Lady Gaga has urged fans not to follow in her footsteps and take drugs, after confessing she is still an "occasional" cocaine user.
The Poker Face hit-maker has previously admitted to battling a drug addiction when she was a struggling artist living in squalor in New York. She told Rolling Stone magazine, "Sometimes it really freaks me out... when I think about laying in my apartment with bug bites from bedbugs and roaches on the floor and mirrors with cocaine everywhere and no will or interest in doing anything but making music and getting high."
However, in a new interview with Vanity Fair magazine, the singer reveals she's not quite kicked her penchant for illegal substances. She tells the publication she's "terrified of heroin" and does "mostly cocaine". She adds, "I won't lie; it's occasional. And when I say occasional, I mean maybe a couple of times a year."
However, Gaga insists she is not condoning drug abuse and has warned her devotees to avoid taking the path to "disaster" after one particularly scary experience with mind-altering substances.
She says, "I do not want my fans to ever emulate that or be that way. I don't want my fans to think they have to be that way to be great. It's in the past. It was a low point, and it led to disaster. I was completely mental and had just been through so much. I hit rock bottom, and it was enough to send a person over the edge. My mother knew the truth about that day, and she screamed so loud on the other end of the phone, I'll never forget it."
And Gaga has her grandmother to thank for forcing her to take control of her life: "I cried. I told her I thought my life was over and I have no hope and I've worked so hard, and I knew I was good. What would I do now? And she said, 'I'm gonna let you cry for a few more hours. And then after those few hours are up, you're gonna stop crying, you're gonna pick yourself up, you're gonna go back to New York, and you're gonna kick some a**.'"
