May 08, 2009

Lady Gaga On Success: 'The Turning Point For Me Was The Gay Community'

By Jocelyn Vena, reporting by Tim Kash

Despite a string of hit singles like "Just Dance" and "Poker Face," and being embraced by everyone from Kanye West to Madonna, initially a lot of people wouldn't give Lady Gaga the time of day.

"Some people didn't get it. Some people still don't get it," she told MTV News on the set of Wale's video for "Chillin." "I read reviews sometimes and I'm like, 'Wow, that guy really doesn't f---ing like me.' Like, they really don't get it, but that's cool. You've got to create some kind of stir. You've got to say something that's got to upset some people, and that's the risk-taking that makes music so fun."

She added that before her songs became radio staples, she was hard-pressed to convince anyone to play them on the radio. "The real struggle is that they didn't want to play my music on the radio," she explained. "We fought and we fought and I played every club. I had chicken dinner with every program director I could get my hands on."

Those days may be behind Gaga, but while she was trying to schmooze people to love her, there was a group of fans out there who didn't need any chicken to be convinced.

"The turning point for me was the gay community," she said. "I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fanbase. ... Being invited to play [the San Francisco Pride rally], that was a real turning point for me as an artist."

While her star has been rising in recent months - particularly thanks to her remarkable appearance on American Idol - Gaga says she feels her audience is an army of outsiders.

"It's funny because some friends of mine from New York, they all came out to see [last weekend's] show in New York. And they all said to me, 'Gaga your fans are all of the misfits. They are all of the kids in school that everybody makes fun of,' " she explained. "All of the weird kids, the artistic kids, all the bad ones. And I love that, because that's who I was. We're all together and they get it. It's our own little world.

"Whether I've got a #1 record or nobody knows who the hell I am, I'm going to still make music," she concluded. "It's always fun for me."