July 27, 2023

"Firstly, Prince didn’t like people covering his songs. Secondly, he had all these female protégées and he was annoyed I wasn’t one of them."

"Thirdly, my manager Steve Fargnoli has been his manager and they were involved in a legal case. On top of all this he was a woman-beating c***.  I’m certainly not the only woman he laid a hand on."

Said Sinéad O’Connor, describing her meeting with Prince, quoted in "Nothing could compare to Sinéad O’Connor’s bravery and will/Singer rowed with Prince over her cover of Nothing Compares 2 U" (London Times).

She said Prince invited her to have pillow fight and then used a pillow with something hard hidden inside it.

44 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...

Firstly, when it comes to Prince and "using a pillow with something hard hidden inside it" it's a good idea never to ask questions you don't want to know the answers to.

Second, if her claim is legit I had no idea Prince beat women. Really? Prince strikes me as a slapper (pun intended). The kind that can range from little love taps all the way up to grand mal pimp-named-slickback backhands across the meaty part of the female jaw. My perspective on the man changes significantly if that's true.

Old and slow said...

She was a terrific singer and a nasty piece of work. And yes, I do speak from experience.

Aggie said...

I've never been much of a S.O'C fan, I thought she had a good voice but didn't much care for the erratic behavior or the material she was singing, in the limited selection I had heard. I'm sorry she's gone though, poor woman. She seems to be one of those tragic Irish figures that lived only to be lashed by their emotions. I watched the linked video yesterday, 'Nothing Compares 2 U' and was struck by the flashes of pure anger and rage that flickered across her face as she sang. It was striking, that pretty, girlishly-pretty face, expressionless but for those fleeting inner glimpses. She looked like she was having a hard time, full-time.

gilbar said...

Don't want to speak ill of the dead.. But between these two girls Prince is the believable one

Robert Cook said...

The "-ly" on Sinead's "First," "Second," and "Third" are unnecessary.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

An AI cover of Raspberry Beret in the voice of Bob Dylan.

Tom T. said...

"...with something hard hidden inside it."

That sounds like Prince.

Earnest Prole said...

5’4” 130 lb Sinead O’Connor towered over 5’1” 110 lb Prince. In fighting terms she was a lightweight and he was a flyweight, a difference of six weight divisions; of course Prince required an equalizer in the form of a brick hidden in a pillow. Think Krazy & Ignatz.

Steve said...

“Game, Blouses.”

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

I don't know what to believe. Crazy people. Is she nuts? Is Prince?

M Jordan said...

One of my guiding principles of adult life is never get involved in a pillow fight. Period. Full stop.

Enigma said...

That would have been a fun pillow fight to see: weirdo artist vs. weirdo artist formerly known as SYMBOL.

Maybe the heavy object was just his SYMBOL nametag?

Charlie said...

Pretty sure I could have gone my whole life and been happy without knowing any of these details.

gilbar said...

Prince had a great supporting role, in that famous Morris Day and the Time movie Purple Rain

Serious Question.. What would Morris Day have dealt with Skinhead O'Conner ??

Anthony said...

I'd put money on her over Prince in a fair fight any day. He was like Skinny Steve Rogers. . . . .

Rocco said...

"Secondly, he had all these female protégées and he was annoyed I wasn’t one of them."

Didn't he bone most of them? That puts his annoyance into perspective.

Meade said...

I suppose it’s become cliché but she truly sang as an angel.

https://youtu.be/318ZDSy3zn4

Oligonicella said...

Teach your daughters self-respect and self-defense.

Mine got involved with an effete 'artiste' writer. Once she determined he wasn't long term material he started getting handsy and hit her, knocking her back onto the bed.

She said that as she lay there she thought "Daddy would be ashamed of me right now.", came off the bed and kicked the ever-loving shit out of him and told him to not be there when she got back from the store.

She didn't tell me any of this until much later rightly thinking I'd run that bastard down and do some real damage. Not for him, she didn't want me arrested.

I've mentioned numerous times here that I ran a stunt group. Well, those boys were like her brothers and Lance was FAR luckier she didn't mention it to them.

rcocean said...

Brave = Pioneer Women going West into the wilderness fighting off indians and raising kids.
Not Brave = a singer getting into a pillow fight with Prince.

BTW, O'Connor was mentally ill. Maybe we should be a little, uh..skeptical of her version of events. And yes she had the voice of an angel. Although the rest of her bore little resemablance to anything heavenly.

lamech said...

