Publication: Rolling Stone [US]
Date: January 24, 1991
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Title: Notes
Written By: Staff

Sinead O’Connor has gotten her dander up once again. In an interview published last month in the Irish music paper Hot Press, O’Connor claims that when she recently visited Prince at his Los Angeles home, he threatened her with physical violence. "He continually said that he was going to beat the shit out of me," she says. O’Connor describes a predawn altercation with Prince in December, during which he prevented her from leaving his house.

Prince, she says, was giving her grief for last year’s national-anthem fiasco and for the foul language she uses. "He found this offensive," she says.

According to O’Connor, Prince sent his limo driver away, leaving her no way to get home at 5:30 in the morning. "He started laughing at the fact that I was crying, saying that my big mouth had got me into trouble again," she says. "I don’t see why he had to threaten me with physical violence and use the fact that he is a man to intimidate me and be quite amused at the fact that I was frightened."

Later in the interview, she speculates that Prince’s argument with her came down to envy. "His problem was that I did a song of his [‘Nothing Compares 2 U’] without him being involved in it," she says. "He’s jealous. And he did say to me that he wished I’d never done his song….I think, frankly, that that song saved his fucking ass. He was in serious financial trouble until that song happened."

Prince dismisses O’Connor’s accusations. "That never happened," he says. "I have no idea what she’s talking about."