Straight talk: Sinead O'Connor on her marriage, her sexuality, and her new album of traditional Irish music. (music).

Sinead O'Connor electrified the MTV generation when she entered our consciousness, beautifully buzz-cut and brazen, in the video for her 1990 Prince-penned hit single "Nothing Compares 2 U" (still a guilty pleasure, admit it). She solidified her rebel-with-a-cause stares when she ripped up a photo of the pope on Saturday Night Live, stating defiantly, "Fight the real evil," making her a hero to some and a subject of front-page controversy worldwide. Almost a decade later, people still can't stop talking about it. O'Connor has continued to make beautiful music, but reports about her personal life, including that she had come out as a lesbian, have since overshadowed her modestly selling CDs and film cameos (notably, playing the Virgin Mary in Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy).

Regardless, O'Connor's gay and lesbian fans have remained loyal to and interested in one of the true punk individualists. Now off the major labels, O'Connor has recorded a lush album of Irish folk songs, Sean-Nos Nua, perhaps an indication of a new sense of contentment and clarity. The Advocate sat down in New York with the painfully shy, still buzz-cut enchantress to set the record straight.

Here in America, following the infamous "tearing up the photo of the pope on Saturday Night Live" incident more than a decade ago, you have been a figure of some controversy. Are you regarded as such in Ireland, where you, your husband, your son [age 15], and your daughter [age 6] reside?

I feel embraced in Ireland, and I've acquired a sort of national daughter status. I mean, I suppose some regard me as controversial, but some quite admire and understand my Irish sense of mischief.

Every [American] journalist who has interviewed me has brought up that controversy, however, probably because they were told that they had to, but there really isn't anything more to say about that, is there? So I've been trying to keep the focus on the music.

So you're saying your protests and outspokenness have a cultural basis that Americans may not appreciate?

Yeah, perhaps.

You've always been outspoken on political issues--do you feel an urge to address certain issues in the world right now?

I suppose I'd like to write inspirational music about world peace, but I'm not foolish enough to think that I have the ability to stop war. The way I see a musician's role is that we're like the Red Cross. We're standing in the middle of the battlefield with something soothing, but we don't take sides. Perhaps we offer another way of looking at things? Ireland has always been a neutral country--we don't take sides, we just provide aid, and that's sort of how I see myself.

It was reported about a year and a half ago that you made a statement in the gay press declaring that you were a lesbian. Will you tell us exactly what you said and what your intention was?

I think it might have even been an interview for The Advocate? [Editor's note: It was for Curve.] I don't remember exactly, but this woman reporter asked why did I think lesbians liked me so much or why was I so popular with lesbians, and I said it was probably because they thought I was one of them, meaning that I don't believe in gay or straight and I don't believe love is conditional. But obviously the reporter ran with it and the paper hyped it, because it probably sold a lot of issues, and, really, I was quite happy for them to do that. I didn't mind. I think [the gay press] should do whatever they can to sell as many papers as anybody else.

I think gays and lesbians thought you were coming out as bisexual, which they were pleased to embrace you for, since you have always been a really strong and powerful female role model. It was reported you were to headline a queer summer concert tour last year with the Pet Shop Boys, which was later canceled. But you married a man, your current husband, shortly after that interview was published, which sort of confused people. So do you consider yourself bisexual?

I suppose some people are confused, but like I said, I don't think there really is such a thing as gay or straight. That's where I stand.

Were you at all bitter about it being reported that you had "come out" in the gay press?

No, not at all! I made the choice to say what I said, and I said it knowing they would sensationalize it. I guess it's a bit of that Irish sense of mischief again.

Was there a backlash at all against you or your family as a result?

No, it was OK all around, except that my record company wasn't too happy about it.

I think you made Capitol unhappy a lot with your "Irish sense of mischief," so to speak. You parted ways about a year and a half ago as well--can you talk about that?

Well, it was a pretty mutual desire to part ways. I wanted to be out of the mainstream so I could have my creative freedom again because, understandably, if a label pump loads of money into an artist, they want you to make records that make a lot of money back. But I don't really want to make those kinds of records right now. I have other ideas, like I really want to make a country record-

Wait a minute. A country record?

Yeah. When I was growing up, country music was huge in Ireland--Glen Campbell, Loretta Lynn, etc. There was a spin-off movement of Irish country bands that were really crap, but I love old country music.

Dolly Parton is on Sugar Hill Records, a sister company of Vanguard Records, your new label--any chance of collaboration?

God, I love her! I'd love that. I'm dying to meet her.

You seem to like collaborations--you just did one with Moby on his new album, 18?

Yeah, well, we're all whores, you know? [Laughs] I also really want to make a religious record with songs from different world religions. I really want to make a children's record [and] an opera record, but not sung in operatic style. I'd do them with an electric guitar ...

Your new album, Sean-Nos Nua, is an album of traditional Irish folk music. What does it mean that you are doing this album now? You're one of the most and most controversial Irish celebrities--is this collection a way of making peace?

I don't know. I think it's more that I have a connection to these songs in my soul. I've been very influenced by these songs; I learned them as a kid, and I think they are a part of why I write the kind of songs I write, full of passion and emotion.

I've wanted to do this album for a long time, but I couldn't when I was with the major labels. These songs are sort of like ghosts; they sort of haunt you and make you want to sing them. They've been haunting me for a long time. And I felt I wasn't really able to move on as a songwriter until I did this album--I've been pregnant with it for about 12 years [Laughs].

I never really know what to expect. I feel quite strongly that a person should only make records because they're going to go crazy if they don't. You shouldn't really have expectations for what's going to happens afterward.

You've added some ethnic and electronic touches to Sean-Nos Nua--perhaps you could originate some new Irish hybrid musical forms?

Well, the thing about Irish people is we're very ... well, Freud said Irish people are the only people you couldn't analyze. There are a million different people inside us, meaning we're very changeable, very emotional people. Almost schizophrenic. We're very like the weather, and following that, we're not the kind of people who only do one thing one way. You know?

Find The Advocate's previous coverage of Sinead O'Connor at www.advocate.com

Che is a contributing editor at Time Out New York.