Lady Gaga Reveals She Considered Walking Away from Music

Lady Gaga has revealed that she once considered “walking away” from music, saying she was “tested” in the past.

The pop star appeared on the latest episode of the Hot Ones podcast, where host Sean Evans interviews celebrities as they eat increasingly spicy chicken wings.

Towards the end of the conversation, Evans asked Gaga: “What’s the closest you’ve ever come to walking away?”.

This came after he put one of the singer’s past quotes to her, about how she’d “created this beautiful disco ball that’s somehow refracted and fractured”.

The presenter continued, asking whether “a specific project or something more existential, or just the experience of being an artist” had led Gaga to rethink her career choice at any point.

“That is an incredibly deep question to ask me in this panic mode,” she replied. “I missed the community that I had in New York [when she made it], and that was really hard. So there were definitely times where I felt like maybe I should walk away.

“I know for sure that I never would. I would definitely say that I was tested, and I always didn’t give up. And I’m still doing it, so it must mean I want to do it.”

Earlier, Evans had talked to Gaga about her journey from being a struggling club performer in New York City to being a global pop icon. She discussed being given a residency at Manhattan venue The Slipper Room.

“I was so excited,” the singer recalled. “It was such an honour to be asked to perform there. I remember I made my outfit for my Slipper Room show – I sewed it myself. I just look back on that time so fondly.

“My whole day was spent trying to get those gigs. I would knock on door after door after door and just say, ‘Can I please play here?’ Or I would call and pretend I was my manager. I would tell people, ‘She’s so hot right now’. Sometimes I would do an accent. I would do anything to get booked.”

You can watch Gaga’s Hot Ones appearance in full above.

Back in 2015, Gaga opened up about how she had “want[ed] to quit music” two years prior, because she didn’t “like being used to make people money”. She added: “I feel sad when I’m overworked and I become a moneymaking machine and my passion and creativity takes a backseat.”

The new Hot Ones episode arrives as the star prepares to release her seventh studio album, ‘Mayhem’, on March 7.

She has already shared three singles from the forthcoming record: "Die With A Smile" with Bruno Mars, "Disease", and "Abracadabra".

It’ll follow on from 2020’s "Chromatica" and her "Harlequin" companion record (2024).

Gaga recently described the LP as “utter chaos” – revealing that its influences spanned “’90s alternative, electro-grunge, Prince and Bowie melodies, guitar and attitude, funky bass lines, French electronic dance, and analogue synths”.

Elsewhere, the ‘Poker Face’ artist looked back on what she thought was the “biggest risk” of her career to date.

Earlier this month, Gaga and Bruno Mars won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with ‘Die With A Smile’. The track was also nominated in the Song Of The Year category, but ultimately lost out to Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’.

Gaga will headline Coachella 2025 in April, alongside Post Malone and Green Day.