Why Lady Gaga Was "Ashamed" To Hang Out With Ariana Grande

Lady Gaga's upcoming album Chromatica features a much-anticipated collaboration with Ariana Grande that's sure to please fans of both pop stars — but Gaga said the process of making the song wasn't easy.

In an interview with Apple Music's Zane Lowe, she said she initially pulled away from Grande while collaborating on "Rain on Me."

"When she came into the studio, I was still crying and she was not. And she was like, 'You're going to be OK. Call me; here's my number,'" Gaga said. "And she was so persistent. She would try over and over again to be friends with me. And I was too ashamed to hang out with her because I didn't want to project all of this negativity onto something that was healing and so beautiful. And eventually she called me on my s—t. She was, 'You're hiding.' And I was ... and then this friendship blossomed."

She also told Lowe that fans will see Grande do things she's never done before in the video for the song, and that their work together was a real partnership.

"I said to her, "OK, now everything that you care about while you sing, I want you to forget it and just sing. And by the way, while you're doing that, I'm going to dance in front of you," Gaga said. "And she was like, 'Oh my God. Oh my God, I can't, I can't. I don't know. Oh my God. OK, OK.' And then I did it and she sang, and she started to do things with her voice that was different. And it was the joy of two artists going, 'I see you.'"