Lady Gaga Says Her Entire Career Is A Tribute To David Bowie

Following her polarizing David Bowie tribute with Nile Rodgers at the Grammys, Lady Gaga sat down with NPR to discuss Bowie’s clear impact on her career. And when asked how she feels now that the tribute is over, she responded, “I feel like my whole career is a tribute to David Bowie.”

“The moment that I saw the Aladdin Sane cover for the first time, I was 19 years old, and it just changed my perspective on everything, forever. It was an image that changed my life,” Gaga recalled. “‘Watch That Man’ came on and, I mean, that was just the beginning of my artistic birth. I started to dress more expressively. I started to go to the library and look through more art books. I took an art history class. I was playing with a band.”

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She went on to explain that her lifestyle of “total immersion in music, fashion, art and technology” is because of Bowie. “I just would never be here, or have the philosophy that I have, if I didn’t have someone to look up to that you know blew my mind so intensely.”

Reflecting on his final album, Blackstar, Gaga called it “a truly incredible piece of music,” adding, “It’s one of the single greatest things an artist has ever done: making a masterpiece album that is their own eulogy. Can you imagine? To go into the studio every day and put your heart in that place, where you are saying goodbye to life? I mean, his art made him strong.”

Gaga also discussed “Til It Happens To You,” which she’ll be performing at The Oscars on Sunday (February 28), and the seemingly promising development that sexual abuse is being discussed more freely in the music industry.

Read or listen to the full interview right here.