Sinead Quits Music Biz
Irish singer Sinead O’Connor plans to retire after the release of
the live DVD Goodnight, Thank You. You’ve Been a Lovely
Audience in July. “I seek no longer to be a ‘famous’ person,
and instead I wish to live a ‘normal’ life,” O’Connor explained in
a post on her Web site. “I am glad that ye are helped by my songs.
So help me too, by giving me a private life.”
The announcement is apparently the final chapter in the
O’Connor’s career-long struggle with her own fame and celebrity.
She flirted with retirement a decade ago, amid backlash from her
controversial Saturday Night Live appearance in which she
ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II. Following the
SNL broadcast, she was booed off the stage at a Bob Dylan
tribute in New York. She then returned to Ireland and retreated
from the public eye and pop music in favor of opera and studying
for the priesthood. She was ordained in the Latin Tridentine Church
in 1999. O’Connor’s most recent release is 2002’s Sean Nos
Nua, an album of traditional Irish ballads.
“My advice to anyone who ever admires a so called ‘celebrity,’
if you see them in the street, don’t even look at them,” O’Connor
continued. “If you love them, then the lovingest thing you can do
is leave them alone and don’t stare at them! Or bang on restaurant
windows when they’re in there. Or make them get their picture
taken, or write their names on bits of paper. That’s pieces of
them. And one day they wake up with nothing left of themselves to
give.”
In May, the singer will wrap up what will be her final
recordings: a song for the upcoming Dolly Parton tribute album,
Just Because I’m a Woman, and a track for Celtic artist
Sharon Shannon.
“Thanks to all of ye for a great time and a great education,”
O’Connor concluded. “Love, peace, and don’t forget to pray.”