Lady Gaga and the marine who escorted her at President Joe Biden’s inauguration shared a special moment backstage.
Marine Capt. Evan Campbell tells Task & Purpose that Gaga seemed nervous before performing the national anthem, so he reassured her all would go well.
“It just seemed like a very natural human thing to do to look over and go, ‘Hey you’re going to do great. You always do well, you know, you’re a performer, you’re going to do great,'” Campbell says. “It just seemed like she needed to hear a relaxed voice.”
Gaga asked Campbell to say a prayer with her and the two were captured in photos holding hands with their heads bowed.
“She genuinely wanted to do well that day, she wanted to sing the national anthem for all Americans,” he says. “It was very touching.”
He adds that Gaga was “incredibly genuine” and told him it would be “the most important day of her life, singing the national anthem.”
In a separate interview with The Marine Corps Times this week, Campbell said that right before they walked out, they shared a laugh over Gaga’s billowing Schiaparelli dress: “She looked at me and she’s like ‘a fair warning…we have an equal chance of tripping on this.'”