Lady Gaga reveals what her fiancé said to inspire the most ‘beautiful’ song on ‘Mayhem’
“Mayhem” is Lady Gaga’s glorious return to her dark dance-pop roots, featuring the snarling single “Disease” and bewitching viral sensation “Abracadabra.”
But the very best song on her dazzling new album, out Friday, just might be the more downtempo “Blade of Grass,” an evocative piano ballad about undying, unvarnished love. The anthem is sure to become a future wedding staple, with its poignant lyrics about how “forever’s not enough,” and forgoing a diamond ring when you have “the air that I’m breathing.”
Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, says it was “very special” co-writing the track with her fiancé, venture capitalist Michael Polansky. The couple got engaged early last year after four years of dating.
“We started working on that song after we got engaged,” Gaga tells USA TODAY. “A long time ago, we were in the backyard and he said, ‘If I ever propose to you, what should I do?’ I said, ‘You can just wrap a blade of grass around my finger and I’ll say yes.’”
Despite its amorous sentiment, “Blade of Grass” paints a more nuanced portrait of romantic love, with gloomy imagery of a burned-down church and wearing a makeshift ring like a cast. In that sense, the song is about healing and closing the book on past relationships ‒ ideas that Gaga believes everyone can relate to.
“It’s a love song between the two of us, but sometimes when we find love in our lives, it can also help us reflect on what it took to get there,” Gaga says. “Standing in my backyard, looking out at the ocean, I was thinking about all the people I’ve left behind or lost along the way. It was this incredibly happy moment and also bittersweet, which is why that record is haunting and beautiful.”
Throughout her more than 15 years in the spotlight, Gaga, 38, has been candid about her struggles with mental health, substance abuse and debilitating chronic pain. It’s why her fans on social media have been moved to see the Oscar and Grammy winner so contented and creatively energized in recent months. So for someone who once believed she needed to suffer for her art, when did Gaga realize she deserves to be happy?
“I really appreciate you asking me that question and asking it so kindly,” Gaga says. “It was recent, actually – it was in the last five years. I decided I wanted better for myself. But also, Michael and I became friends about a month before we started dating, and he basically said to me, ‘I want you to know that you could be a lot happier.’ It was hard to hear that from him; I felt a lot of shame that he could see I was unhappy. I was trying to show him I was OK, but I wasn’t really. And I think he wanted me to know that it was OK to be honest with him that I wasn’t really happy with life.
“He did a lot with me over the past five years, through friendship and love, to support me,” she adds. “He really helped me be the boss and I can’t thank him enough for that. I feel in charge of my life.”
“Mayhem” is, in many ways, the most adventurous album of her already iconic career. The 14-track project ping-pongs sonically between sparkling synth-pop (“How Bad Do U Want Me”), funky psychedelia (“Killah”) and guitar-blazing confessionals (“Perfect Celebrity”). The tune that Gaga is perhaps most eager to perform live is “Shadow of a Man,” a disco-infused tongue-twister that she says is “one of my favorite songs on the record,” as well as her mom’s.
Gaga worked with producers including Andrew Watt, Cirkut and Gesaffelstein on her seventh studio album, which closes out with her hit Bruno Mars duet “Die With a Smile.” The project’s infectious third track, “Garden of Eden,” is destined to be a favorite among Little Monsters, her fandom. Equal parts sexy and sing-songy, it’s a Gwen Stefani-meets-Nine Inch Nails banger, whose throbbing bass and handclaps would feel right at home at a demonic pep rally.
“This record was about celebrating bringing industrial music and grunge together, but also with these super-pop sensibilities and 2000s influences,” Gaga says. “‘Garden of Eden’ is a song about the temptation of being in the club and all the bad decisions you’re seduced into making. It’s kind of like Level 3 after ‘Disease’ and ‘Abracadabra’ right before we get to ‘Perfect Celebrity’ on the album when the night starts to turn a little bit.”
Gaga will promote “Mayhem” in a Q&A with fans on Spotify’s official Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at 6 p.m. EST on Thursday. She’ll be on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” on Saturday, pulling double-duty as host and musical guest. She’ll also headline both weekends of the Coachella music festival in Indio, California, in April.
