A Sinead O'Connor interview

HT to Helen for this.

Harp magazine published last year a moving interview with Irish singer songwriter Sinead O'Connor. (Her latest album, Throw Down Your Arms, can be had at Amazon for US$8) I thought she really nailed it throughout the interview. Some quotes:

So yeah, I think music is the thing that rescues God from religion and politics

What bothers me about him [George Bush]is he seems to have the wrong facial expression when he talks about violence. He smiles! But they are all victims of a culture of violence, a culture of being brought up to believe this is how you sort things out.

I suppose what I see in all this is that there are all these people who claim to be representing God and who are actually killing each other, killing people. You can't judge one side or other to be better or worse than another-anybody who claims that they have God on their side while committing an act of violence is blaspheming. ... I think we all need to say, "Look, the way we've been sorting out these things doesn't work. Maybe we could try to sort it out lovingly.

I try not to get involved with politics of any description. But I am interested in the cause of rescuing God from religion.

And I suppose if I had to say anything to a 20-year-old [me], I'd say, "Sinead, look-just don't give a shit when these people are telling you you're a piece of shit. Don't buy into it." I came to believe I was a complete fucking monster, so I had to recover.

But as a child I grew up in a very theocratic society, so I sort of became interested from a very small age in rescuing God from religion. And it became apparent that music and singing was a way one could do that.