Legendary songwriter Diane Warren has opened up about the deeply personal story behind her powerful collaboration with Lady Gaga on "Til It Happens to You," revealing how the song drew from both artists' experiences with sexual assault.
In her new documentary "Diane Warren: Relentless," Warren, 68, publicly discusses being molested as a child by her friend's father - a traumatic experience she kept secret for years, not even telling her parents at the time.
When writing "Til It Happens to You," Warren reached out to Lady Gaga, knowing the singer had previously spoken about her own assault experience. "When I wrote the song, I thought I'd heard that Gaga had said something on Howard Stern that she was sexually assaulted," Warren explained in an exclusive interview.
The songwriter recalled playing the track for Gaga over the phone, unsure how she would react. "She was hysterically crying on the other end when I was done playing it," Warren shared. The pair then worked together in New York and Los Angeles to bring the powerful song to life.
The collaboration culminated in what Warren describes as "one of the best live performances ever filmed" when Gaga performed the song at the 2016 Academy Awards, surrounded by sexual assault survivors on stage. "She was hitting notes in full voice that I don't even know how anybody could do," Warren noted, adding that Gaga appeared to be "exorcising something in herself" during the emotional performance.
While the song didn't win the Oscar that year, losing to Sam Smith's James Bond theme "Writing's on the Wall," Warren feels the impact of the performance transcended any awards. The song appeared in "The Hunting Ground," a documentary about sexual assault on college campuses, helping bring attention to this critical issue.
"Diane Warren: Relentless" premieres in select theaters on January 10, followed by streaming availability on MasterClass from January 16.