Surrounded by fire in a nude-colored bodysuit, [artist id="3061469"]Lady Gaga[/artist] seemed to be defying death while [article id="1626837"]performing her song "Speechless" at the American Music Awards[/article] on Sunday night. The song, featured on [article id="1626823"]Gaga's latest release, The Fame Monster,[/article] is, fittingly, a plea to Gaga's father to save his own life. As with many of the songs on the album, she's fighting a monster of some sort.

This one, simply, is her fear of death. "Well, my dad has had a heart condition for about 15 years," she explained to MTV News about the impetus to pen the song. "He has or he had a bad aortic valve, and his body for a very long time was only pumping a third of the blood that you're supposed to get every time his heart beat."

Instead of seeking treatment, her dad decided to just live his life. But everything changed while Gaga was on the road pursuing her dream. "So he [was] resigned that he wasn't going to get the surgery and told my mother and I that he was going to let his life take its course," she explained. "And I've been away and on the road and he started to fade when I was gone."

So what else could Gaga do trapped out on tour, except express her thoughts through music? "My mom called me and I was very depressed. I was on tour and I couldn't leave, so I went into the studio and I wrote this song 'Speechless,' and it's about these phone calls," she said. "My dad used to call me after he'd had a few drinks and I wouldn't know what to say. I was speechless and I just feared that I would lose him and I wouldn't be there."

Gaga's father did eventually [article id="1624858"]get the treatment he needed[/article], but Gaga added, "I wrote this song as a plea to him."