The singer opens up about her rise to fame and her subsequent fall in a new memoir. O’Conner began her story in Glenageary, Ireland where she suffered through an abusive mother. Her mother beat her daily but she found solace in music.
At the age of 18, she moved to London where she quickly got a record deal and then shaved her head. She rose to international fame with “Nothing Compares 2 U” – written by Prince.
She says of fame, “I felt like a square peg in a round hole. I went through severe child abuse, she says – that is an identity crisis. Fame is also an identity crisis.”
O’Conner has made peace with her mother who died in a car accident when O’Conner was 18.
The famous ripping of the photo of the Pope to call out abuse in the Catholic Church yielded backlash and a “fall from grace”. She was booed offstage at a Bob Dylan concert in 1992 among many other incidents.
She admits to struggling with mental illness and doing drugs in her book called “Rememberings”.
She says the nature of a singer is to be pretty open and adds that she has no regrets. Her joy now is found in everyday things including binge-watching detective shows. She plans to tour and release an album in 2022.
