In a 2010 interview with Vanity Fair, Lady Gaga said something I've never forgotten. "I have this weird thing that if I sleep with someone," she explained, "they're going to take my creativity from me through my vagina." She was laying out why she didn't have a partner, why she worried about the depletion of artistic energy that stripping bare in front of someone could precipitate. "I'm lonely when I'm in relationships," she continued. "It's my condition as an artist."
I remember thinking, Maybe she's onto something: 2010 was one of the high points of Gaga's career. The year prior, she had released "The Fame Monster," and she was then on her Monster Ball Tour.