Veteran music exec L.A. Reid won't let his numerous accolades cloud the fact he royally screwed the pooch when it comes to Lady Gaga ... by dropping her from the label before she had a chance to just dance!!!
Ya gotta go back to circa 2006 ... L.A. was CEO and Chairman of Def Jam Records, and after the prodding of A&R exec Joshua Sarubin, Gaga was immediately signed and set up for superstardom. Sike!!!
The music industry can be extremely fickle, which Gaga soon found out, as Def Jam dropped the future megastar just 3 months later ... a move L.A. didn't seem to regret until much later.
He came clean to Billy Mann on an upcoming episode of the "Yeah, I F*cked That Up" podcast, saying he hated to disappoint Joshua but didn't think much of the separation ... until he saw Gaga's DIAMOND-SELLING debut single hit the Canadian charts, of all places.
He says he tried to ignore her growing buzz at first, but couldn't deny the fail ... which still haunts him until this day!!!
Going from a member of The Deele with Babyface to overseeing the careers of Outkast, TLC, Goodie Mob and several other legends ... L.A.'s had way more success than failure, but Gaga isn't the only bad pop prediction on his resumé.
Pink famously called him out on her 2001 album "Missundaztood" for altering her image too much on her previous project ... and proved him wrong by going multi-platinum her way.