants with my family or in the living room. but it's been really a very exciting transition now that i get to do this for a living. and i just refuse to stop. i probably should take a break and go on vacation. but i'd rather die on stage. not under a palm tree. >> larry: before you were a performer, did you have any other jobs? >> yeah, well, i was a waitress for many years. and a bartender. and i was a go go dancer briefly as well. i used to make a lot of money to pay for demos and flyers that i used to post up all around the nyu area on the lower east side to get people to come see my shows. i got a job when i was 15 because my allowance was about $20 a week. which in new york was impossible. so i used to waitress across the street from where i grew up. and i used to take all the money i made waitressing so that i could go watch jazz downtown. >> larry: you said that people use the word icon carelessly. do you consider yourself an icon? >> no, i do not. i hope when i'm dead i'll be considered an icon, though. >> larry: who are your icons? who does lady gaga look up to? >> who do i look up to? my mother. my grandmother. i love princess diana. so much. she was an enormous influence on me when i was younger, because my mother worshipped her so much. her story, how she began, what she married into, how her society affected her as a woman, i was always very fascinated with princess diana. when she died, it was -- i'll never forget. my mother was crying, sitting on the couch watching the news, and i was very young. and it was this very powerful moment in my childhood watching my mother so connected to someone. so i guess you could say she is one of my biggest icons. as well as, you know, david bowie, wonderful. >> larry: did the family encourage you to sing and dance and perform? >> yes. my mother was actually in musical theater when she was younger, and my dad was in a bruce springsteen cover band for many years. he was a real jersey shore boy. and they were always very supportive. they always -- you know, i think more than anything in my house growing up, my parents instilled a strong work ethic in me and my sisters. so as long as i worked hard at whatever it is i wanted to do, they were okay with me doing it. but if i was ever lazy, i would -- i would reckon that they would perhaps not want me to do it. >> larry: there has been a lot of stories and stories so often wrong about your health. how are you? >> i'm okay, thank you, larry. how are you? >> larry: i'm okay. i mean, you look great. there was a story about lupus or something? do you have lupus? >> you know, lupus is in my family, and it is genetic. it's funny because my mother told me the other day that my fans were quite worried about me because they did talk about the fact that i was tested for lupus. and the truth is i don't show any signs, any symptoms of lupus. but i have tested borderline positive for the disease. so as of right now i do not have it. but i have to take good care of myself. >> larry: sure, you have to be very precautionary. death, though, is a theme in a number of your performances. you're only 24. you have been eaten by a giant angler fish on stage, crushed by a falling chandelier during a 2009 mtv music show. do you think about dying? >> yes, i do. >> larry: at age 24? >> it's something i -- well, i dream about it a lot. i don't know. i suppose i could lie to you and not tell you the truth, but the truth is i do think about it. the angler fish in the show was actually my childhood monster. my big fear was of the angler fish. so it was kind of comical to use it in the show that i battle my childhood fear every night before the finale. i don't know. i actually am good friends with deepak chopra who i speak a lot about to about my dreams. and he thinks it's nothing to really worry about. he tells me i'm very creative and i should learn to embrace my insanity and not worry so much because i always call him and saying deepak, i had this most horrible, morbid dream. what does it all mean? he says you're just very creative. put it on stage. >> deepak is on this program a lot. he never worries about anything. he doesn't. >> he is a wonderful -- he is a wonderful person. i wish i could be more like that. but, you know, i think part of my fascination with it, as well as why it is in this show is that the show is a celebration of shame. the show is a rejection of insecurity. the monster ball is in essence an exorcism for my fans and for myself where we sort of put everything out on the table and reject it. there is so much in the show about insecurity and struggle. and so many of my fans are really, really, really troubled. and i was really troubled. and i still am fairly troubled. so i guess you can say i relate to my fans in that way. and i choose not to hide from it. i'm not interested, larry, in being a perfect placid pop singer that looks great in bikinis and is on the cover of every magazine. i'm more interested in helping my fans to love who they are and helping them to reject prejudice and reject those things that they're taught from society to not like themselves. >> larry: well said. >> like they're not wanted. >> larry: much more with lady gaga ahead, including an exclusive sneak peek. you're going to see this for the first time of her new musical video for "alejandro." you will not want to miss this. we'll be right back. okay, one more time. where do we stand? less travel? more video conferences? limit the cell phone minutes. that's not good enough. we're not leaving this room unless we can cut something else. can they really keep us here? what about all this stuff? what stuff? all this stuff. what does it cost to create all this? time, effort, people. how much? it could be millions. ♪ millions. [ male announcer ] save money. trust your business processes to xerox. xerox. ready for real business. to chart a greener path in the air... and in our factories. to find cleaner, more efficient ways to power flight. and harness our technology... for new energy solutions. around the globe, the people of boeing are working together, to build a better tomorrow. that's why we're here. ♪ ♪ ♪ a red wine ♪ gaga ♪ just dance ♪ stop calling, stop calling, i don't want to think anymore ♪ ♪ caught on the dance floor ♪ stop calling, stop calling, i