Lady Gaga Gets Emotional Talking Pre-Fame Life

Once upon a time, before Lady Gaga was Lady Gaga, she was simply Stefani Germanotta. Things are different now: She’s one of the biggest stars in the world (and she’s hosting SNL this weekend). She looks back especially fondly on the old days, though.

A new Gaga interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe was filmed in one of Gaga’s pre-fame haunts, and Lowe asked Gaga if her life since becoming famous has “felt like the blink of an eye or a river.” As Gaga reflected on the question, she was outwardly emotional as she started to sniffle and tear up. She responded, “Both. It definitely feels like both.”

Gaga continued:

“I just had no idea what was going to happen, and I’m really grateful that it did, but what I value when I think about this time is not what it gave to me in my career, but the endless memories. The memories were so powerful here, and that will just be in my heart forever. You know, I am so grateful, and you hear me say it a million times when I talk about this, ’cause I obviously feel like I need to qualify that piece of myself, and it’s true, but I do feel so happy to be in a place now in my life when… the thing that I valued the most in all of this was the community, and I left that behind.”

Check out the full interview above.