Lana Del Rey: ‘I Don’t Need A Persona To Create Music’


Lana Del Rey has carefully crafted her career in music, becoming one of the best-selling, most critically lauded women in the past five years.

But in a new interview with NME, Del Rey scoffs at the notion that she’s entirely defined by her stage persona.

“I definitely don’t need a persona to create music,” Lana candidly confesses in the article. “It’s not a David Bowie type of thing necessarily. I just put music out under a different name with a fully realized sound and texture.”

That “realized sound,” as she puts it, comes complete with a dark and brooding outlook on life in her song lyrics. Her character also has a penchant for chasing down “bad boys” in her songs, something else that isn’t entirely true to life.

“When it comes to guys, I haven’t courted bad guys into my life but I think because I was artistic I never settled for anyone who wasn’t completely enthralled with life or with being different, and that didn’t lend any clarity to my world, although it was enriching in other ways.”

So what’s the biggest difference between her onstage Lana Del Rey persona and the real Lizzie Grant?

Lana Del Rey Stalker
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – JANUARY 11: Singer Lana Del Rey attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. [Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]

“I guess the biggest difference is that when I’m on stage I’m the center of attention and when I’m back at home I try to blend in. Obviously I’m singing the songs because they relate to my life.”

Of course, the lines between what’s real and what isn’t can most certainly blur for those around Lana and even those who would like to be.

As reported by TMZ, Lana Del Rey recently testified against two alleged female stalkers, an uncomfortable scenario for the pop singer.

“The girls caused a big scene screaming at me,” Lana revealed on the stand.

She’s also said they put letters in her mailbox threatening suicide and other violent acts.

“Lana said in court today… that what she finds ‘most disturbing’ is that even after she moved to get away from the pair, they tracked her down at the new house and waited on the street for her. She said that after she reported them to police she got a message on Instagram saying, ‘You’re a f**king b***h.'”

Lana Del Rey isn’t the first celebrity to be harassed by fans who buy too much into the rock persona either. As detailed by Miami New Times, Selena Gomez, Sheryl Crow and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder all had scary brushes with celebrity stalkers that almost went too far.

Selena Gomez Stalker
[Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images for Billboard]

“Barely legal teen pop queen Selena Gomez received a seriously threatening letter from a superfan-turned-stalker named Thomas Brodnicki and Crossfade can’t help but wonder if those naked gold statues had anything to do with it. Regardless, it’s ridiculous for a 46-year-old man to become so obsessed with a 19-year-old pop star that he plots to kill her. A plot, we must add, that he has allegedly mulled over with God Himself.”

Vedder’s brush with crazed stalkers was only thwarted by a brick wall he had erected around his estate back in the mid-90s, as he detailed in the Pearl Jam Twenty documentary from 2011. It also inspired the cult favorite song “Lukin.”

Lana Del Rey, meanwhile, hopes to put her scary encounter behind her so she doesn’t need a wall to protect her in the future. But as long as she continues to make popular hit albums, like 2014’s Ultraviolence and last year’s Honeymoon, she’s susceptible to the perils of fame. Just don’t confuse her with her alter ego.

“There is a high fantasy element in the music, but I’m incredibly plugged into what’s going on,” she said. “I’ve had a very real life, and there have been a lot of things that took a lot of strength and wherewithal to figure out… things I’m still figuring out.”

[Photo by Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]

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