fancylawn18: Lady Gaga's Born This Way Cover: 'American Chopper' Star Weighs In

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Lady Gaga's Born This Way Cover: 'American Chopper' Star Weighs In

Paul Teutul Jr. tells MTV News he's puzzled by Gaga's motorcycle makeover.
By James Montgomery

Lady Gaga
Photo: Noel Vasquez/ Getty Images

When Lady Gaga unveiled the cover art for her much-anticipated Born This Way album over the weekend, even the most manic of Little Monsters seemed perplexed by her brand-new motorcycle makeover ... with some even going so far as to speculate that the cover was fake.

And if you think Gaga's fans are confused by the BTW cover, well, then you should hear Paul Teutul Jr.'s take on it. After all, he designs motorcycles for a living, first under his dad's tutelage at Orange County Choppers — made famous on Discovery Channel's "American Choppers" — and now with his own shop, Paul Jr. Designs. Turns out Junior's sort of at a loss when it comes to Gaga's new look.

"This chopper is very, kind of, uh, interesting. They kind of melted the motor around and stuff so it's hard to even see what they have ... they almost did a ribcage, kinda see-through in the tank. But none of it feels really smooth," he told MTV News. "The bike that it emulates the most is that 'Easy Rider' bike ... it has that king and queen seat, it's got the old-school exhaust, but I can't really tell what kind of bike it is."

Of course, aside from the assumed technical issues, Teutul Jr. said that he's most puzzled that the Born This Way album cover didn't go even further. Because, as he put it, what could be cooler than a full-fledged Gaga-cycle?

"Looking at it, I would've made it more of an integration of her into the bike. It would be more seamless. In other words, it would be her and the bike morphed," he said. "If you're Born This Way, then it almost has to look kind of mermaid-ish, in the sense that there's this fusion between the actual mechanical aspect and the human perspective. ... It's a little cut-and-paste looking. I would've done something even integrated throughout the bike that would've been more 'Lady Gaga.'

"How awesome would it have been if her entire body, like, her feet actually became the axle rod for the rear tire, and her body actually formed the entire bike? I mean, it could've been a more flowing, freakier look," he continued. "And that's what we do at Paul Jr. Designs. Our full integration isn't 'put a sticker on it.' Our full integration is we make that bike what the theme is intended to be. It's about pulling off the theme front-to-back."

And to that end, Teutul Jr. said that he'd love to work with Gaga on an actual motorcycle — it'd probably make for an interesting episode of his show, "American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior," which returns April 25 — because it would give him and his team a chance to do what they do best.

"I would get inside her head on the whole project, and really be able to pull off what it is, creatively, that she would want integrated into the bike," he said. "And for this tour, she could come out onstage and it could be a whole theatrical thing that ties around the actual album cover. I think it would be a great fit and we're both young and creative. It would be a great collaboration for sure."

What do you think of the Born This Way cover art? Tell us in the comments!

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