“Don’t let the b*stards get you down.”
That was Kris Kristofferson’s message to Sinead O’Connor as he embraced her amid the tsunami of boos she was enduring on stage one night.
The fateful night came during a concert celebrating the 30th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s music career at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Sinead became the most polarising person in music only weeks earlier, however, after her stunt on Saturday Night Live.
We all remember the incident, which saw Sinead tear up a photo of the Pope (taken from her mother’s mantlepiece), rebuking the Catholic Church in what was one of television’s most notorious moments.
Outraged viewers of the show rallied against her and burned her records in the streets.
Fast forward to Madison Square Garden weeks later, and that sentiment hadn’t died down yet – when she came on stage to sing, she was met with a crashing wave of boos.
Kris Kristofferson was there on the side of the stage and comforted the fiery Irish singer as she broke down.
Some years later, Kristofferson wrote the gorgeous song ‘Sister Sinead’ about her, dedicating it to her unwavering commitment to live her truth no matter the consequences.
For the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary celebration, Sinead was scheduled to sing ‘I Believe In You’.
Introduced onto the stage by Kristofferson, the late country singer said her name has become “synonymous with courage and integrity”.
As she walked on stage, Sinead was greeted by a wave of 20,000 boos, so stopped, standing motionless.
After stopping her backing band from playing, she launched into an a-cappella version of Bob Marley’s ‘War’, the same song she roared weeks earlier on SNL.
The boos continued, and finally, Sinead broke down, struggling to contain the strain of being hated so audibly.
Kristofferson swiftly came on to put an arm around her shoulder, in which he says in her ear within distance of the microphone: “Don’t let the b*stards get you down”.
Kris Kristofferson himself was frequently the target of hatred, as he consistently spoke out against the injustices in the world.
A US Army veteran who fought bravely for his country, Kristofferson was often derided within the country music community for his liberal beliefs.
He saw a kindred spirit in Sinead, who herself was frequently hurled abuse at as she was always outspoken.
Even she was surprised by the response she received at the Bob Dylan concert, believing that the crowd would be more sympathetic to her actions.
“What occurred to me in those seconds was that if this audience felt like this, then they hadn’t actually listened to what Bob Dylan said, they didn’t actually get it,” she told Time magazine in a later interview.
“These are the people who supposedly believed in Bob Dylan, but they’ve fallen asleep.”
Kristofferson vouched for Sinead however, and having struck up a friendship after that night, wrote ‘Sister Sinead’ for her.
Kris was 73 when he wrote ‘Sister Sinead’, which featured on his 2009 acoustic album, Closer To The Bone.
Even years after the initial moment that brought them together, she clearly made an enormous impact on him.
Soon after the concert at Madison Square Garden, the pair joined up to sing Kris’ 1970 classic ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ on various television shows.
He wasn’t the only person impressed by Sinead’s courage and spirit – Willie Nelson convinced her to record a duet of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush’s gorgeous ballad ‘Don’t Give Up’ only days after she was booed off-stage.
But Kris’ words about “that bald-headed brave little girl” feel even more poignant after the ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ singer’s death in 2023.
“I’m singing this song for my sister Sinéad / Concerning the god awful mess that she made / When she told them her truth just as hard as she could / Her message profoundly was misunderstood.”
In many ways it summed up much of Sinead’s public image in a nutshell. But Kris Kristofferson understood her, and they were very much two of a kind.
