“She was just so ahead of her time.”
But O’Connor was uncomfortable with fame and the feeling was pretty mutual.
Outspoken and resolute in her beliefs, O’Connor chafed against the music industry’s expectations of her.
Sinéad O’Connor.Yvonne Hemsey/getty
During the live broadcast, she switched it up.
O’Connor had always planned to destroy that particular photo of JP II.
“Because nobody ever gave a s— about the children of Ireland.”
The audience, save for one man audibly gasping, was stunned into silence.
The backlash was swift and severe.
Everybody treated me like I was a crazy bitch cos I ripped up the Pope’s picture.
We know I’m a crazy bitch, but that’s not why."
“A lot of people say or think that tearing up the Pope’s photo derailed my career.
That’s not how I feel about it,” she wrote.
“I feel that having a No.
1 record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track.”
She added, “AfterSNL, I could just be me.”
Everything that she was saying and doing was what needed to be heard," Ferguson said.
She was just so ahead of her time."
