Lady Gaga Honors Tony Bennett In Touching Tribute After His Death

Lady Gaga shared a touching tribute to her friend Tony Bennett after his death on July 21 at 96. The singer posted a photo of the two of them hugging while Bennet smiled.

“I will miss my friend forever. I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together,” she wrote Sunday on Instagram. “With Tony, I got to live my life in a time warp. Tony & I had this magical power. We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, & gave it all new life as a singing duo.”

She spoke about their relationship professionally and personally saying that “it wasn’t an act.” The two were very close friends and Gaga was able to learn much from his wisdom. 

“Our relationship was very real. Sure he taught me about music, about showbiz life, but he also showed me how to keep my spirits high and my head screwed on straight. ‘Straight ahead,’ he’d say. He was an optimist, he believed in quality work AND quality life. Plus, there was the gratitude… Tony was always grateful. He served in WWII, marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and sang jazz with the greatest singers and players in the world.”

The singer touched on his battle with Alzheimer’s, which he had been dealing with since his diagnosis in 2016. “I’ve been grieving the loss of Tony for a long time. We had a very long and powerful goodbye,” she wrote. “Though there were 5 decades between us, he was my friend. My real true friend. Our age difference didn’t matter — in fact, it gave us each something neither of us had with most people. We were from two different stages in life entirely — inspired.”

She continued to speak about his struggle writing, “Losing Tony to Alzheimer’s has been painful but it was also really beautiful. An era of memory loss is such a sacred time in a person’s life. There’s such a feeling of vulnerability and a desire to preserve dignity. All I wanted was for Tony to remember how much I loved him and how grateful I was to have him in my life. But, as that faded slowly I knew deep down he was sharing with me the most vulnerable moment in his life that he could — being willing to sing with me when his nature was changing so deeply.”

She ended her statement with a piece of advice for both of their fans.

“If I could say anything to the world about this I would say don’t discount your elders, don’t leave them behind when things change,” she said. “Don’t flinch when you feel sad, just keep going straight ahead, sadness is part of it. Take care of your elders and I promise you will learn something special. Maybe even magical. And pay attention to silence — some of my musical partner and I’s most meaningful exchanges were with no melody at all.”