Sinéad O’Connor is opening up about her latest memoir Rememberings and how the “best” chapter recalls the “frightening” night she met Prince.
The Irish singer-songwriter, known for her ethereal take on the Prince-penned “Nothing Compares 2 U” that topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990, discussed her new book Friday (June 25) on The View. Rememberings delves into her upbringing, journey in music and struggles with physical, sexual and psychological abuse. But in one chapter, she details the night she first interacted with the legendary pop superstar at his Hollywood mansion and how the two got into a verbal argument that turned physical.
“We had a disagreement, and it got a bit physical between the two of us. And it was quite scary for me ’cause I was young and I didn’t really know where I was,” O’Connor said. “I think that again in terms of writing or quality of writing in the book, the Prince chapter is probably the best chapter in the book because I tried to make it amusing. And it is also quite frightening. … He took me to the house, and he started telling me that I mustn’t swear in my interviews and I must talk like this and talk like that. Of course, being Irish, I told him how he could take a long walk down a short pier. And that didn’t go down very well, and it all descended from there.”
In an interview with The New York Times shortly before she released Rememberings on June 1, O’Connor detailed how her “Nothing Compares 2 U” cover, which earned her not only a Hot 100 No. 1 hit but also three Grammy nominations, was what “derailed” her career despite propelling her to fame in the 1990s. In the book, she recalls a strange get-together where Prince suggested a pillow fight at his house and eventually hit her with a hard object that was tucked into his pillowcase.
She later wrote about trying to run away on foot in the middle of the night, only to have Prince follow her with his car, jump out and chase her around the highway. While O’Connor noted that although the late icon was often called “crazy-in-a-good-way,” “there’s a difference between being crazy and being a violent abuser of women,” she told The Times. And even though her best-known song was written by a man she considers to be “a violent abuser of women,” she argued that “as far as I’m concerned, it’s my song.”
O’Connor announced she was retiring from her career in touring and recording music earlier this month, writing on Twitter, “It’s been a forty year journey. Time to put the feet up and make other dreams come true.” But the 54-year-old artist quickly retracted her statement and assured fans that she’s “gonna keep on being fabulous” in spite of all the trauma she’s relived from her life while promoting her new memoir.
Watch her latest interview on The View below.
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