Sinead O'Connor On George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight | 2008

[Music] never to hurt you I swear I didn't mean those things [Music] I never to do that [Music] you a that beautiful face and that unbelievable voice all that helped to make chenade oconor a star here's chenade story in a nutshell born into a conservative Catholic home in Dublin tough childhood her parents split up when she was eight her mother is said to have physically abused her chenade was in and out of Reform schools arrested for shoplifting and then tragically her mother was killed in a car accident now as for Chen's music career here's a bit of how it [Music] went it started out when she did a song with a drummer of an Irish band called called tuua then started to get a little bit of attention even from you's people chenade moved to London in 1985 landed a record deal she put out this album called The Lion and the Cobra and that got people talking about her but that just set up what was to come next sheno Connor released a record called I do not want what I haven't got and oh my did it hit [Music] big compar to you and of course with the fame came the controversy chenade refused to perform in New Jersey if the Star Spangled Banner was played she bailed on Saturday Night Live because of Andrew Dice Clay's misogyny and he was the host and then famously well she tore up that picture of the Pope fight the Real Enemy you know after all that drama in the Press J Conor decided it was time to leave the Limelight but when she left things didn't get much better she suffered from depression and at one point even tried to kill herself on her 33rd birthday but to her it was about spirituality and she said that God got her through that and that she hasn't given up on God her newest album's called Theology and it's based on many scriptures in the Bible I to Something Beautiful for you and from [Music] you all right there's her bio and here is the woman Miss sheno Connor welcome to theam the um so you have this record theology which is two records essentially it's two different versions of the Same album but there's more to it it's not just you writing songs the inspiration from this is particularly specific isn't it oh well they are um based on or inspired by uh certain scriptures particular scriptures yeah is it all Old Testament stuff yes part one song which kind of alludes to the the new one but mainly Old Testament stuff yeah the um I mean the simple question is why why that why that route uh it's just something I wanted to do really since I was a kid like I grew up in quite a religious country and and there was a lot of religious music around which was really uncool um so I always figured since I was a kid I'd like to make some religious SLS Spiritual music that wouldn't be embarrassing you're religious by by birth and by culture because in Ireland I mean you can't not be exactly it's it's a crime you get up well what was the last time you cared about that well I've actually managed to commit few crimes in my lifetime thank God I didn't get caught for any well speaking of crimes you sing about one indeed well that's the only crime I did commit I used to be a bit of a thief I used to Thief a lot she and this is well how many how many Christmas EES ago was this oh well I I was B about four years ago uh she stole a Bible on Christmas Eve and you wrote about it that story tell that story uh well I I had a stack of Bibles I've been studying religion for years I have billions of Bibles and different things and the trouble is they always make them really big right so you can't carry them around in your pocket like or you know so I was going through a bit of a rough time I was pregnant with my third child I was about that far away from having him and um I was doing my Christmas shopping I had a load of bags on me and everything and I was having a bit of a rough time in life you know and I wanted to get a Bible I could put in my pocket you know so I found one anyway in this sh real nice gold thing around the edge and everything except I looked behind me there was a queue literally of about 200 people like so all buying Bibles well no so but I had I had to chat with God about it there and then I said hey come on it should be free why should anyone have to pay for it anyway so so I P it but I decided um well God isn't getting the royalties you see yeah so I I promised I'd do something useful with it well later have you gone back and at least paid the store because now that you're telling everybody the story no I haven't I've I've Justified it on the ground that they're making so much money out of everyone else's books that they don't really need to make it out of the Bible That's face it fair enough well in fact there are lot of people say that if I say I was living on the street and I had no money and I needed a Bible then why shouldn't I have one for nothing God would want you to have one exactly if you had a compc would you call it a complicated relationship with God no I'd call it a pretty simple one complicated relationship with religion no perhaps I misunderstood one you know I guess obviously if someone didn't know me they might surmise that you know I did like religion or something but actually I do like I I have a massive um love of religion actually but I suppose um not to get too serious or anything but I would probably separate between God and religion I say God and religion is two different things so you relate to them differently you know um you a diagnosis bipolar and and how long were you feeling this before you actually received God I you know I think to some extent I had it probably since I was a kid you know uh but it's a sort of a snowballing illness so it kind of snowballed and it was around the time four years ago that when I was robbing Bibles you know I wasn't obviously in the best of health what was going through your mind when when you were feeling that when you were that low well it's a funny little illness cuz it affects different people differently um some people dress up as to and camon and go shopping you know uh I I got very suicidal which I can laugh about now because it's funny it wasn't funny at the time but uh my big thing was I felt suicidal yeah um the the of your life when you were so young when you became so famous and uh intentionally or unintentionally um controversial that if when you look back at those days we just passed an anniversary not that long ago like the 15 year of the Pope thing and it's a long time ago but when people mention your name that's what gets mentioned all the time still