The Guardian‘s Tim Jonze has shared audio of his interview with Lana Del Rey, in which the singer stated that she wished she was “dead already.” Jonze posted the clip with a defence of his article after the singer herself hit out at the writer, claiming his story was “sinister” and “calculated.”
On Thursday night, Del Rey took to Twitter to write, “I regret trusting The Guardian – I didn’t want to do an interview but the journalist was persistent.” The Brooklyn Baby singer alleged that the journalist who interviewed her was “masked as a fan but was hiding sinister ambitions and angles.”
“Maybe he’s actually the boring one looking for something interesting to write about,” she added. “His leading questions about death and persona were calculated.” The statement at the centre of the controversy came during a discussion of Del Rey’s icons, all of whom had died at a young age.
“It’s not pleasant asking a pop star if she thinks the idea of dying young herself is attractive – it’s a dark question, but it’s not a leading one,” writes Jonze in his response to Del Rey’s allegations. “She has every opportunity to say no. And she can hardly complain about the subject matter.”
“She’d been talking about her icons all dying young, she named her debut album Born to Die and had spent much of the 50 minutes previous to this point telling me how miserable she was,” the writer continues. Jonze also disputes the singer’s claim that she was reluctant to do the interview.
“She may well have not wanted to do the interview but it certainly didn’t seem like it,” he writes. “She was delightful company for the 70 minutes we spent talking, and was happy to continue over the allotted time when the PR knocked on the door, an hour in, and asked how we were getting on.”
Readers can listen to a clip of Jonze and Del Rey’s talk below. In his response, Jonze concludes by saying that “the problem with Lana’s complaint is that she doesn’t seem to know what she’s actually complaining about… she seems annoyed by the fact I wanted her to say interesting things and asked questions that caused her to do so. Well sorry, Lana, but that’s just me doing my job.”
Listen: Lana Del Rey Tells Tim Jonze “I Wish I Was Dead Already”
