Lady Gaga Tells Her Stories to Howard, Song by Song

Photo: The Howard Stern Show

Howard had a lot of questions for Lady Gaga about her music and he wanted to start at the beginning, with her very first hit.

“Just Dance” – Howard loved the beginning synthesizer notes of the song. Gaga wrote the song with Red One and though the song was quick and easy, but it had been “a long time coming.” She’d struggled for a while to “find the song that was going to break my career.” She didn’t know that this was that song, but there it was.

“Poker Face” – Lady Gaga confirmed that this song was, indeed, about fantasizing about a woman while having sex with a man. Gaga claimed that at the time she wrote it, she was in a weird place with men, and “felt safer with girls.”

“Love Game” – Lady Gaga had a huge crush on her engineer when she came up with this song, which was written while she was writing songs for the Pussycat Dolls. So when she was singing about taking a ride on “your disco stick,” she was directing it at him.

“I WANT TO HOLD ON TO THIS MOMENT. IT WAS REALLY SPECIAL AND BEAUTIFUL” – Howard Stern

“Paparazzi” – Gaga wrote this at the beginning of what she saw as a culture obsessed with reality stars and fame. Howard asked if she like the paparazzi and she admitted that she does. She had a good relationship with them and enjoys dressing up and performing for the photographers. It’s not her life, though. “The fame is not the thing.” Performing is the thing. She does love her fans though, and Howard was reminded of a story where Gaga’s fans broke into her house and she let them hang out and eat with her. Gaga says it wasn’t true. She was naked in her kitchen looking for Thanksgiving leftovers, when she heard noises and it turned out that some fans had gathered in her garage. She did not break bread with them.

“Telephone” – Gaga wrote this one and it was given to the Pussycat Dolls, much to her chagrin. Thankfully the Dolls wanted something more “urban,” so it was handed over to Britney Spears. Britney recorded it, but it wasn’t released. After he smash hit Bad Romance came out, Gaga said, “I got to sing Telephone.” Here hits would be her own from there on out.

“I LOVE PERFORMING FOR YOU” – Lady Gaga, to Howard

Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for, Lady Gaga got behind the Steinway and played two songs from her brand new album, “ARTPOP.”

First up was “Dope,” which was dedicated to her family, her boyfriend, her fans, the music business, almost everything positive in Lady Gaga’s life. It was a message to them that they were more important to her than dope.

Finally, she left us with a song called “Gypsy,” which was about her love for her vagabond, transient life.

Lady Gaga thanked Howard, and told him that when she heard she was coming on the show, she specifically asked if she could perform for him. “I love performing for you.”

“I want to hold on to this moment,” Howard said. “It was really special and beautiful”