Los Angeles Times
October 17, 1992, Saturday, Home Edition

IRISH SINGER SINEAD O'CONNOR BOOED AT DYLAN TRIBUTE

From Associated Press


   Irish rock singer Sinead O'Connor was booed off the stage during a concert
Friday night celebrating the 30th anniversary of Bob Dylan's debut album.

   O'Connor, who outraged television viewers by tearing up a picture of Pope
John Paul II two weeks ago on "Saturday Night Live," was booed as she walked on
stage at a sold-out Madison Square Garden.

   She was scheduled to sing a Dylan song, "I Believe in You." But in response
to the booing, she instead sang a protest song, "War," by reggae artist Bob
Marley. She had sung the same Marley song during her "Saturday Night Live"
appearance Oct. 3.

   When she was finished, she left the spotlight in tears. Singer Kris
Kristofferson embraced her and helped her off.

   It was her first live performance since her "Saturday Night Live" appearance,
which was greeted by silence by the studio audience and numerous angry calls to
the show's network, NBC.

   The concert, including O'Connor's brief appearance, was shown on pay-per-view
cable TV. It was to be aired on a tape-delayed basis around the world within 48
hours.

   Dylan, 51, was joined by veteran rock pals Eric Clapton, George Harrison and
Neil Young, and other singers including John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Tom
Petty. Stevie Wonder was a surprise guest.

   Most notable among the missing were Bruce Springsteen, who inducted Dylan
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and the surviving members of the
Band, Dylan's brilliant backing group of the '60s and '70s.

   The house band was headed by guitarist G.E. Smith, a veteran of several Dylan
tours; guitarist Steve Cropper; bassist Duck Dunn; keyboard player Booker T.;
and drummer Jim Keltner.