While O'Conner did claim that Prince had challenged her to a pillow fight, but then assaulted her with a hard object concealed in the pillow... In a 2004 interview, O'Connor backpedaled on the claims, calling Prince a 'sweet guy' and saying the story had been exaggerated in the press.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12341285/Sinead-OConnor-feud-prince.html

I am reminded of the time that Prince and his crew challenged Charlie and Eddie Murphy and their crew to a basketball game, but then Prince and his crew unscrupulously ran plays that involved "fruit picks" to win the game, and then served pancakes.

Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories - Prince - Uncensored
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff8LEx9Mw54

Tina Trent said...

So she recorded Prince's song, was allegedly assaulted by him to the point of at least aggravated assault if not attempted murder with his car, then she said nothing until the song became a bestseller and launched her career.

She did not care for the safety of other women at his hands, not did she file charges to protect other women, and she only told her version of the story after she profited massively off her relationship with him.

So. Either she was lying, or she cared more about money and fame than other females being assaulted by him. Either way, that makes her cynical scum, something I never thought of her before.

No better than the Pope brushing the sex scandal under the carpet. No surprise she became a Muslim, the religion that actually despises, mutilates, enslaves, and kills women for mere disobedience to men. Note that she never tore up a picture of Mohammed: that would require real courage, right?

No, she wasn't brave, or punk, or iconoclastic. She was a narcissistic, professional victim who didn't give a damn about other victims. Maybe she is lying about her parents too. Who knows? When given the chance to act to stop an allegedly extremely dangerous man, in complete safety, she chose her career instead.

walter said...

Now maybe I'm dirty and maybe I smoke a little dope
It ain't like I'm going on T.V. and tearing up pictures of the Pope
I know I get wild and I know I get drunk
But it ain't like I gotta bunch of bodies in my trunk
My old man used to call me a no good punk
And I still don't why

I think I'm an alright guy
I think I'm an alright guy
I just wanna live until I've gotta die
I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try
I think I'm an alright guy
I think I'm alright

Heartless Aztec said...

Best Prince cover ever.
Derailers - Raspberry Beret

https://youtu.be/-aCGE9W4tpQ

Quaestor said...

"Nothing could compare to Sinéad O’Conner’s bravery and will," says the Times.

Finally, an arts page sentiment I can agree with. Nothing compares very favorably to Sinéd O'conner's bravery and will. In fact, I can hardly imagine a more vast and unplumbable void than Sinéad O'Conner's bravery and will, unless it's the late Sinéad O'Conner's concept of agency and responsibility. Nothing is a metaphysical concept and, ironically, therefore a something, which gives Nothing a decided advantage over Sinéad O'Conner's bravery and will.

Iman said...

From just a couple of scenes in his movies I could tell Prince leaned “sissy” by watching the way he hurried and ran.

William said...

In a perverse way, she became more sympathetic as she grew less attractive.....I first heard of her after the SNL incident. At that time she was young and beautiful and had the number one record in the world. The SNL incident looked more like a publicity stunt than a protest. She seemed to have been blessed by God with all the available blessings. She didn't look the proper person to complain about the Church's injustices....As time went by, the curses became more apparent than the blessings. Her looks coarsened and the tattoos didn't help. She was a mess, but no longer a hot mess. The men in Marilyn Monroe's life had difficulty in reaching a balanced appraisal of her talents and needs.. That didn't happen with Sinead. Her fans liked her for her voice and that was about the only blessing that endured. ... Her behavior wasn't outlandish or "out there". It was flat out crazy. You couldn't criticize her the way you criticize Madonna or Streisand. She was more like Britney. You don't know what to make of it....I'm sorry she's gone, but she left behind ten albums and some wonderful music. There was an expense of spirit but it wasn't in a waste of shame.

donald said...

Warner Hodges (Legendary guitar god from Jason and The Nashville Scorchers) worked in the production crew for a Prince video. He said that if ya looked at him, you got fired and that included the directors and cameramen. Prince would let Warner near him cause well he is one of the greatest guitarists in the world (Still couldn’t look at him though) and Warner was able convince him that the Cameraman HAD to look at him to film. Sinead had a nasty view on everything, just like Shane McGowan. A complete refusal to accept anything positive. She sure could song though huh?

donald said...

Warner Hodges (Legendary guitar god from Jason and The Nashville Scorchers) worked in the production crew for a Prince video. He said that if ya looked at him, you got fired and that included the directors and cameramen. Prince would let Warner near him cause well he is one of the greatest guitarists in the world (Still couldn’t look at him though) and Warner was able convince him that the Cameraman HAD to look at him to film. Sinead had a nasty view on everything, just like Shane McGowan. A complete refusal to accept anything positive. She sure could song though huh?

