Lana Del Rey is on the cover of Rolling Stone and guess what? She’s sad. So, you know, don’t worry because you haven’t missed anything. What’s really noteworthy here is her cover’s co-star, a cat that looks ready to spring for it at any moment.
Del Rey spoke to writer Brian Hiatt about a few things, including not being herself lately:
“Well, I feel fucking crazy,” she says. “But I don’t think I am. People make me feel crazy.” She blames her much-publicized “I wish I were dead” quotes on leading questions, but adds, “I find that most people I meet figure I kind of want to kill myself anyway. So, it comes up every time.”
On her penchant for writing lyrics like “You hit me and it felt like a kiss” or “he hurt me and it felt like true love” but not wanting people to hear them — probably because they support her aforementioned mental space — despite releasing an album publicly:
“I just don’t want them to hear it at all,” she says. “I’m very selfish. I make everything for me, kind of. I mean, every little thing, down to the guitar and the drums. It’s just for me… I don’t want them to hear it and think about it. It’s none of their business!”
On bombing That SNL Performance which caused Juliette Lewis to lose her shit:
“It wasn’t dynamic, but it was true to form,” she says, though former Interscope Records head Jimmy Iovine reveals that he worked with her afterwards on the use of in-ear monitors. In any case, Del Rey says music-biz friends pulled away from her post-SNL: “Everyone I knew suddenly wasn’t so sure about me,” she says. “They were like, ‘Maybe I don’t want to be associated with her – not a great reputation.'”
Oh, and she was begged Rolling Stone to rethink putting her on the cover because she felt she had nothing much to talk about:
“I’m not sure if they should run this story,” she tells senior writer Brian Hiatt. “I feel like maybe we should wait until there’s something good to talk about. You know? I just wish you could write about something else. There has to be someone else to be the cover story. Like, there has to be. Anybody.”
False modesty and interview recanting will get you everywhere, Lana.
Image via Rolling Stone.