Image Courtesy Logo/VH1RuPaul’s Drag Race kicks off its ninth season Friday night with a very special guest judge: Lady Gaga. RuPaul says of her appearance, “You’re not ready for this!”
“Lady Gaga has always been a fan of the show and she started in New York and clubs the same way I did,” Ru tells ABC Radio, explaining how the guest appearance came about.
“She attributes a lot of her [joie de vivre] to her life with [drag] queens in clubs,” he explains. “So she tweeted me maybe three years ago and said, ‘Ru, why can’t I be on the show?’ And I said, ‘Are you kidding??'”
However, it’s taken this long for Gaga to fit the appearance into her busy calendar.
“Doing these kinds of shows, the hardest part is scheduling people,” says Ru. “So finally, we got her on the season opener and it is a blast. You’re not ready for this!”
This won’t be the first time that Gaga and RuPaul have teamed up on TV, though — Ru was a guest on Gaga’s ABC holiday special with the Muppets a few years ago. Then, he marveled at how young Gaga still is.
“She’s an amazing person and a really loving person,” he says. “And I’m always surprised when I see these people because she’s a child! You know, when you strip down the makeup, it’s like, ‘Oh my God!'”
Other judges on this season of the show include Meghan Trainor, The B-52s, Kesha, Lisa Kudrow, Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling and many others. The drama starts tonight at 8 p.m. ET on VH1.
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