Lady Gaga is among the millions mourning Amy Winehouse.
"It really affected me quite deeply," Gaga, 25, tells Rolling Stone of Winehouse's shocking July 23 death at age 27.
"I'm just really glad that we got to admire her and tell her how much we loved her when she was alive. I hope she knows now in Heaven, where she is, how much we all loved her," added the pop star.
As the "Edge of Glory" singer continued her interview, her eyes welled up with tears.
"I'm a huge fan," said Gaga (real name: Stephanie Germanotta). "She was my only hope when I was up and coming," she explained of her pre-fame days. "Nobody knew who I was and I had no fans, no record label and everybody, when they met me, said I wasn't pretty enough or that my voice was too low or strange. They had nowhere to put me. And then I saw her in Rolling Stone and I saw her live. I just remember thinking 'Well, they found somewhere to put Amy…'"
Although Winehouse famously struggled with substance abuse, the results of her autopsy were "inconclusive," and her father Mitch Winehouse told Us Weekly she has been clean and sober for three years.
"She's really special," Gaga added. "She just gave me a lot of hope and she deserved a lot better than what people gave her. And I hope that the world learns a lesson from this. I really hope they do. Because it's not her lesson to learn – it's the world's."
