Sinéad O'Connor Backtracks on Retirement Announcement

Sinéad O'Connor has retracted her statement about retiring, saying that it was a "knee-jerk" reaction to "media abuse."

The Irish singer-songwriter shared over the weekend in a series of tweets that she was walking away from music for good, and that her album, "No Veteran Dies Alone," would be her last.

"This is to announce my retirement from touring and from working in the record business. I've gotten older and I'm tired," O'Connor wrote in a now-deleted tweet. "So it's time for me to hang up my nipple tassels, having truly given my all. NVDA in 2022 will be my last release. And there'll be no more touring or promo."

However, in a statement posted to Twitter Monday, O’Connor said she made the announcement as a reaction to triggering interviews with broadcasters, who she referred to as "pigs in lipstick."

"All interviewers were asked to please be sensitive and not ask about child abuse or dig deep into painful shit about mental health which would be traumatising for me to have to think about. Every fuggin time I go to sell a record for 30 years, it’s ‘aren’t you mental? aren’t you an asshole? aren’t you invalid?’," O’Connor said.

"I said I was retiring. As I have said many times before in knee jerk reactions when I was young and made the butt of media abuse on the grounds I’m legally vulnerable. The hugest misconception (I’m always asked this but never answer) of ‘Sinead O’Connor’ is that she is Amazonian. I’m not. I’m a five-foot, four-inch soft-hearted female who is actually very fragile."

O’Connor explained that she loved her job and making music, but did not like the "consequences of being a talented" and outspoken woman because it meant she had to "wade through walls of prejudice every day to make a living."

"But I am born for live performance and with the astonishing love and support I have received in the last few days and will continue to receive from Rob Prinz and all at ICM, as well as many managers and buyers and fans, I feel safe in retracting my expressed wish to retire," she added.

O'Connor also called out BBC’s "Woman’s Hour" host Emma Barnett who mentioned comments made by The Telegraph's music critic Neil McCormick, who described the singer as "the crazy lady in pop’s attic," according to NME.

"Last Tuesday it was unnecessary and hurtful for Woman’s Hour of all people, to remind me of the awfully abusive statement written about me by an Irish man for a UK paper," O’Connor said in a separate statement. "When people wonder what derailed my career? The UK and Irish UK papers’ constant abuse and invalidation of me on the grounds I may or may not have been diagnosed by them as 'mad.' As if mad makes you invalid."

O’Connor has been open about her struggles in the past. In 2020, she postponed all shows for the next two years so that she could go to rehab, explaining on Twitter that she had experienced a "very traumatic six years" and was entering a one-year trauma and addiction treatment program.

O'Connor admitted she had been "addicted to weed" for 34 years, but this year turned to other substances as a coping mechanism.

"This year I lost someone beloved and has affected me so badly that I became briefly addicted to a drug other than weed," she tweeted.

The "Nothing Compares 2 U" hitmaker explained that she "grew up with a lot of trauma and abuse" but never had time to address the impact it had on her life. Instead, she entered the music industry and became a roaring success. She admitted to her Twitter followers that there was no time to heal from the past.

Continuing with her thread, O'Connor apologized to her fans for having to postpone her shows and pleaded with her agents and promoters to show understanding and support.

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