Sinead
O'Connor comes out . . . with album
By Elysa Gardner
Compassion with attitude is the song she sings
NEW YORK - Sinead O'Connor has a confession to make.
Some might suspect that the
Irish singer/songwriter,
who has inspired controversy
with everything from her
political views to her tonsorial
choices, is simply
trying to shock us again.
Others might dismiss her
revelation as an attempt
to draw attention to her new
album, Faith and Courage,
which hits stores today. But
here it is:
'Faith and Courage': Sinead
O'Connor, ordained as a
priest, is releasing her
first album in six years.
(AP)
"I want to be Goldie Hawn,"
says O'Connor, 33,
lounging in her Manhattan
hotel suite.
"I'd like to do comic acting,"
she explains. "Not
heavy drama, where I'd have
to dredge up lots of pain.
"But I wouldn't want to play
big, big parts, because
I'm actually painfully shy."
Of course, if you're up on
your show-biz gossip, you
would most likely conclude
that O'Connor is learning
to overcome her timidity
when it comes to her sex
life.
On Thursday, the lesbian
magazine Curve issued a news
release boasting that O'Connor
had just "come out" to
a Curve reporter in an "exclusive"
interview.
But O'Connor had already
outed herself in a letter
featured in the current
issue of the Irish publication
Hot Press. Addressing a
previous interview in which
she had discussed her sexuality,
O'Connor wrote, "I am
a lesbian. I love men, but
I prefer sex with women."
Not surprisingly, O'Connor's
appearance on Howard
Stern's radio show Friday
yielded more graphic
details. "But I don't believe
in gay or straight," she
told Stern.
In fact, on one song on Faith,
Daddy I'm Fine,
O'Connor sings of wanting
to have sex with "every man
in sight." That contradicts
what she told Time in
another interview last week
- that she has "a huge
calling towards celibacy.
Obviously I am a very sexual
person, and that's why it's
a struggle."
Asked about her current dating
status, O'Connor says,
"I dabble a bit, but I don't
have a strict boyfriend."
Smiling slyly, she adds,
"Or a girlfriend."
But on this afternoon, at
least, O'Connor is more
eager to discuss Faith,
for which she enlisted an
eclectic array of producers
and co-writers, including
Brian Eno, Dave Stewart
and Wyclef Jean.
"It was important to work
with people who could bring
a sense of mischief and
lightness and pop fun to the
record," O'Connor says.
Faith also was influenced
by O'Connor's decision to
become a priest. Last year,
the singer was ordained by
the Latin Tridentine Church,
a splinter group of the
Roman Catholic Church.
"I've always been inspired
by religious studies - by
the Rastafarians, by Hinduism,
by the Jews, " she
says. "I'm passionately
in love with the idea of God,
although I think that organized
religion has made God
an uncool word. I think
the problem is that we're
missing an 'o.' Substitute
the word 'good' - problem
solved."
O'Connor chose the Tridentine
movement because it is
willing to ordain women
- and because it doesn't
require celibacy, "which
I think should be voluntary
rather than compulsory."
"But I don't want to talk
too much about being a
priest, because I didn't
do this to get publicity,"
she stresses. "Also, the
Vatican (officials) have been
very tolerant toward me.
I think they feel that as
long as I don't (mess) with
them, they're not gonna
(mess) with me."
O'Connor's troubles with
the Vatican can, of course,
be traced to her infamous
Saturday Night Live
appearance in 1992, when
she capped a song by ripping
up a picture of Pope John
Paul II.
"The song was about child
abuse, and at that time we
were dealing with that issue
in the church here (in
Ireland)," she says. "It
wasn't an attack on the pope
personally. In fact, I have
great love and admiration
for him - and great sorrow
for the fact that he's
being worked like a dog
when he should be able to rest
up and have some fun and
have a wife and children."
O'Connor has endured some
turmoil in her own domestic
life recently. Last year
she was in a custody battle
with Dublin-based journalist
John Waters, father of
her daughter, Roisin, 4.
There were reports that
O'Connor attempted suicide
and that Waters was
subsequently awarded full
custody. O'Connor refutes
those accounts.
"I was in the hospital a
few times because I was
getting eye infections and
losing a lot of weight,"
she says. "Plus, I felt
suicidal, which I told a few
friends. So I think people
assumed the worst."
O'Connor says that she was
granted full custody of the
child but that she and Waters
worked out a
joint-custody arrangement
that required her to move
from London to Dublin.
O'Connor also remains devoted
to her 12-year-old son
from a former marriage,
Jake, who lives with father
John Reynolds in London.
For all the speculation about
her sexual confusion, in
fact, O'Connor seems settled
and content in both her
personal and professional
life.
"I have what I call a safe
career," she says. "I can't
compete with the Britneys.
But I'll always make enough
money to send my kids to
good schools and buy all the
makeup I want - and to make
the kind of records I want
to make."
<<< BACK TO ARTICLES