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Her style icons are her favourite ‘glam’ rock acts, including David Bowie and Queen – she took her name from the band’s anthem Radio Ga Ga – but she also draws inspiration from her formative years as a stripper.
“I have a strong sense of my own sexuality. I love the naked human body and I have huge body confidence,” she says.
“I was working in strip clubs when I was 18. Girls from my background weren’t meant to turn into someone like me. I come from a wealthy Italian family, went to a good school [she was at the same super-rich Manhattan Catholic girls’ school – Convent Of The Sacred Heart – as Paris Hilton]. You’re meant to live with Mom and Dad until they die. I went against all I was brought up to be; I moved out of home, wouldn’t take any help from my parents [her internet entrepreneur dad and his Lady GaGabusiness partner wife] and supported myself with waitressing jobs and stripping.
“My act was pretty wild. I’d wear black leather and dance to Black Sabbath, Guns N’ Roses and Faith No More. Very rock ’n’ roll.”
Probably more rock ’n’ roll than she’ll admit, as it was around this time she got heavily into drugs – but she quit when her father read her the riot act.
“I don’t like to talk about it too much but there were drugs, serious drugs,” she says. “I wouldn’t want to inspire other people to do the same.” But she doesn’t regret the stripping.
“I discovered a real personal freedom through it. Obviously my parents didn’t like it. I was drawing huge crowds, setting hairspray alight on stage and dancing madly. My dad thought I’d lost it. With the drugs it was his reaction that pulled me back. I didn’t go to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. I did it myself. I have such a fear of failure, I didn’t want anything to make me fail. So I stopped. I still drink and party, but there’s no darkness now. Just a lot of fun.”
“I have a strong sense of my own sexuality. I love the naked human body and I have huge body confidence,” she says.
“I was working in strip clubs when I was 18. Girls from my background weren’t meant to turn into someone like me. I come from a wealthy Italian family, went to a good school [she was at the same super-rich Manhattan Catholic girls’ school – Convent Of The Sacred Heart – as Paris Hilton]. You’re meant to live with Mom and Dad until they die. I went against all I was brought up to be; I moved out of home, wouldn’t take any help from my parents [her internet entrepreneur dad and his Lady GaGabusiness partner wife] and supported myself with waitressing jobs and stripping.
“My act was pretty wild. I’d wear black leather and dance to Black Sabbath, Guns N’ Roses and Faith No More. Very rock ’n’ roll.”
Probably more rock ’n’ roll than she’ll admit, as it was around this time she got heavily into drugs – but she quit when her father read her the riot act.
“I don’t like to talk about it too much but there were drugs, serious drugs,” she says. “I wouldn’t want to inspire other people to do the same.” But she doesn’t regret the stripping.
“I discovered a real personal freedom through it. Obviously my parents didn’t like it. I was drawing huge crowds, setting hairspray alight on stage and dancing madly. My dad thought I’d lost it. With the drugs it was his reaction that pulled me back. I didn’t go to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. I did it myself. I have such a fear of failure, I didn’t want anything to make me fail. So I stopped. I still drink and party, but there’s no darkness now. Just a lot of fun.”
