Lady Gaga Has 'Rocked the Zeitgeist'

Even though it took some doing, "Weird Al" Yankovic has no hard feelings towards Lady Gaga over the struggle to release "Perform This Way," his parody of her hit "Born This Way" and the first single from his forthcoming new album "Alpocalypse."

Gaga's manager had initially refused permission for Yankovic to release "Perform This Way," but Yankovic says things changed once Gaga herself heard the song.

"Even though her manager was presenting it as such, she had never once approached Gaga, so it was news to her when people were...asking, 'How come you're not letting Weird Al do his parody?' " Yankovic tells Billboard.com. "She was not aware of it at all, and when she actually did hear the song she loved it and gave me permission."Yankovic adds, "This is unfortunately not an isolated incident over the course of my career...I find it's better, whenever possible, to go directly to an artist and deal with them personally, but as it turns out I didn't happen to have Lady Gaga's home phone number or e-mail address."

Yankovic did hasten the process by posting the song on YouTube during the negotiations -- but only, he says, because it was the first time a manager had insisted on hearing an actual recording rather than simply reviewing a lyric sheet. "I'd never done that before," he explains. "I figured if you already have the lyrics, if you don't find those offensive then you're not going to find it offensive when you hear the fully produced version of it -- which is why I was kind of knocked for a loop when the answer we got back was 'no.' "