Lady Gaga Writes Emotional Tribute to Her "Real True Friend" Tony Bennett
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Lady Gaga is mourning the death of Tony Bennett, who passed away last week at age 96.
"I will miss my friend forever," she began a lengthy Instagram post. "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. Tony & I had this magical power. We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, & gave it all new life as a singing duo. But it wasn't an act. Our relationship was very real."
Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2016, but continued to perform and record for years—his last public performance was in August 2021 with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall. "I've been grieving the loss of Tony for a long time. We had a very long and powerful goodbye," Gaga added.
She wrote that he was a "real true friend" despite their age gap. "Our age difference didn’t matter-- in fact, it gave us each something neither of us had with most people," she explained. "We were from two different stages in life entirely--inspired."
In the most powerful part of the post, she talks about the experience of being Bennett's friend while he was losing his memory due to Alzheimer's.
"Losing Tony to Alzheimer’s has been painful but it was also really beautiful," Lady Gaga writes. "An era of memory loss is such a sacred time in a persons 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."
She concludes with a call to her fans to care for their elders. "If I could say anything to the world about this I would say don’t discount your elders, don’t leave them behind when things change. Don’t flinch when you feel sad, just keep going straight ahead, sadness is part of it. Take care of your elders and I promise you will learn something special. Maybe even magical. And pay attention to silence—some of my musical partner and I’s most meaningful exchanges were with no melody at all."
You can see the full post here:
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