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Print Kevin Abosch Sinead O'Connor brings "Theology" to WYEP's Summer Music Festival.  Where: Allegheny Landing, North Shore, near PNC Park.
Hear Sinead O'Connor speaking with the PG's Scott Mervis:
Hear excerpts from "Theology" by Sinead O'Connor:
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On how her songs of faith are also protest songsShe has nothing to add, no new reflections on the big man at the Vatican and her brief picture-tearing episode on "Saturday Night Live" 15 years ago.
It goes without saying that her petulant protest against child abuse changed the course of her career in an instant. Maybe "Am I Not Your Girl?" and everything that came after it were not going to ring up 7 million in worldwide sales like her blockbuster, "I Don't Not Want What I Haven't Got," but, surely, she scared away enough people that her records would not be judged based on their merits.
If it's seemed as if she disappeared, that's only partially true. She's released four studio records, the latest of which was an acclaimed collection of reggae covers. She's also had her hands full raising four children (age range 20 years old to 6 months) from four different fathers, two of whom she married and divorced.
Subsequent news clips on the singer have included her being a lesbian, not being a lesbian, being an ordained priest, being a Rastafarian, retiring from the music business, not retiring from the music business.
Clearly, being Sinead O'Connor is a fluid and sometimes confused state of existence.
She arrives now with "Theology," a two CD-set featuring the 10 songs performed both acoustically and with the majestic Celtic rock touches of her early records. With her earnestness and passion going full-bore, she spends a good bit of the record talking to God about the troubled state of affairs down here. Along with eight originals, she adds a tearful cover of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" and Curtis Mayfield's "We People Who Are Darker Than Blue."
Although her latest records haven't made much of a splash, this one is accompanied by a tour that stops at the WYEP Summer Music Festival on Saturday. Earlier this week, the 40-year-old O'Connor talked about "Theology" and family. No pope.
Q: So, "Theology" comes out this week. Do you get nervous about how the reviews are going to be?
A: Hmm. 99 percent of the time I try actually not to buy into all of that, good or bad. I don't really read stuff about me or read reviews, but then very occasionally you happen to see one by accident and then, depending on how it's written, you can take criticism or such. But if it's kind of personal, that's more worrying, you know what I mean?
Q: Do you have a personal preference between the two discs? As I understand, the acoustic one means more to you.
A: Yeah, obviously I'm not supposed to say whether I have a favorite or not, and I do genuinely love both of them, but I suppose I have a deeper attachment to the acoustic one. Having said that, I do love the other one. My manager will kick my butt for saying I like one more than other one.
Q: I guess you envisioned this as an acoustic album and were talked into an electric version.
A: Yeah, but not against my will, if you like. I mean, I paid for this record myself, and it cost me a pretty penny, I can tell you. It cost me about 350 grand. So obviously I wouldn't have been forking that out if I wasn't into it.
Q: I guess you've been busy being a mom. Is it hard to find time to compose music and make an album?
Q: Well, it wasn't at that time, because I had only the three kids and my youngest one was 3, and he goes to a little playschool a couple mornings a week. So I would work while they went to school and not work till they went to bed. If you're in the writing process, you're working from home. It's just when it gets to promotion that it gets a little bit more difficult, because even recording I can work that against their school schedules.
Q: You wanted to make a record that addressed troubled times of war and terrorism. How did it lead you toward one about faith rather than protest songs about governments?
A: Well, to me those are protest songs about governments. Songs like '33,' the last few lines of that where it says, "He frustrates the plans of nations and brings to nothing the designs of people," to me that's an extremely challenging statement. Also, the song 'If You Had a Vineyard' is really an anti-war song in that it comes from one of the books of the prophets, which is Isaiah, and when you read the books of the prophets, those are about the only places where the God character itself gets to speak instead of other people saying what God says.
That song, every line of it is scripture that comes from the Book of Isaiah where God says OK, now I'm going to sing a song about my beloved and his vineyard and he sings it specifically to two warring factions in Israel, so it's very much an anti-war song. I suppose from my point of view, the subtext of a lot of what's going on is religious, and you have warring factions who actually claim to have God somehow on their side. I would perceive war as a spiritual problem and not particularly a political problem, other than that politics is the problem.
