Lorne Michaels believes in second chances.
In a new interview with Puck, Lorne Michaels revealed that if she were alive, Sinead O’Connor would’ve been invited to perform “Nothing Compares 2 U” on “SNL 50: The Anniversary Special” in February despite her being banned from the show over 30 years ago.
“If she were still alive, I would have asked her to sing that song,” Michaels, 80, told the outlet.
“But it was represented by Miley singing it with so much power,” he added.
When asked if he reconsidered giving “attention to one of ‘SNL’s more controversial moments” by having Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard perform the song during the special, Michaels simply replied, “No.”
O’Connor, who died at age 56 in July 2023, infamously ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II while performing on “SNL” in 1992.
The singer said tearing up the photo was to protest the Catholic Church and “fight the real enemy” amid child sex abuse scandals.
Her actions got her barred from NBC for life.
At the time, Michaels took a hard stance against O’Connor’s “inappropriate” decision.
“I thought was sort of the wrong place for it, I thought her behavior was inappropriate,” the TV legend said in a 1993 Spin magazine interview. “Because it was difficult to do two comedy sketches after it, and also it was dishonest because she didn’t tell us she was going to do it. … We were sort of shocked, the way you would be shocked at a houseguest pissing on a flower arrangement in the dining room.”
But in the documentary “Ladies & Gentleman… 50 Years of SNL Music” that came out earlier this year, Michaels changed his tune on the topic.
“There was a part of me that just admired the bravery of what she’d done, and also the absolute sincerity of it,” he stated.
In the “SNL 50” anniversary special, Cyrus, 32, sang a rendition of O’Connor’s signature song, despite the pair having beef from when O’Connor wrote an open letter in 2013 condemning Cyrus’ sexuality in the “Wrecking Ball” music video.
One month after O’Connor’s death, Cyrus reflected on their spat in her “Endless Summer Vacation: Continued (Backyard Sessions)” concert film.
“I was expecting there to be controversy and backlash, but I don’t think I expected other women to put me down or turn on me, especially women that had been in my position before,” the “Flowers” singer said.
“This is when I’d received an open letter from Sinead O’Connor, and I had no idea about the fragile mental state that she was in, and I was also only 20 years old, so I could really only wrap my head around mental illness so much,” Cyrus continued. “All that I saw was that another woman had told me that this idea was not my idea.”
