Sinéad O’Connor has already changed her mind about retirement after claiming over the weekend that she would be quitting the touring and record business. She deleted her retirement tweets and sent a new statement with the caption, “Good news. Fuck retiring. I retract. Am not retiring. I was temporarily allowing pigs in lipstick to fuck my head up…”

The new statement offers a lengthy explanation, and as O’Connor points out, “It’s ‘colourful.’” She began by giving some background on where her head was prior to the retirement announcement. According to O’Connor, an interviewer on BBC’s Women’s Hour brought up a triggering statement made by a UK paper a while back during an interview last Tuesday. She accused the BBC of having “cleverly employed female misogynists to control Women’s Hour” and criticized them for contributing to her “emotional and psychological abuse.” She’s been open about having survived abuse, depression and suicidal thoughts in the past.

Good news. Fuck retiring. I retract. Am not retiring. I was temporarily allowing pigs in lipstick to fuck my head up… here’s my statement….. in the form of these three photos. It’s ‘colourful’ but that’s me : ) #LetOConnorBeOConnor pic.twitter.com/wKoEKFANPk

— Sinead O’Connor (Shuhada Sadaqat) (@MagdaDavitt77) June 7, 2021

On the next page of the statement, she gets to the retirement posts. “So now the good news, I was already so badly triggered by the time the BBC fucked me up the ass, with no warning, lube or permission, I lost my shit after Women’s hour: I felt like I did thirty years ago and for thirty years. That I’d be better off (safer) if I ran away and gave up being in music at all. Because I keep getting used as a coat hanger for people to clothe with whatever they like. My legal vulnerabilities and or past agonies dragged up for salacious entertainment and the paying of the mortgages of mostly men, who, thanks be to God, have never and will never know what it’s like to be a female trauma survivor in this world. A world falsely claiming every day to be less poisoned by stigma or misogyny that it is in reality.”

“I said I was retiring,” she continued. “As I have said many times before in knee jerk reactions when I was young and made the butt of media abuse on the grounds I’m legally vulnerable. The hugest misconception (I’m always asked this but never answer) of ‘Sinéad O’Connor’ is that she is Amazonian. I’m not. I’m a five foot four inch soft hearted female who is actually very fragile. When people ridicule or invalidate or disrespect or abuse or misuse me on the grounds I suffer from severe long term effects of the barbaris physical and sexual abuse I grew up with, every time I go to sell a record, a show or in this case a book, it triggers me. I turn back into that hurt child. Or that appallingly treated young woman. And my job becomes something I’m terrified of.”

So that’s where her head was, but she also clarified why she has changed her mind so soon. She explained, “But I love my job. Making music that is. I don’t like the consequences of being a talented (and outspoken woman) being that I have to wade through walls of prejudice every day to make a living. But I am born for live performance and with the astonishing love and support I have received in the last few days and will continue to receive from Rob Prinz and all at ICM as well as my managers and buyers and fans, I feel safe in retracting my expressed wish to retire and I will in fact be doing all shows currently booked for 2022.”

Those shows had originally been scheduled for 2020, but were postponed due to the pandemic. The release of her upcoming album No Veteran Dies Alone is set for 2022 as well. 

“Also, I lied when I said I’m past my peak. Ain’t no such fuckin thing : ),” she added, transitioning towards the statements conclusion. In the final part of the statement, she apologized “to all fans, buyers, promoters, venues, and hot dog sellers for the fright” she gave them, and pleaded for the media to be more respectful of her PTSD.