Lady Gaga's drug-fuelled past revealed as superstar's former best friend prepares to release scandalous tell-all book

She’s never hid her murky past from her fans but Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters may be surprised to hear the extent of her drug use which has apparently been uncovered in a scandalous new book.

The singer’s former best friend Brendan Jay Sullivan is preparing to release his tell-all book, Rivington Was Ours: Lady Gaga, The Lower East Side and the Prime of Our Live.

Due to hit bookshelves on August 27, Sullivan’s book lifts the lid on his days living in New York with the then struggling Gaga.

Troubled past: Lady Gaga has always been open about her past drug use, with a new book from her former best friend delving deeper into her addiction to cocaine

Lady Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, used to spend her days and nights partying with friends at her Lower East side apartment, with Sullivan revealing cocaine was never far away.

Ahead of the book’s release, Radar Online have reported several excerpts, including Sullivan recalling watching his friend rub a white powder out of her carpet and onto her gums.

‘It’s mint,’ she told him. ‘I wish it was coke.’

The future superstar then allegedly went on to tell Sullivan: ‘I used to do bags and bags of it. Mostly when I was getting ready to go out, while I was putting on my makeup.’

From struggling to superstar: Gaga's former friend has recalled his days partying with the singer in New York

Sullivan recalls a conversation with Gaga in which she said her NYU friends, ‘would buy bags and bags of cocaine. … I’d be out with my friends and you’d catch one of them on the phone with their dads, pretending they needed the money to eat or to buy books or something, and they’d hang up and go to the ATM and take out more money to party.’

A representative for Lady Gaga has been contacted by MailOnline regarding this story.

Sullivan’s revelations back up Gaga’s own tales of her past drug use. The singer confessed to Vanity Fair in a 2010 interview that she still occasionally dabbled with cocaine:

‘I won’t lie — it’s occasional. And when I say occasional, I mean maybe a couple of times a year.’

The superstar realises her role as a role model to her young fans though, adding:

'I do not want my fans to ever emulate that or be that way. I don’t want my fans to think they have to be that way to be great. It’s in the past. It was a low point, and it led to disaster.’

‘I was completely mental and had just been through so much … I hit rock bottom, and it was enough to send a person over the edge.’

The Paparazzi hitmaker, who is preparing to release her new album ARTPOP, has admitted in more recent interview that her current drug use extends to smoking cannabis during recording sessions and downing her favourite tipple whiskey, telling 60 Minutes:

'I smoke a lot of pot when I write music. I'm not gonna sugar coat it for 60 Minutes that I'm some sober human being, 'cause I'm not. I drink a lot of whiskey and I smoke weed when I write.'

Murky past: Lady Gaga has been candid about her life before fame but insists she doesn't want her fans to emulate her