Billboard just named Lady Gaga as Woman of the Year, taking over the title from 2014's winner Taylor Swift. In the cover story, the singer admits that she wanted to quit being a pop star back in 2014. "'[My] stylist asked, 'Do you even want to be a pop star anymore?' I looked at him and I go, 'You know, if I could just stop this train right now, today, I would. I just can't. [But] I need to get off now because I'm going to die,'" she confessed.
Since last year, Lady Gaga has presented a decidedly new Gaga to the world by recording with icon Tony Bennett and winning over a whole new audience with her Julie Andrews-approved performance of songs from The Sound of Music at the Academy Awards. Gaga likewise shared a new outlook on artistry. "Can’t being an artist be enough? Is talent ever the thing? I think for Adele it is. I think for Bruno Mars it is. But that’s what I learned from working with Tony: If talent isn’t the thing, then you are way off-base."
Gaga also expressed the importance of music education and equates stifling creativity with giving someone blue balls. "Kids become depressed when they are born with a creative instinct but are not taught how to express it," she said. "Can you imagine having to come and someone says, ‘I’m so sorry, but you can never ejaculate in this life’? If you don’t teach someone how to release that energy, it gets blocked up, and it’s painful. Kids need to learn how to express who they are and seek value in it.” You can read the full cover story over at Billboard. Billboard's Woman of the Year Awards will air on Lifetime Dec. 18.
