Lady Gaga gave a rare interview to WWD, the fashion and cosmetics trade. In it, she revealed that her hip injury, which immobilized the North American leg of her Born This Way Ball Tour and pushed her out of the public eye, was more serious than we thought. She also said her new 'ARTPOP' single 'Applause' is happy, and explained the visually arresting cover art, which features her face painted in white, with swirls and smears of color.

“My injury was actually a lot worse than just a labral tear," Ma Monster confessed. Turns out it was actually a break. She continued, "I had broken my hip. Nobody knew, and I haven’t even told the fans yet. But when we got all the MRIs finished before I went to surgery, there were giant craters, a hole in my hip the size of a quarter, and the cartilage was just hanging out the other side of my hip. I had a tear on the inside of my joint and a huge breakage."

Yes, that sounds painful, but her injury was so bad that she may have needed a drastic surgery to fix it. She admitted, "The surgeon told me that if I had done another show I might have needed a full hip replacement. I would have been out at least a year, maybe longer."

Gaga is making up for the time she missed, revealing the 'Applause' cover late last night. She culled the image from the song's video shoot, since it shows a vulnerable side fans aren't often exposed to.  She explained the image, saying, "It’s the end of the night after the show. When I look at it, I see that there is a longing for the applause. I see that there is a void that is leaking onstage, that the performer is leaking, that the art is sort of becoming something else in front of your eyes. Something more human, something more honest."

Despite the seriousness of the artwork, the song is "very fun." Ma Monster continued, "It’s full of happiness, because what I’m saying in the song essentially is that I live for the applause. I live for the way you cheer and scream for me. Give me that thing that I love. Put your hands up, make them touch."

Again, she has accepted and conquered the art of fame. Not all celebs can do that. Just look at Britney Spears or Michael Jackson, who couldn't handle the pressure of the public eye.

Mama Monster also addressed the change in her image and her style. While she has been seen makeup-free lately, she's not "going for" a certain look. "When you watch each image and you watch each thing come out, they might not look exactly the same,” she said cryptically. “[I’m not] defined by the same designer or defined by the same hair cut or defined by the same icon. The statement is that I’m not one icon. I’m every icon. I’m an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions. No restrictions."

Gaga also joked that she will not be sending Jo Calderone in her stead to the 2013 VMAs. She's sending a doppelganger. "I’m going this year as a fried egg instead of hard-boiled," she joked, referencing her arrival to the 2011 Grammys in an egg.

We don't care what kind of egg she is, as long as it's HER egg.

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