Lady Gaga Breaks Silence on Death of Tony Bennett: ‘I Will Miss My Friend Forever’

Ryan Schwartz
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Lady Gaga is opening up about the loss of her friend Tony Bennett, who died on July 21 at the age of 96.

“I will miss my friend forever,” Gaga wrote in a lengthy Instagram tribute on Monday. “I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together. With Tony, I got to live my life in a time warp… We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, and gave it all new life as a singing duo. But it wasn’t an act. Our relationship was very real. Sure, he taught me about music, about showbiz life, but he also showed me how to keep my spirits high and my head screwed on straight.”

More from TVLine

Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016. His family first went public with his diagnosis in February 2021. He retired from touring shortly thereafter, and his final performance was filmed for the CBS concert special One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, an event that Gaga referenced in her remembrance.

“Losing Tony to Alzheimer’s has been painful but it was also really beautiful,” she continued. “An era of memory loss is such a sacred time in a person’s life. There’s such a feeling of vulnerability and a desire to preserve dignity. All I wanted was for Tony to remember how much I loved him and how grateful I was to have him in my life. But, as that faded slowly I knew deep down he was sharing with me the most vulnerable moment in his life that he could — being willing to sing with me when his nature was changing so deeply. I’ll never forget this experience. I’ll never forget Tony Bennett.”

Together, Bennett and Gaga released two albums: 2014’s Cheek to Cheek, which was Bennett’s last No. 1 record, and 2021’s Love for Sale, which marked his final studio release. (Gaga previously paid tribute to Bennett at the 2022 Grammy Awards, which you can see here.)

Bennett’s career spanned more than 70 years. He released a whopping 61 studio albums and 11 live albums. His first LP, Because of You, was released in 1952.

He was most commonly associated with the song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” the title track from his 1962 album — his first to land in the Top 5 on the Billboard 200. The album earned him his first career Grammys (for Record of the Year and Best Solo Vocal Performance, Male). The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994, while Bennett received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.

Best of TVLine

Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter

Click here to read the full article.