Sinead O'Connor!

Was I big fan? Not really. The Prince song said more about Prince's songwriting than Sinead O'Connor. But she did have some great songs that never saw the light of the charts. But what Sinead O'Connor really had was courage.

Back in the 80s Sinead O'Connor was that bald weirdo Irish chick with that oh so Irish voice. Delores O'Riordan before there was a Cranberries. O'Connor hit the MTV train with that Price song and that haunting video of her walking around the grounds of a castle. Man she'd be really pretty if she just grew her hair out. But she wouldnt have been her had she "sold out" so to speak.

Then came Oct 3, 1992 when as the musical act on SNL she did a Bob Marley song, held up a picture of Pope John Paul II and exclaimed "fight the real enemy" and ripped the photo in two. For 1992 this was a revolutionary act. Lorne Michaels, the alleged hip guy who started SNL, went ballistic, NBC banned her for life and she became a pariah in a country that allegedly believes in God but shows no mercy to those who question their "beliefs". 

Then 13 days later at the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary concert, O'Connor was mercilessly booed by a crowd of Madison Square Garden mooks and gibrones who at the time found Andrew Dice Clay hilarious. How dare she rip up the picture of the Pope. 

Well she was right. The scandals and cover ups of years of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and nuns were common knowledge in places like Ireland. But America is a very provincial place. Nothing matters in the world unless it happens here. And man was it ever happening here too. It's just America didn't know it yet. 

Sinead O'Connor was mentally ill as most of us are. She suffered from depression and disappeared from the scene to raise her son. When her son committed suicide in 2022 it was just a matter of time for Sinead to do the same. Her only support was gone. She was truly alone. She sadly left the world and left it a little less talented than it was the day before.

Courage is rare in show business. When somebody calls out an institution. a country or whatever else phony patriots pretend to revere, there's a price to pay. She paid it many times over. 

While America debates an idiotic tone-deaf mediocrity like Jason Aldean, a real talent has left us. 

Nothing Compares 2 U, Sinead. Happy travels.