Everyone Loves You When You're Dead. Neil Strauss
Чтение книги онлайн.

Читать онлайн книгу Everyone Loves You When You're Dead - Neil Strauss страница 16

Название: Everyone Loves You When You're Dead

Автор: Neil Strauss

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Музыка, балет

Серия:

isbn: 9780857861214

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ way, I was trying to find a fundamental purpose for my own existence. And basically trying to enter people’s lives in that fashion and hopefully maintain that relationship over a lifetime, or at least as long as I felt I had something useful to say. That was why we took so long in between records. We made a lot of music. There are albums and albums worth of stuff sitting in the can. But I just didn’t feel they were that useful. [. . .]

       What kind of advice would you give the young Bruce Springsteen now?

      SPRINGSTEEN: Two things. One, I would tell him to approach his job like, on one hand, it’s the most serious thing in the world and, on the other hand, as if it’s only rock and roll. You have to keep both of those things in your head at the same time. I think I took it very seriously. And while I don’t regret doing so, I think that I would have been a bit easier and less self-punishing on myself at different times if I’d remembered that it was only rock and roll.

       What do you mean by self-punishing?

      SPRINGSTEEN: Beating up on myself physically (laughs). For me it was mostly mental and, you know, you drift down your different self-destructive roads at different times and hopefully you have the type of bonds that pull you back out of that abyss and say, “Hey, wait a minute.” When I was twenty-five, I was in London and there were posters of me everywhere in this theater that were making me want to throw up and puke. I was disgusted at what I’d become, and then someone in the band would say, “Hey, do you believe we’re in London, England, and we’re going to play tonight and somebody’s going to pay us for it?”

      So I was lucky. I had good friends and a good support network that assisted me along the way. In retrospect, I look back on those times now and they just seem funny, you know.

       And what advice would the young Bruce Springsteen give you?

      SPRINGSTEEN: Louder guitars.

       Should we head out of here?

      SPRINGSTEEN: Well, damn, we’ve had a good time. I’m stoned.10 Let’s not stop now.

       Springsteen emerges from the dark cavern of Hannah’s Cocktail Lounge into the warm April sun of the city.

      SPRINGSTEEN: Oh, man, it’s the summertime. What a day.

       A police car screeches to a stop in the middle of the street, and two officers step out. It is not the first time Springsteen has been approached by fans in law enforcement that day.

      POLICE OFFICER: Hey, big guy.

      SPRINGSTEEN: Hey, guy.

      POLICE OFFICER: How you doing, buddy?

      SPRINGSTEEN: Very good. Just having a good time. Enjoying the day.

      POLICE OFFICER: A beautiful day out for walking around, huh?

      SPRINGSTEEN: Fabulous.

      POLICE OFFICER: How’d that concert go the other day?

      SPRINGSTEEN: Good. Good time. I really enjoyed it.

      POLICE OFFICER: Do you mind signing this for me?

       Holds out his ticket pad. Springsteen autographs the ticket.

      Backstage at the LG Arena in Birmingham, England, Lady Gaga was preparing for her show. Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run blared on vinyl as she danced around her dressing room, wearing a blue bandana around her head in tribute and an unbuttoned studded vest with a black bra underneath. She was at the height of her fame, and consequently had done very few interviews. Fortunately, completely by accident, when I’d met her backstage in Nottingham the previous evening, I passed a crucial test by insisting on a seat to the concert there, which she didn’t want me to see because it was a scaled-down “B show,” as she called it.

      LADY GAGA: You’re going to get a good interview because when I met you yesterday, you wanted to see my B show. Are you kidding? We might as well have had sex by now. I mean, you came in my dressing room and said, “Please, I know it’s a B show. I know you’re hard on yourself. But I just want to see it once before I interview you tomorrow.”

       Well, good. Because I’m going to start with a hard question.

      LADY GAGA: Go ahead.

       I have a theory about you.

      LADY GAGA: Should I lay down?

       You might need to.

      LADY GAGA: We don’t have enough couches to lay me down.

       Have you ever been to therapy, by the way?

      LADY GAGA: No. I’ve like spoken to spiritual guides and things.

       But never a straight-up psychiatrist?

      LADY GAGA: I’m terrified of therapy because I don’t want it to mess with my creativity.

       That’s interesting.

      LADY GAGA: What’s worse: being normal or being abnormal? I don’t know.

       So the question is: Do you think if you’d never gotten your heart broken five years ago, you wouldn’t have become as successful as you did afterward?

      LADY GAGA: No, I wouldn’t. No, I wouldn’t have been as successful without him.11

       So here’s the thought . . .

      LADY GAGA: You made me cry (wipes tears from her eyes).

       Do you think that all that love you directed toward men now goes toward your fans instead?

      LADY GAGA: Well, I’ve really never loved anyone like I loved him. Or like I love him. I will say that the relationship really shaped me. It made me into a fighter. But I wouldn’t say that my love for my fans is equated to my attention for men. But I will say that love comes in many different forms. And I sort of resolved that if you can’t have the guy of your dreams, there are other ways to give love. So I guess in some ways you’re kind of right.

       Did he contact you at all after you got famous?

      LADY GAGA: I don’t want to talk about him.

       Okay.

      LADY GAGA: СКАЧАТЬ