Pop icon Lady Gaga has revealed in a new interview with Rolling Stone that she feels "dead" when she's not on stage performing. 

Speaking to the magazine, the 'Born This Way' superstar admitted that she feeds from the energy and inspiration she feels when being creative and needs it in the same way she needs oxygen:

"When I am not onstage I feel dead,"  

"Whether that is healthy or not to you, or healthy or not to anyone, or a doctor, is really of no concern to me. I don't feel alive unless I'm performing, and that's just the way I was born."

She also explained that she feels the music industry has become almost dehumanized and she wants to remind people that real artists and performers do still exist:

"I know it sounds crazy, but I was thinking about the machine of the music industry. I started to think about how I have to make the music industry bleed to remind it that it's human, it's not a machine."

The edition of Rolling Stone that features this full interview, and of which she graces the cover, will be available from Friday, May 27. Watch Gaga's hilarious skit with Justin Timberlake on Saturday Night Live here: