Lollapalooza kicks off August 6 in Chicago’s Grant Park, and while the line-up features big-name rock acts like Green Day, Soundgarden, and the Strokes, it’s pop radio queen Lady Gaga that festival founder Perry Farrell is hailing as the event’s main attraction.
“When I think about Lollapalooza, in that gorgeous setting of Grant Park, with the amazing buildings all around us, lit up, I see her and her show as being a centerpiece to the evening,” Farrell, the singer of Jane’s Addiction, told MTV.
“Her presentation is so overwhelming that some may overlook the music… but the truth is, her music, to me, is right where music should be,” he added. “It’s on the cutting edge, but it’s [also] in the crosshairs of where every musician is aiming these days… She’s this hybrid of Yoko Ono, sort of the Plastic Ono Band meets Madonna meets Elton John. She’s this beautiful crossing of those things [that] every musician is looking to find. Everyone’s looking for that sound, and I think she really hits it.”
Gaga’s set at Lollapalooza won’t be her first. In 2007 the singer performed as an unknown side-stage act — and Farrell recalls her set clearly. “I remember… she’s got dark-brown hair, she’s in a bikini, and she’s wearing thigh-highs and she’s sweating, because she was on at around 3 o’clock,” he said.
Gaga’s performance in 2010 will be much different. Farrell said the festival dropped $150,000 to house the singer’s “giant stage,” and he’s preparing to introduce her droves of young fans, affectionately called “Little Monsters,” to the other featured music, as well as turn general festivalgoers on to Gaga.
“We’re going to help [Lady Gaga] deliver it, just the way we did in 1991, when people didn’t go to rap concerts because they might be considered very dangerous,” Farrell said. “[Back then,] a lot of those kids who went to Lollapalooza might not have seen Ice-T, but then, there he was. Same with Ice Cube. And that’s one of the things I guess I could say I pride myself in: I’m able to bring music that people are very curious about, and once they meet this music, they’ll really dig it.”
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