eMusic Q&A: Sinead O'Connor

It was perhaps the most shocking crash and burn inin 1992, O'Connor tore up a photograph of the Pope on
pop music history. With her 1987 debut, The Lion andSaturday Night Live and declared, "Fight the real
the Cobra, 20-year-old Sinead O'Connor staked herenemy"; the next week she was booed off the stage
claim as one of the most powerful voices of herat a Bob Dylan tribute concert, and her album of
generation — a potential that was fully realizedstandards, Am I Not Your Girl? (recorded years before
three years later when the follow-up, I Do Not WantRod Stewart made such things commercially viable),
What I Haven't Got, became an international sensation.disappeared from sight. One of rock's brightest stars
But after engaging in some high-profile squabbles withhad become persona non grata overnight.
everyone from Frank Sinatra to the Grammy Awards,