don't want to talk anymore ♪ >> larry: we're back with lady gaga. it's our 25th anniversary week. we're honored to have her be one of our featured guests. bill gates will be with us tomorrow night. and lebron james friday night. we're very diversified. we have a question for you, gaga. it's on our facebook page. is it true michael jackson wanted to perform with you on his "this is it" comeback tour? >> you know, um, it's always very difficult because i don't necessarily like to talk about those very personal things that happened. i guess i can speak about it now. i was actually asked to open for michael on his tour. and we were going to open for him at the o2, and we were working on making it happen. >> larry: wow. >> and i suppose i believe there was some talk about lots of the openers doing duets with michael on stage. but michael's death was devastating for me regardless of whether or not i was supposed to go on tour with him. he is such an inspiration and remarkable human being. i guess i suppose, larry, some of my fascination with death and the demise of the celebrity goes along with me watching these hugely iconic and amazing people that i have heralded and admired my whole life become destroyed. whether self-destroyed or destroyed by the media. >> larry: how did you come up with the idea, the incredible idea of these costumes? of not just singing and dancing, but the way you present yourself, how did that come about? >> well, some of the things i wear are obviously created for me by designers or they're recreations of archives of things worn in the '70s and in the '80s. but lots of the newer more original pieces, they're meant to be kind of a rejection of what people view about women. i guess i'm a feminist. i am a feminist. and i want to change the way people view women and change -- i guess it's not quite sure what she definitely means by her work, but marina abramovic, the performance artist, she seems to be quite limitless and seems to say she or we create our own limits. i guess i'm trying to push the limits, push the boundaries as much as i can. and i also really love the way i dress. it brings me a personal joy and satisfaction in my own life that i like to share with my fans. i also try to create things that are quite easy for my fans to replicate. some of them not so much. but some of them are very easy for my fans to replicate, and that bonds us in a way. it's quite nice to have this connection to them outside of everything else. yes. >> larry: is there any boundary you won't cross? >> i suppose -- well, you'll have to wait, larry. i'm not sure. i'm not interested in violence. yes, i don't like violence. i hate violence. i don't like negativity. i don't like prejudice. i don't believe in hatred in music. there are some things, i suppose. >> larry: well said. you said that your 2008 single "just dance," that single, saved your life that was a quote from "the sunday observer." how? >> well, of course people love to take sound bites from nice interviews that i give. but it saved my life i guess in -- just as in a transitional way in terms of where i was in the journey of my music. and i had moved to los angeles and i'd been dropped from record labels a few times, and been through so many obstacles and told no, rejected, you're not pretty enough, thin enough, can't write a song good enough, you're a freak, the weird girl from new york. it was rejection after rejection. and i wrote this song "just dance." and it was my eureka moment. it was the thing that everyone was able to latch on to, the record label, the gay community who has been the most enormous blessing of my life that i have them and their support and the way that they truly understand me and support me. and in fact the "alejandro" video, which will premier very soon, but you'll see a snippet of it tonight is a celebration of my love and appreciation for the gay community. my admiration of their bravery and their love for one another, their courage in their relationships. it's something i have yet to nail on the head with a man, larry. >> larry: she has a special relationship with her fans. we'll talk about that and a lot of other things when we come back. or even buy the camper... without blueprint from chase. create a plan to pay off large purchases... and save money on interest. does your credit card have blueprint? design your plan at 866 blueprint. [ slap! ] -[ slap! slap! slap! slap! ] -ow, ow! [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum ta tum tum tums i had a heart problem. i was told to begin my aspirin regimen. i just didn't listen until i awoke with pains in my chest. i almost lost my life. my doctor's again ordered me to take aspirin. and i do. i make sure that he does it. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone, so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ mike ] i encourage everyone to listen to the doctor. and take it seriously. [ male announcer ] learn moret at iamproheart.com. wrench? wrench. basic. preferred. okay. at meineke i have options, and 50% off brake pads and shoes. my money. my choice. my meineke. ♪ ♪ oh, caught in a bad romance ♪ oh, caught in a bad romance ♪ ra, ra, roma, roma, gaga, ooh lak with the fantastic lady gaga on this our 25th anniversary week. we'll be joined thursday night by the president of the united states, barack obama. you said, lady gaga, that you don't touch cocaine anymore. was it hard to stop doing it? >> no, it wasn't. by the time that i had stopped doing it, it was ruining my life. so no, i kind of just threw it away, i guess. >> larry: british tabloids say -- i want to get this right. you walked into a local pub in birmingham, you had a few drinks and picked up everybody's tab when you left. true? >> yes. what's wrong with buying a few friends a beer. >> larry: all right. you're in the midst now of a massive world tour. in fact, you're coming to us from the o2 arena in london where you'll be performing. what is that pressure like, to go on that kind of tour? >> it's a wonderful pressure. it's the most amazing pressure. it's not like any other kind of pressure. it's not under pressure, it's not water pressure. it's not pressure cooker. it's just w
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American Libraries
TV News
Understanding 9/11
