In an in-depth interview on The Howard Stern Show, Lady Gaga revealed that she was sexually assaulted at age 19 by a man who was 20 years her senior. The popstar said that she had to undergo years of emotional therapy to get over the emotional trauma.
The singer made the statement after Stern talked to her about her song, Swine. Gaga had performed the song at SXSW in March and was surrounded in controversy because she was vomited on by "vomit painter" Millie Brown.
"I wrote a song called 'Swine.' The song is about rape. The song is about demoralization. The song is about rage and fury and passion, and I had a lot of pain that I wanted to release. I said to myself, 'I want to sing this song while I'm ripping hard on a drum kit, and then I want to get on a mechanical bull'-which is probably one of the most demoralizing things that you can put a female on in her underwear-'and I want this chick to throw up on me in front of the world so that I can tell them, you know what? You could never, ever degrade as much as I could degrade myself, and look how beautiful it is when I do." Gaga said.
Stern then asked if she was assaulted by a music producer, since the lyrics seemed to suggest so. Gaga answered: "I went through some horrific things that I'm able to laugh now, because I've gone through a lot of mental and physical therapy and emotional therapy to heal over the years."
"Happy times! Let's talk about happy things!" she further said.
The popstar would also further reveal that she once ran into her rapist at a local store. "I saw him one time in a store and I was so paralyzed by fear." Her rapist, she said, would go around telling people that she was his "ex-girlfriend."
"You were 20 years older than me," Gaga said, "I was a kid. How is that a date?"
Gaga also revealed that she never confronted her assailant, but she went on to talk that she would never let the incident define her. The singer also revealed her vulnerabilites saying that she suffered from depression and substance abuse. She also said that her music healed her, especially her jazz sessions with Tony Bennett. Gaga refuses to give her rapist the honor of controlling her mind or her music.
"I think we all should be each other's Tony Bennets," she said, after stating that jazz music healed her soul.
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