Lana Del Rey Lands on New ‘Rolling Stone’ Cover

Lana Del Rey gets the Rolling Stone treatment this week for her first appearance on the cover of the iconic rock magazine, the photo taken by publisher Jann Wenner’s son Theo, best friend of Miley Cyrus.

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In her ongoing competition with newcomer Sam Smith, whom she edged out for the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 album chart with her new release, Ultraviolence, Del Rey scores another win, earning the cover, with the U.K. singer relegated to a front-page blurb for his feature in the same issue.

Del Rey appears on the cover cuddling with her cat for the storied publication, which hits the stands on Friday.

Writer Brian Hiatt relates that at one point during the interviews, Del Rey got cold feet. “I feel like maybe we should wait until there’s something good to talk about. You know. I just wish you could write about something else. There has to be someone else to be the cover story. Like, there has to be. Anybody.”

Nevertheless, Del Rey had plenty to say to Hiatt in their conversation, which mostly took place in the Greenwich Village townhouse owned by her apparent new love interest, Italian photographer Francesco Carrozzini.

On her state of mind: “Well, I feel fucking crazy. … But I don’t think I am. People make me feel crazy.” She blames her much-publicized “I wish I were dead” statement on the interviewer’s questions, but adds, “I find that most people I meet figure I kind of want to kill myself anyway. So it comes up every time.”

On how she wants people to hear lyrics like “He hurt me and it felt like true love”: “I just don’t want them to hear it at all. … I’m very selfish. I make everything for me, kind of. I mean, every little thing, down to the guitar and the drums. It’s just for me … I don’t want them to hear it and think about it. It’s none of their business!”

STORY Lana Del Rey Lands First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200

On her Saturday Night Live performance:“It wasn’t dynamic, but it was true to form,” she says, though former Interscope Records head Jimmy Iovine reveals that he worked with her afterward on the use of in-ear monitors. In any case, Del Rey says music-biz friends pulled away from her after she performed on SNL: “Everyone I knew suddenly wasn’t so sure about me,” she says. “They were like, ‘Maybe I don’t want to be associated with her — not a great reputation.'”

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