Multi-platinum recording artist Lady Gaga revealed Tuesday that she was sexually assaulted at the age of nineteen. In an interview with Sirius/XM radio legend Howard Stern, Gaga confessed that the horrible incident is referenced in one of her songs.

Gaga said the provocative and angry song "Swine" is about “rape” and “demoralization” and it was inspired by her trauma. She talked about the headline-grabbing performance of the song at this year's SXSW event:

“The song is about rage and fury and passion, and I had a lot of pain that I wanted to release. And I said to myself, ‘I want to sing this song while I'm ripping hard on a drum kit, and then I want to get on a mechanical bull’—which is probably one of the most demoralizing things that you can put a female on in her underwear—‘and I want this chick to throw up on me in front of the world so that I can tell them, you know what? You could never, ever degrade as much as I could degrade myself, and look how beautiful it is when I do.’”

Stern asked her if she had been raped by a record producer.

“I went through some horrific things that I’m able to laugh [at] now, because I’ve gone through a lot of mental and physical therapy and emotional therapy to heal over the years. I was a shell of my former self at one point. I was not myself. To be fair, I was about 19. I went to Catholic school and then all this crazy stuff happened, and I was going, ‘Oh, is this just the way adults are?’ I was very naive.”

Gaga also revealed her assailant was 20 years older than her. Listen to the entire interview above.