Lady Gaga says she ‘wasn’t really happy with life’ when she met fiancé Michael Polansky
Gaga reveals how one of the most memorable songs on new album ‘Mayhem’ came to be
Lady Gaga’s ‘Blade of Grass’ Lyrics Describe Michael Polansky’s Romantic Proposal to Her
Who says a little mayhem can’t be romantic? With the release of her new album, Mayhem, Lady Gaga is letting loose on the dance floor but also tugging at our heart strings, especially on the track “Blade of Grass,” which is dedicated to her fiancé, Michael Polansky. At the Little Monster Press Conference hosted by Spotify on February 27, she shared the story behind the new rock ballad, which just so happens to be inspired by the sweet way Polansky proposed to her at home.
“We were in the backyard and he said, ‘If I proposed to you one day, what am I supposed to do?’ and I said, ‘You can just get a blade of grass from the backyard and wrap it around my finger.’ And he did actually propose to me with these green bands,” Gaga explained, holding up her green ring for the audience.
She added with a laugh, “He also gave me my ring. You’ve seen it.”
Gaga continued, “It was a very special moment and I started writing that song at home with him, brought him into the studio, and Gesaffelstein [a producer and collaborator] was there.”
She went on to share what it was like writing the the song with Polansky, who happens to be a venture capitalist with an artistic side.
“It’s special because every time I hear it, Michael and I, when we did the bridge together, I said, ‘I’ll give you something, and it’s no diamond ring,’ and he said, ‘The air that I’m breathing.’ When I hear that song, it represents this special time in my life, but also just to explain: My backyard and those blades of grass was also the place where I saw my friend Sonya get married, and then two months later, she passed away. There was so much loss in that backyard and in my life. You know those places in your life where it’s like, maybe your happy place but also your sad place? So that song, that’s what Mayhem is to me. So it’s a very special song to me.”
News of Gaga’s engagement broke in June 2024, but the couple first met in 2019. They were introduced by the singer’s mother, Cynthia Germanotta, who met Polansky through her work in philanthropy.
Read the full lyrics to “Blade of Grass” below, courtesy of Genius.
[Verse 1]
Lovers kiss in a garden made of thorns
Traces of lonely words, illusions torn
[Pre-Chorus]
You said, “How does a man like me love a woman like you?”
I said, “Hold me until I die and I’ll make you brand new”
[Chorus]
Come on and wrap that blade of grass
Around my finger like a cast
‘Cause even though the church burned down
I’ll be your queen without a crown
I’ve been so lonely in this field
Fightin’ a battle with no shield
Come on and wrap that blade of grass
And we’ll make it last
[Verse 2]
This is the lawn of memories I mourn
I fall into your eyes, shelter from storm
[Pre-Chorus]
You said, “How does a man like me love a woman like you?”
I said, “Hold me until I die and I’ll make you brand new”
[Chorus]
Come on and wrap that blade of grass
Around my finger like a cast
‘Cause even though the church burned down
I’ll be your queen without a crown
I’ve been so lonely in this field
Fightin’ a battle with no shield
Come on and wrap that blade of grass
And we’ll make it last
Come on and wrap that blade of grass
And we’ll make it last
[Bridge]
I’ll give you something
Yeah, it’s no diamond ring
The air that I’m breathing
Forever’s not enough
A song we’ll both sing
Yeah, it’s not the same thing
Yeah, it’s not the same thing
Forever’s not enough
[Chorus]
Come on and wrap that blade of grass
Around my finger like a cast
‘Cause even though the church burned down
I’ll be your queen without a crown
I’ve been so lonely in this field
Fightin’ a battle with no shield
Come on and wrap that blade of grass
Come on and wrap that blade of grass
Come on and wrap that blade of grass
And we’ll make it last
Come on and wrap that blade of grass
And we’ll make it last
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LADY GAGA EXPLAINS HOW MICHAEL POLANSKY’S PROPOSAL INSPIRED HER SONG ‘BLADE OF GRASS’
By TOMÁS MIER
Lady Gaga ends Mayhem with love. On Friday, the pop singer will release her seventh studio album, Mayhem. On a recent call with Rolling Stone ahead of the album, she shared that the second-to-last song, “Blade of Grass,” is a track she wrote after her engagement to fiancé Michael Polansky last spring.
“I wrote it after Michael proposed to me. The song was about a memory that I had of us standing in the backyard and he said, ‘When I propose to you, what am I supposed to do?’” Gaga says. “And I said, ‘You can just wrap a blade of grass around my finger in the backyard. And I’ll say yes.’”
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