The moving reason late Sinead O’Connor shaved her head after her first record deal
SINEAD O'CONNOR shaved off her long dark hair after signing her first record deal, later saying she did not want to conform to what the music industry wanted.
The defiant act was something she had wanted to do since her abusive mother called her the “pretty daughter” as a child.
Signed in 1985 to produce a light-hearted record, Sinead said: “You’re supposed to wear push-up bras and lip gloss and shut up and sing.”
It was the start of the public defiance which saw her career nose-dive when she ripped a photo of the Pope on TV.
And in her last interview, recorded for Nothing Compares — on Sky tomorrow — she said: “They tried to bury me, but didn’t realise I was a seed.”
She added: “I just knew I didn’t want any man telling me who I could be or what I could be or what to sound like.
“I came from a patriarchal country where I’m being told everything I can and can’t do because I’m a girl.
"I’d figure if I didn’t take it from the system, and I didn’t take it from my daddy, I wouldn’t take it from anyone else.
“You often hear artists say they’re channelling something, I think you’re often channelling yourself and your subconscious is telling you something, it’s talking to you.
"I had these songs inside of me that just had to come out.
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“I write songs about things that I feel strongly about, it’s not consciously to write a political song or consciously to make a statement about anything and I think that what everyone’s duty to themselves is to act on their feelings and say when something is wrong.
“An artist’s job is to sometimes create difficult conversations that need to be had and it’s none of my business what anyone thinks of me when I do that.”
- Nothing Compares airs on Sky and NOW on Saturday.