Kris Kristofferson stood by Sinead O'Connor as boos rained down

On October 16, 1992, Columbia Records threw its longtime artist Bob Dylan an event at Madison Square Garden to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his association with the label. The concert, available on pay-per-view, featured Dylan performing with some of the biggest stars of his era, among them Stevie Wonder, George Harrison, Johnny Cash and Eric Clapton.

But it was the performance of relative newcomer Sinead O'Connor and the support she was lent to by country veteran Kris Kristofferson, who died on Saturday aged 88, that proved most memorable.

O'Connor, then just 25, was at the center of the firestorm. Just two weeks ago, the Irish singer was the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” when, at the conclusion of her second and final performance of the evening, she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II and advised, “Fight the real. Enemy.” An act of protest against sexual abuse in the Catholic Church (and, he later revealed, a deeply personal statement — the photo was of his mother, who had physically abused him). The incident caused widespread outrage and made O'Connor a cultural pariah.

Now, in the wake of that polarizing moment, Kristofferson was tasked with bringing O'Connor to the stage.

“I'm really proud to introduce this next artist, whose name has become synonymous with courage and honesty,” Kristofferson said, making an obvious reference to the “SNL” incident. (As he would later sing of O'Connor, “He told them the truth as hard as he could/His message was deeply misunderstood.”)

O'Connor took the stage to a cascade of applause and boos, which didn't stop as O'Connor stood silently at the microphone with her hands behind her back. A minute passed, and Christopherson reappeared from stage left, put his arm around O'Connor and whispered something in his ear.

As the pianist played the opening of O'Connor's set, the Dylan track “I Believe in You,” O'Connor motioned for the band to stop and proceed to perform an a cappella version of Bob Marley's “War” — the same song from that ill-fated “SNL” performance. , a confrontational track with lyrics primarily taken from a speech by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie at the United Nations.

O'Connor finished the song and felt the audience jeers continue and started to walk off the stage – but before Kristofferson approached her again, hugged her and walked off with her.

The moment connected the two musicians — the grizzled country songwriter and actor from Texas and the sweet-voiced singer from Dublin — for the rest of their lives. (O'Connor died last year at age 56.) In 2010, the two performed a duet of Kristofferson's “Help Me Make It Through the Night” on an Irish talk show. A year after Kristofferson released a song about the 1992 incident, “Sister Sinead”.

In that talk show appearance, Kristofferson recalled the 1992 evening at Madison Square Garden in more detail. As a hostile crowd threatened to drown out O'Connor's performance that night, concert organizers asked Kristofferson to escort her off the stage. He refused, and instead went outside and told her, “Don't let the bastards get you down.” To which, he said, he responded: “I'm not low.”

In his 2021 memoir, “Rememberings,” O'Connor's take on the events is somewhat less rosy. When she saw Kristofferson approaching her, she wrote, she thought — I don't need a man to rescue me, thank you. As they walked on stage, she added, he almost threw her off.

“It just seemed wrong to me, putting that little girl out there,” Kristofferson added all those years later. “He's always brave.”

Or, as she sings in “Sister Sinead”:

And maybe he's crazy and maybe he's not
But so were Picasso and the saints
And he was never partial to shackles or shackles
He is too old to break and too young to tame