Sinéad O'Connor Revealed What She Was Thinking as Kris Kristofferson Comforted Her After Being Booed for SNL Scandal

Kris Kristofferson is remembered not only for his contribution to film and music after his death — but also for his character.

Following his death at the age of 88 on Saturday, September 28, Kristofferson fans reflected on several other memorable moments in the singer-songwriter’s career, such as when he comforted Sinéad O’Connor after her controversial appearance in 1992. Saturday night live.

After the “Nothing Compares 2 U” singer — who died in July 2023 at age 56 — tore up a photo of Pope John II in response to the Catholic Church’s alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse at the time, O’Connor was predicted to perform at the Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden in New York just a few weeks later.

During a concert on October 16, 1992, when the musician was greeted with both whistles and battle cheers from the audience, Kristofferson hugged O’Connor and gave her a few words of encouragement.

Kris Kristofferson comforts Sinead O’Connor at a performance at Madison Square Garden on October 17, 1992.

AP Photo/Ron Frehm

She wrote about the ordeal in her memoir from 2021 Memories: scenes from my complicated lifein which she described the booing and cheering as “a noise such as I have never heard and cannot describe except that it is like thunder that never ceases.”

Sinéad O’Connor has no regrets about her infamous ‘Saturday Night Live’ incident in 1992.

“The loudest noise I’ve ever heard. It really makes me nauseous and almost bursts my eardrums,” O’Connor wrote. “I walk around the stage for a while. I realize that if I start a song, I’m fucked, because the vocals are so whispered that both sides of the audience fight will drown me,” she continued. “And I can’t afford not to be heard; the players will take that as a victory.”

While O’Connor was scheduled to perform Dylan’s 1979 song “I Believe in You,” she chose to sing an a cappella rendition of Bob Marley’s “War” instead.

Kris Kristofferson poses for a photo at AMC Loews Lincoln Square on November 7, 2011.

Michael N. Todaro/Getty

“I keep pacing, which makes everyone backstage uncomfortable because the show has to go according to plan, so someone sends Kris Kristofferson (she tells me later) to ‘get her off the stage,'” O’Connor wrote.

As Kristofferson walked over to O’Connor, she wrote in her book that at that moment she thought, “I don’t need a man to save me, thank you.”

“That’s so embarrassing,” O’Connor wrote. “Don’t let the bastards break you,” he says into my microphone. And we’re walking off the stage, and I’m almost yelling at him as he hugs me.”

Kris Kristofferson, A star is born Actor and country legend, died at 88

Sinead O’Connor at the Vogue Theater in Vancouver in February 2020. Andrew Chin/Getty

We’re talking to RTÉ One’s Saturday night with Miriam in August 2010, Kristofferson recalled thinking he was O’Connor’s at the time SNL the gesture was “very misunderstood”

“I walked out. They told me to get her off the stage, and I said, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ [that],” he said. “I came out and said, ‘Don’t let the bastards break you.’ And she said, ‘I’m not down,’ and she sang.”

“It was very brave,” he added of O’Connor, who was 26 at the time. “It didn’t seem right to whistle that little girl outside, but she was always brave.”

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Kristofferson’s rep confirmed to PEOPLE that he died “peacefully” while surrounded by family at his Maui home this weekend.

“It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 28th at home. We are all so blessed to spend time with him. Thank you for loving him all these years, and when you see a rainbow, know that he is smiling on us all,” the family said in a statement.

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Source: HIS Education