How Lady Gaga’s Backyard Moment With Her Fiancé Inspired “Blade of Grass”

Lady Gaga has always poured her heart into her music, but this time, it’s personal. The 14-time Grammy winner revealed that her fiancé, Michael Polansky, inspired one of the songs on her upcoming album, Mayhem, out this Friday.

In a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Gaga, 38, opened up about how a simple, intimate moment with Michael led to the creation of Blade of Grass. She recalled a conversation in their backyard, where he asked how she would want him to propose one day. Her answer? Not with diamonds, but with something much simpler.

“We were in our backyard and I said, ‘Just take a blade of grass and wrap it around my finger,” Lady Gaga shared.

That moment stayed with her, and she turned it into lyrics. “And then I wrote ‘Blade of Grass’ because I remembered the way his face looked and I remembered the grass in the backyard and I remember thinking he should use that really long grass that’s in the center of the backyard,” she revealed.

Of course, when the real proposal happened, Michael went a little bigger — presenting Gaga with a stunning oval diamond ring on April Fool’s Day. The two were first linked in 2020 and got engaged in early 2024, though they kept the news private for months.

Gaga also spoke about how her relationship has helped her reconnect with music in a deeper way. “Those moments, to me, at a certain point I was into the idea of fame and artifice and being the conductor of your own life when it came to your own inner sense of fame,” she admitted. “But I needed to go live life to have a full life and also to give back to my true gift.”

Michael, she says, played a big role in helping her find that balance. “He was like, ‘You who you are is that you’re an artist. That’s the thing that makes you the most happy, so we need to nurture that part of you.’ He reminded me that the other stuff was maybe sometimes hard for me and making it more difficult, so keeping me away from what I love,” she recalled.

Friends say the couple couldn’t be happier. “They’re great together,” a source told PEOPLE, adding that he supports her career even though he doesn’t want the spotlight himself. 

And according to Gaga, that’s exactly what she needed. “I just love my fiancé so much,” she said last year. He’s my best friend. He’s my partner, and I just feel like when you are with your best friend, everything changes.”