Lady Gaga recently paid tribute to her friend Tony Bennett. The 37-year-old singer reflected in an emotional Instagram post showing the two hugging in a dressing room, saying, “I will miss my friend forever.”
Gaga added about Bennett, who recently died at 96, “I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on the stage together.” She continued, “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.”
Gaga said that Bennet showed her how to keep her spirits high and her head screwed on straight, as well as teaching her about showbiz and music. She shared, “He was an optimist; he believed in quality work AND quality life. Plus, there was the gratitude. Tony was always grateful,” noting the personal milestones in Bennett’s life from marching with Martin Luther King Jr. and serving in WWII.
She continued, “I’ve been grieving the loss of Tony for a long time. We had a very long and powerful goodbye. Though there were 5 decades between us, he was my friend. My real true friend. Our age difference didn’t matter. In fact, it gave us each something neither of us had with most people. We were from two different stages in life entirely.”
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Moving onto the cause of Bennett’s death, Gaga added that losing him to Alzheimer’s has been painful, but it was also really beautiful, saying, “An era of memory loss is such a sacred time in a person’s life. 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.”
She ended the post with a message to the public, saying, “IfI 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.” Lady.”
Their friendship spanned over a decade, and the two recorded Grammy award-winning albums together with 2014’s “Cheek to Cheek” and 2021’s “Love for Sale.” Bennett’s last public concerts were held with Lady Gaga at New York’s Radio City Music Hall to celebrate his 95th birthday in 2021.
In early 2021, Bennett revealed in an AARP magazine article that he had Alzheimer’s disease. Lady Gaga told “60 Minutes” that watching him decline was more emotional than anything else. She told Anderson Cooper, “It’s hard to watch somebody change,” she told Anderson Cooper. “I think what’s been beautiful about this and what’s been challenging is to see how it affects him in some ways but to see how it doesn’t affect his talent. I think he really pushed through something to give the world the gift of knowing things can change, and you can still be magnificent.
She ended with the post with, “I love you Tony. Love, Lady.”