Lexington Green said...

How come all these other women who worked with Prince have nothing but good things to say about him. And it’s the psycho feminist, who is clearly a mental case, and badly damaged by life, and miserable generally, is the one who has all these awful things to say? Maybe it’s her? Ya think?

She had a good voice. “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a catchy song.

She was an unhappy person, and professional success didn’t change that.

A sad life.

RIP

Barry Dauphin said...

So Prince didn’t challenge her to play basketball like he did Charlie Murphy?

PM said...

She always seemed a very unhappy woman to me, now at peace.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

SNL ruined her name for me. I see it in print and my mind says Sine-Aid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SdIJimk-w8

Kevin said...

2gether they started the thing of using numbers 4 non-numerical words

So, a pox on them both

SteveWe said...

"She truly sang as an angel." Truly? Who says? Who has heard an angel singing? Was it recorded? I, and others, would like to hear it.

And only one song has everyone on their knees weeping her passing? While few even mention the passing of Milan Kundera a week earlier.

RMc said...

"Firstly, Prince didn’t like people covering his songs."

Baloney. Literally thousands of artists have covered Prince's songs...to say nothing of all the songs Prince specifically wrote for other artists: http://www.discog.info/prince-for-others.html

Valentine Smith said...

I don’t remember the circumstances surrounding the birth of her son, but I’m pretty sure that there was no father in his life. Her mental illness was pretty obvious from the start. Couple this with the suicide of her son and we can be pretty sure she followed in his path.

Absent father, mangled mother make up the two key ingredients for the very tragic life of the son. I must continually remind myself that it is predictable but not fated. Otherwise, it is just too too sad.

madAsHell said...

Oldest trick in the book…….

veni vidi vici said...

One-hit wonder slanders the individual responsible for said one hit, later walks back slander.

That's the story; she was nuts and yesterday I saw a photo set in an obit somewhere. It was all the same: close-up selfie-type pic of her bald-headed face looking blankly wide-eyed into the camera with "intensity". What a crock of a schtick when laid out like that. She's from when shaving one's head like a cancer vic was considered edgy - just ask Michael "AIDS" Stipe, who did the same thing probably for the same reasons.

Once an attention-whore, always an attention-whore; now with the propensity to slander unapologetically those who assisted her career. RIP lady; now we can finally all forget you.

dbp said...

I just came across this, even though it's from 10 years ago, Sinéad O'Connor's open letter to Miley Cyrus and it's kind of made me re-evaluate Ms. O'Connor.

My dim view had started from the shaved head shtick, followed by attacking the Pope because of the patriarchy and then becoming Muslim--the only religion that's even more patriarchal.

I thought her open letter was thoughtful, if a bit of a polemic and she did touch upon why she shaved her head.

Alison said...

donald, fascinating story about Warner Hodges. I'm a big fan. He is still active making albums and touring mostly UK/Europe as a solo artist. Up to a few years ago he was a member of bands The Bluefields, Driving N Cryin, and Dan Baird and Homemade Sin. I have seen him perform probably 10 or 15 times in Nashville since I discovered him around 2015. He is incredible.

lonejustice said...

Meade said...

I suppose it’s become cliché but she truly sang as an angel.

https://youtu.be/318ZDSy3zn4
----
Meade, thanks for posting. It is really a beautiful song. I've saved it in my musical Que.

I'm a 70-year-old recently retired lawyer, and I have decided that for the rest of my short life here on earth, I am not going to judge artists, musicians, authors, and other gifted people by their politics, and effectively "cancel culture" them from my life. I will simply enjoy and revel in the beauty and meaning they bring into my life.

Robert Cook said...

"My dim view had started from the shaved head shtick, followed by attacking the Pope because of the patriarchy and then becoming Muslim--the only religion that's even more patriarchal."

Actually, O'Connor's protest was more about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priestts (at all levels), and its decades-long coverup. Apparently, she had been one of those many child victims.

Tim said...

Sinead owned "Nothing Compares to You" like no one else before or after.

donald said...

Alison, the weekend before I went in the Navy in 1982, I wandered into the 688 club in Atlanta. They were in the middle of the set and that was that. There was nobody like them and even now nobody ever did what the Scorchers did. I sold Warner his first computer and played basketball with him which was incredible because he smoked four packs of cigarettes a day AND COULD DEAL. I know them all and I’m only saying it here because they’re all great guys and well they got me started towards Gram and The Byrds! Tell Warner I said hi.