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In her typically blasé and melodramatic style, American singer Lana Del Rey has said that she wishes she “was dead already”.
In a lengthy Guardian profile by journalist Tim Jonze, Del Rey was questioned as to if she sees an early death as a glamorous thing. “I don’t know. Ummm, yeah,” Del Rey responded, before adding, “I wish I was dead already…. I do! I don’t want to have to keep doing this. But I am.”
“Do what? Make music?”, Jonze asked her. “Everything. That’s just how I feel,” Del Rey replied. “If it wasn’t that way, then I wouldn’t say it. I would be scared if I knew [death] was coming, but…”
Del Rey also discussed what her family thinks of her pop star lifestyle, and detailed the disparity between what they believe her life is like and what it’s actually like. “Family members will come on the road with me and say ‘Wow, your life is just like a movie!’ And I’m like ‘Yeah, a really fucked-up movie’,” Del Rey said.
The West Coast singer, who is “not interested” in being a feminist, also posited that she believes the criticism she receives is “personal”, and not true sexism. Del Rey claimed that she isn’t a “true provocateur” compared to artists like Lily Allen, Lorde and Miley Cyrus.
“I don’t think there’s any shock value in my stuff – well, maybe the odd disconcerting lyric – but I think other people probably deserve the criticism, because they’re eliciting it,” she said.
Del Rey also revealed to The Guardian that she was set to work with the late Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed on the very day that he passed away. Reed, who died from liver disease in October 2013, was going to appear on the singer’s Ultraviolence track Brooklyn Baby (below), which has definite Velvet Underground vibes.
In the interview, Del Rey recalled that Reed passed away right as the two were set to meet in New York. “I took the red-eye [flight], touched down at 7am,” Del Rey said. “And two minutes later he died.” Brooklyn Baby had been written with Lou Reed in mind, and Reed reportedly wanted to work with Del Rey.
Del Rey’s new album, Ultraviolence, is out today.
Listen: Lana Del Rey – Brooklyn Baby
