SINÉAD O’CONNOR

The iconoclastic singer reveals her love of the blues on her 10th album

Sinéad O’Connor’s new album, I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss, is something of a milestone. “I see it that way in terms of being a songwriter,” she says. “In the last few years, I’ve studied and immersed myself in the blues—not the unhappy kind of blues, but the Chicago funky style of blues. Because of that, I feel I’ve advanced and broadened as a songwriter.”

O’Connor—whose career skyrocketed in 1990 with Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”—has taken forays into reggae, trip-hop and folk. Blues, however, wasn’t on her radar until her last tour was canceled due to illness. “The business end of things became very nasty,” she says. “I thought, ‘The only way I’m going to stay in music is to make myself fall in love with music.’ My mate said, ‘You have to check out blues.’ I immersed myself in the blues and became addicted to it. The stamp of Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy is palpable in the new record’s direct, passionate lyrics and bold, gruff vocals.

O’Connor’s musical preference isn’t all that’s changed—so has her songwriting process. It’s no longer therapy to untangle the emotional ravages of growing up in 1970s war-torn Ireland. “When I was younger, I had a lot of things to get off my chest, and that’s what songwriting was,” she says. “Now I write character songs, not autobiographical ones. I can put myself in the characters, but I’m not limited by my own experience.”

Another inspiration was Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s Ban Bossy girl-empowering campaign. “I was struck by the picture of Beyoncé and the words ‘I’m not bossy, I’m the boss,’” says O’Connor, 47. “At the time I was experiencing issues with getting employees to act on my instructions. After 25 years of not opening my mouth, I had to say, ‘I love you all, but I am the boss.’”

To cap this new self-assertive chapter, the album cover features O’Connor dressed as a vixen in a slinky black latex dress. “Now I’m faced with the terror of shooting the video, and they want me to dress like that,” she says, aghast. “It was fun for a day, but it’s high maintenance. It wasn’t meant to be the album cover, just a couple of publicity shots to get people talking about the album.It seems to have worked.”

–Linda Laban