AceShowbiz - Lady GaGa was stunned after meeting her heroes Madonna and Sir Elton John - because the superstars were much nicer than her pop contemporaries. The singer struggled to adjust to life in the spotlight at the start of her career but she credits Madonna and John with inspiring her to accept fame.

And the "Just Dance" hitmaker admits she's continually surprised by how nice the music industry "legends" are. She tells SHOWStudio, "Madonna is a wonderful, wonderful person. She is so full of the most wonderful freedom and spirit, and she is so kind. We have shared some wonderful honest moments together. She comes to my shows, I ask her questions, she's given me advice."

"It's been my experience in the industry that I have connected on a much deeper level with the most iconic and legendary people that I have admired and have not connected with any of my contemporaries."

"The one thing that they all have in common - the legends, that is - is that they are the nicest, most wonderful human beings you have ever met in your life. That has freed me. I used to be quite guarded in interviews. I would sit there with glasses on and barely speak and I almost developed an accent at one point because I was so f**king guarded and so nervous that the media was trying to destroy me."

"I let it go when I got to meet all of these people that I worshipped as a child and then when you play piano with Elton John and you realize that he is (not only) a f**king brilliant human being but he is also the most wonderfully nice person... I thought, 'Well I'm just going to be myself, because I am a lovely, wonderful, sweet person'."

"By meeting these people that I love and adore and would give my right arm happily to have been around or learned from, I have discovered myself. My freedom. My security. Myself. Makes me smile just talking about it."