when you when you look back at that that young girl yeah what do you think of um uh God I suppose you think all manner of things I suppose I'm just the same as anyone who looks back at themselves and when they're young like you know I'm very proud of that person like I can see Jesus that person was very young also I didn't realize how young I was if you know what I mean mhm it's true that Oscar wild thing isn't it youth is wasted on the young yeah I should have worn more short skirts and stuff because when I look in the mirror now I think why didn't I wear them while I could I suppose you still could that'd be fine well yeah later later in the dressing room he has something planned yes which you've been so nice to go along with I'll do my best the um you were at a you know when you when you sort of came on the scene in those early days we were at that period where a lot of musicians weren't saying a lot there a lot of artists were was pretty happy to live the life it was very much a glamorous life and you know you sort of helped Kickstart that movement where artists were actually about things and would say it and would be honest certainly for the generation into the90s and I like at what was happening politically and you've read the papers back then compared to what it's like today can just imagine if you were 22 years old today and coming up and seeing what's happening in the world well I think it's much worse today in the in the music industry in terms of people being afraid to really say much about much you know but I don't think people like me were the ones that started I mean Jesus obviously like way back no I'm talking for this next Generation though yeah well you know when I um was around really it was a time of sensorship especially in the States you know there were there was bands like the two Live Crew having Misa horny was banned which is ridiculous all kinds of records were banned you know um and that's when a kind of real censorship seemed to come into the entertainment industry you know and it still exists enormously I have a song that I wrote um probably 20 years ago it's called black boys on mopets um and it's about a particular incident which I was aware of in the city I lived in where where the police chased a couple of you know 11 and 12y old BLS who they had swiped their cousin's moped you know which on paper is stealing but actually their cousin lived in the house with them and it was like okay they rob the thing la la la but they kids MH um and the police chased them and the kids panicked they didn't want their parents to know or whatever and they they turned around to watch where they're going smacked into something and died so I wrote this song about it and um one of the lines in the song it says these are dangerous days to say what you feel as to dig your own grave and every time I've sung it lately the whole audience erupt into Applause and that actually is a sad thing when when you think about it like that it is actually a condition especially in the states I think at the moment where artists or everybody are afraid to really challenge anything or say anything about what's going on like in their own country you know so it is uh it was bad I think when I started off but I think it's much worse now like most people coming into music business at 20 22 years of age they're they're pretty much told what to say and what not to say terrified they won't be able to sell any more records yeah and because they won't well people held you up as as a prime example do you want to pull a chenade right and people thought that that's you know be careful what you say cuz you well see if you're clever like me you make sure you got the money in the bank before you pull the stunt did you of course I did I stupid my mama didn't raise no dummy well and and I wonder if you know if you look at it today and you because you sort of you've gone a couple of your records have been very spiritual uh and you're not as public anymore about that sort of stuff and I wonder if that's just you or if it's the media has just kind of moved on and said you know oh both I guess you know like I wouldn't be flavor of the month at the moment would I let's face it so so you know they're going to about flavor of the month you know so they transfer to people like Britney do you when when you see these stories though of these you know of of people going through this do you do you look at them and recognize those moments and and then having the benefit of hindsight do you look back at your career and go oh you know what that's things haven't changed oh yeah absolutely absolutely I mean if you look I guess the thing for you too is that your personal life became so public for so long you know and then and then there's the religion thing you almost had like a perfect storm of reasons to talk about you over and above the music well you know even if there weren't reasons the media would create reasons you know once you become successful um and probably more so when you're a woman um you have these people on your back who are determined to make a story out of anything like one the first kind of controversial story about me was um I went to play a gig this is when I was like 19 or something I did a gig in Italy and I went through the hotel lobby with no shoes on and and these newspapers started writing about how I was being challenging and controversial you were challenging the country of great footware you know exactly exactly so you know it doesn't matter what you do or you said you know as Bob Marley used to say you know they crucified Jesus Christ like if you were Jesus Christ and perfect they'd kill you yeah that's true he didn't get off easy so you may as well be yourself like you love the fact that you're not as famous as you once were uh it makes life a lot easier definitely I mean it means I can do this today and I won't be um held up for whatever you call it have every word I say m scrutinized or whatever yeah you know do you have a plan do you have another record in mind I do it's called blasphemy that's the opposite to theology that sounds like that might be a record a vastly different record nice to see thanks for coming in thanks J Conor everybody got a new record called theology two versions one recorded in Dublin sessions one recorded in London theology shade yeah will be right back

Channel: Strombo

Views: 230,968

Keywords: Sinead O'Connor, The pope, Saturday Night Live (TV Program), red chair, George Stroumboulopoulos

Id: -oUpXx4yCGY

Length: 12min 31sec (751 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 18 2013