Welcome to the new episode of the Billboard.com Pop Shop Podcast, Billboard's weekly audio breakdown of the Billboard charts, hottest music news and year's biggest musical events. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard co-director of charts Keith Caulfield and Billboard.com senior editor Katie Atkinson every Tuesday on the Pop Shop Podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in iTunes (click here to listen to the previous Tuesday’s edition of the show on Billboard.com).
On the latest episode of the show, we have the perfect independent lady for Independence Day: the one-and-only Lady Gaga! The Mother Monster called up the Pop Shop Podcast to announce the return of the Bud Light Dive Bar Tour. Last fall, Gaga hit bars in three cities before the release of her Billboard 200 chart-topping Joanne album. This time around, she'll play one date in Las Vegas on July 13 before passing the torch to two mystery artists for shows in Los Angeles on July 26 and New Orleans on Aug. 30.
You can read all about the Dive Bar Tour's return right here, but we addressed so much more in our chat, including her plans so far for the upcoming 60-date Joanne World Tour -- during which she'll perform at the Manchester Arena months after the fatal bombing outside Ariana Grande's concert in May -- plus her starring role as Ally in the Bradley Cooper-directed remake of A Star Is Born.
"I have had a couple days to be off set and come out of being Ally, and I have to say: I don't know that I realized how much it affected me, becoming her and the movie, until it was over," she says. "It's been very powerful. It brought me back to another time in my life. It also brought me to a different place, because there are some things about her and I that are different, and I'm back now to being, you know, me and focusing on music. … I had to focus on Ally and her music for the past couple months."
The 1976 version of A Star Is Born, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, featured a lot of iconic music, including the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 and Grammy- and Oscar-winning theme song "Evergreen." So will we hear any familiar music in Cooper's remake? The music is "all original," Gaga says, though, "I believe there may be one or two songs that are covers, but they're not from the original film."
Listen to the interview here for even more from Gaga herself, plus Katie and Keith talk all about their favorite Lady Gaga singles, performances and more in the all-Gaga special.
This article originally appeared on Billboard.com.