I suppose, as I said, the subtext for a lot of these warmongers is religious, and I kind of object in a way to God being portrayed as something that loves conditionally and is on the side of war anywhere. So, from that point of view I could be interested in arguing these people on their very own theologies. So that's where I'm coming from in terms of protest. If you're protesting against war, well, it would be kind of stupid to protest it aggressively. It makes more sense to try to protest it gently and from a proof point of view. These people are saying that God somehow condones violence. These are Christians, Jews, Muslims, not everybody, but a small minority of people in each of those religions, are claiming that God supports violence when the actual evidence in their theologies contradicts them.
Q: People might be confused about where you're coming from in terms of faith. There's a Christian element, a Rastafarian element. Are you a member of a church?
A: Well, first, there is a misunderstanding about the Rastafari movement. It's not a religion. It's a movement, basically. So I would be very linked with that. As far as what I am, I don't really believe in putting all my eggs in one basket. I'm someone who is inspired by lots of different religions. By birth and by culture, I am a Catholic, but I am inspired by lots of religions. In terms of faith, I'm not coming from anywhere in terms of the record. As the first song says, to put it cornily, I actually do just want to make a beautiful thing that might be somehow thought-provoking or soothing. I don't have some kind of message. I don't believe in shoving your faith down people's throats, so it's just actually a pretty thing, you know.
Q: What made you want to cover "I Don't Know How to Love Him"?
A: I always wanted to do that song anyway. Like I was 8 years old when I heard it first and I loved it. When I was finished recording the record I realized it's all basically an Old Testament record cause I'm kind of stuck there and I hadn't done anything New Testament at all. The trouble is that if you start dealing with the New Testament, there's a very fine line between corny and cool, musically speaking, and also you're dealing with a lot of prejudice, if you say the J word, people start running. So it seemed like a song that could deal with the New Testament without sounding corny or buying into anyone's prejudices. And it's a fantastic song, actually.
Q: Musically, it seems pretty much in the vein of "I Don't Not Want What I Haven't Got." Is that right, and do you have some different influences that you picked up over the years,.
A: Yeah, I have all kind of influences, geez, probably too many to count. But, you know, I'm sure you know yourself, as a kid, even from a baby, you begin to pick up musical influences and music that inspires you and you don't ever let go of those things, it becomes part of your DNA.
Q: Do you keep track of what's happening with pop culture and music?
A: I kind of do and I kind of don't, but that's another consequence of having four children, because they hijack your TV all day and they, like, break your radio, so when the kids go to bed, I get a chance to tune in. I like Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse, people like that, but I wouldn't be clued up at all.
Q: Can you talk about your relationship with your fans. Do you get a sense that they've put past controversies aside?
A: Well, you know what. Fans of mine or people in general actually never really had a problem one way or another with anything I did. The only people who seemed to have a problem with Sinead O'Connor were media people. I never heard any comment one way or another from fans about that stuff. I suppose the people who can't stand you are not likely to e-mail you to tell you so.
Q: I think the last concert you did in Pittsburgh you left the stage after a few songs. Do you remember that?
A: In my recollection, I was pregnant at the time, very early, and really sick, at the point where I was about to puke between the songs. It was an unexpected pregnancy, insofar as if I knew I was pregnant I might not have booked a lot of gigs. It was very hot here so it was a tricky thing to be pregnant in that kind of heat.
Q: I've read about the issues you had with [an abusive] mom. I was wondering what you learned from that and how would describe yourself as a mom?
A: I suppose if I was to boil it down to one thing, I would say to be very physically affectionate with my children and I guess nobody's going to be a perfect parent. You can only be good enough. I guess I believe if you're holding onto our children as much as possible and your actual body is available to them for comfort, you can pretty much get through anything. I suppose we're the same even as adults -- if you have hugs you can get through anything. I suppose if you come from a violent background, your only physical contact has been violence, so you understand then how important loving physical contact is.
Q: Is it difficult to raise them as a single mother?
A: Well, I guess I'm a single mom in a sense, but that implies that the daddies are not around, but the daddies are very involved in the kids' lives. We're all very supportive of each other and the kids spend half the time with their dads and half the time with me. So, we're an unconventional family, but very tight and functional.
Q: I guess at one point you withdrew from the music industry. Are you happy to jump back in it?
A: Yeah, 'cause I really like musically what I'm doing. It's nice if you really believe in the music you're doing. It can be a bit of a pain in the [behind] if you don't particularly like the music. It took me a while to get into the swing of it, 'cause I just had a baby six months ago and when I went back to work when he was about 4 months old, I was resistant for a while and complaining about everything. But I got into the swing of it now.
