Madonna covers the new issue of Interview Magazine, although I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t even recognize her. It feels like Madonna has gone away for a while, and once again she’s come back with a new face. I swear, she has a new nose, new lips, new eyes and different “cheekbones.” Goodbye, old-school Gristle and hello… whatever this is. Anyway, the Interview shoot was by Mert & Marcus and nearly every shot of it is NSFW. Go here to see the NSFW slideshow. I’m just including the two non-boob photos. You can also read the full interview here. I have to admit, I didn’t hate the interview. It was annoying at times and Madge is full of herself, but she’s interesting. Some highlights:

Which artists she likes nowadays: “I like Banksy. I think he’s inspiring and he speaks to what’s going on in the world, socially. I like JR. Like [Jean-Michel] Basquiat and Keith Haring, who both started off as graffiti artists—their art is on the street, available for anyone to see. It’s not elitist. You can see Banksy’s work driving by it on the street, and JR’s work—the way he takes photographs of people and turns them into heroes in their communities and makes people proud of who they are. My son is interning with JR right now and that’s a great education for him.”

She lives life like Michael Corleone: “Me, I live vicariously through Michael Corleone. I would like to deal with life the way he does. When he’s telling what’s-his-name that he’s going to go on a little fishing trip. My God. Brilliant.”

She needs time to pray: “We spoke about this earlier—setting aside time for prayer. The ritual of prayer isn’t a religious thing as much as it is having a ritualistic moment to acknowledge things and not take things for granted. For instance: the fact that you wake up and there’s air in your lungs; the fact that you have a job to do; the fact that you have friends; the fact that you have your health. You’re going to do something that’s going to bring you joy. We take these things for granted. And, you know, I think it’s important to call angels to you to protect you.”

On her mother’s death: “I became very obsessed with death, and the idea that you never know when death will arrive, so one has to do as much as possible all the time to get the most out of life. That would be a motivating force. And death was a big part of my life growing up. I went to lots of funerals …”

Just say no to drugs: “It’s about how people take drugs to connect to God or to a higher level of consciousness. I keep saying, “Plugging into the matrix.” If you get high, you can do that, which is why a lot of people drop acid or do drugs, because they want to get closer to God. But there’s going to be a short circuit, and that’s the illusion of drugs, because they give you the illusion of getting closer to God, but ultimately they kill you. They destroy you. I mean, I tried everything once, but as soon as I was high, I spent my time drinking tons of water to get it out of my system. As soon as I was high, I was obsessed with flushing it out of me.”

[From Interview Magazine]

I thought her discussion about Michael Corleone was very informative – that’s how she sees herself, like a mobster taking out her enemies one by one. Mafia Madge? Huh. She also talks about Basquiat and hanging out with Andy Warhol, but it doesn’t feel so much like she’s name-dropping as much as she’s mourning all of these great artists who died too young. Poor Madge.

Photos courtesy of Interview Magazine.