Today, I explain how Sinead O’Connor felt so let down by Bob Dylan at Dylan’s 1992 Tribute Concert.
This is Quite a Story, a sort of catch-all feature where I share short, interesting anecdotes from interviews or books that don’t really fit into any other feature.
The brilliant Irish singer/songwriter, Sinead O’Connor, has sadly passed away at the age of 56. O’Connor, best known for her hit song, “Nothing Compares 2 U,” had a difficult life, and the way that she was treated in the media and by the public was a big part of that. The most infamous example, of course, was when O’Connor ripped up a picture of the Pope that used to belong to her abusive mother while performing an a capella version of Bob Marley’s “War” on Saturday Night Live in early October 1992, and not only the public turned on her, but she got no support at SNL, either.
Two weeks later was a Bob Dylan tribute concert to celebrate his 30th anniversary as a recording artist. O’Connor was set to perform Dylan’s “I Believe In You,” but when the singer took the stage, she was greeted with a deluge of boos (and then a bunch of cheers trying to drown out the boos). At first, she didn’t even realize that it was over the SNL appearance (she had chosen a strange outfit, and she thought the crowd was reacting to THAT), but when she did, she was rattled, and just choose to sing “War” again instead, which got the fans even MORE angry when they realized that she wasn’t even doing a Dylan song…
Rough stuff to watch. Kris Kristofferson, who introduced her, tried to comfort her before she sang (telling her “Don’t let the bastards get you down”), but she wasn’t too receptive to it (“I don’t need a man to rescue me, thanks” – the two became good friends after the incident, though), but at the same time, she wasn’t happy with Dylan, who she thought COULD have made a difference at the time.
In her 2021 memoir, Rememberings, O’Connor reflected on the moment, and noted how irked she was by Dylan in the moment, “I feel like Bob Dylan is the one who should have come out and told his audience to let me sing. And I’m pissed that he didn’t. So I glare at him in the wings as if he’s my big brother who’s just told my parents I skipped school. He stares back at me, baffled. He’s looking all handsome in his white shirt and pants. It’s the weirdest 30 seconds of my life.”
She noted that her father (who was in the audience) told her that she had ruined her career, which, again, so darn rough, right?
RIP, Sinead O’Connor, you were treated really unfairly throughout your career.
EDITED TO ADD: My pal, Dan, sent me this excellent piece O’Connor wrote years later, directed to Dylan. It’s a much sweeter version of the book stuff.
Dylan has a history of setting fires and distancing himself from them…. When he and Joan Baez were leaning out a window and waving at their devoted fans, Baez, intoxicated by the power and adulation made a remark like “those are our kids, Bob” he snapped back “I’m not responsible for those kids”… And he wasn’t…. The pressure and responsibility that was thrust on him alone by an entire counterculture was ridiculous for a guy who admitted he was just a guy who wrote songs…. In his autobiography he recounts walking past the table and seeing the cover of a Time magazine that had a four-headed picture on the front with Martin Luther King, JFK,RFK, and Bob himself….”what’s that supposed to mean?” He thought to himself….. He knew well the dangers of being society’s martyr and he had good reason two distance himself from that kind of controversy….
Bob Dylan is a spineless coward and more. He let down a very special woman who admired him . She was so much braver and soulful.
I doubt Bob Dylan could have done more than Kris Kristofferson
The irony is the subject matter of the song she cohse contravenes what the crow’d beef with her was.
One thing for sure, illustrating the decline of religion in America since 1992: Today there’s no way something like what she did would cause that level of blowback in such a setting.
the angel and the dogs Bob Dylan totally impotent . at that horrifying concert Bob Dylan didn’t realise you sold your soul to the Devil.