“Mayhem” is Lady Gaga’s glorious return to her dark dance-pop roots, featuring the snarling single “Disease” and bewitching viral sensation “Abracadabra.”
But the very best song on her dazzling new album, out Friday, just might be the more downtempo “Blade of Grass,” an evocative piano ballad about undying, unvarnished love. The anthem is sure to become a future wedding staple, with its poignant lyrics about how “forever’s not enough,” and forgoing a diamond ring when you have “the air that I’m breathing.”
Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, says it was “very special” co-writing the track with her fiancé,
venture capitalist Michael Polansky. The couple got engaged early last year after four years of dating.
“We started working on that song after we got engaged,” Gaga tells USA TODAY. “A long time ago, we were in the backyard and he said, ‘If I ever propose to you, what should I do?’ I said, ‘You can just wrap a blade of grass around my finger and I’ll say yes.’”
Despite its amorous sentiment, “Blade of Grass” paints a more nuanced portrait of romantic love, with gloomy imagery of a burned-down church and wearing a makeshift ring like a cast. In that sense, the song is about healing and closing the book on past relationships ‒ ideas that Gaga believes everyone can relate to.
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“It’s a love song between the two of us, but sometimes when we find love in our lives, it can also help us reflect on what it took to get there,” Gaga says. “Standing in my backyard, looking out at the ocean, I was thinking about all the people I’ve left behind or lost along the way. It was this incredibly happy moment and also bittersweet, which is why that record is haunting and beautiful.”
Lady Gaga says she ‘wasn’t really happy with life’ when she met fiancé Michael Polansky
Throughout her more than 15 years in the spotlight, Gaga, 38, has been candid about her struggles with mental health, substance abuse and debilitating chronic pain. It’s why her fans on social media have been moved to see the Oscar and Grammy winner so contented and creatively energized in recent months. So for someone who once believed she needed to suffer for her art, when did Gaga realize she deserves to be happy?
“I really appreciate you asking me that question and asking it so kindly,” Gaga says. “It was recent, actually – it was in the last five years. I decided I wanted better for myself. But also, Michael and I became friends about a month before we started dating, and he basically said to me, ‘I want you to know that you could be a lot happier.’ It was hard to hear that from him; I felt a lot of shame that he could see I was unhappy. I was trying to show him I was OK, but I wasn’t really. And I think he wanted me to know that it was OK to be honest with him that I wasn’t really happy with life.
“He did a lot with me over the past five years, through friendship and love, to support me,” she adds. “He really helped me be the boss and I can’t thank him enough for that. I feel in charge of my life.”
Gaga reveals how one of the most memorable songs on new album ‘Mayhem’ came to be
“Mayhem” is, in many ways, the most adventurous album of her already iconic career. The 14-track project ping-pongs sonically between sparkling synth-pop (“How Bad Do U Want Me”), funky psychedelia (“Killah”) and guitar-blazing confessionals (“Perfect Celebrity”). The tune that Gaga is perhaps most eager to perform live is “Shadow of a Man,” a disco-infused tongue-twister that she says is “one of my favorite songs on the record,” as well as her mom’s.
Gaga worked with producers including Andrew Watt, Cirkut and Gesaffelstein on her seventh studio album, which closes out with her hit Bruno Mars duet “Die With a Smile.” The project’s infectious third track, “Garden of Eden,” is destined to be a favorite among Little Monsters, her fandom. Equal parts sexy and sing-songy, it’s a Gwen Stefani-meets-Nine Inch Nails banger, whose throbbing bass and handclaps would feel right at home at a demonic pep rally.
“This record was about celebrating bringing industrial music and grunge together, but also with these super-pop sensibilities and 2000s influences,” Gaga says. “‘Garden of Eden’ is a song about the temptation of being in the club and all the bad decisions you’re seduced into making. It’s kind of like Level 3 after ‘Disease’ and ‘Abracadabra’ right before we get to ‘Perfect Celebrity’ on the album when the night starts to turn a little bit.”
Gaga will promote “Mayhem” in a Q&A with fans on Spotify’s official Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at 6 p.m. EST on Thursday. She’ll be on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” on Saturday, pulling double-duty as host and musical guest. She’ll also headline both weekends of the Coachella music festival in Indio, California, in April.
