Sinéad O’Connor Revealed What She Was Thinking as Kris Kristofferson Comforted Her After Being Booed for SNL Scandal

Kris Kristofferson isn’t just being remembered for just his contributions to film and music following his death — but also his character.

After his death at age 88 on Saturday, Sept. 28, fans of Kristofferson have been reflecting on a few other memorable moments in the singer-songwriter’s career, such as when he comforted Sinéad O’Connor following her controversial 1992 appearance on Saturday Night Live.

After the “Nothing Compares 2 U” singer — who died in July 2023 at age 56 — notably ripped up a photo of Pope John II in response to the Catholic Church’s alleged cover-up of the sexual abuse of children at the time, O’Connor was slated for a performance at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City just weeks later.

During the Oct. 16, 1992 gig, when the musician was met with both boos and combating cheers from the audience, Kristofferson put an arm around O’Connor and offered her some words of encouragement.

She wrote about the ordeal in her 2021 memoir Rememberings: Scenes From My Complicated Life, in which she described the booing and cheers as “a noise the likes of which I have never heard and can’t describe other than to say it’s like a thunderclap that never ends.”

“The loudest noise I’ve ever heard. It makes me feel really nauseous and almost bursts my eardrums,” O’Connor wrote. “I pace awhile onstage. I realize that if I start the song, I’m f—ed, because the vocal is so whispered, both sides in the audience’s battle are going to drown me out,” she continued. “And I can’t afford to not be heard; the booers will take it as a victory.”

While O’Connor was supposed to perform Dylan’s 1979 track “I Believe in You,” she instead decided to sing an a cappella rendition of Bob Marley’s “War.”

“I keep pacing, which becomes uncomfortable for everyone backstage because the show’s got to go on as planned, so someone dispatches Kris Kristofferson (this he tells me later) to ‘get her off the stage,’ ” O’Connor wrote.

As Kristofferson made his way to O’Connor, she wrote in her book that she was thinking at the time, “I don’t need a man to rescue me, thanks.”

“It’s so embarrassing,” O’Connor wrote. “‘Don’t let the bastards get you down,’ he says into my mic. And we go offstage and I almost barf on him as he gives me a hug.”

Speaking with RTÉ One’s Saturday Night with Miriam in August 2010, Kristofferson recalled thinking at the time that O’Connor’s SNL gesture was “very misunderstood”

“I went out. They told me to get her off the stage and I said, ‘I’m not about to do [that],” he said. “I went out and I said, ‘Don’t let the bastards get you down’. And she said, ‘I’m not down,’ and she sang.”

“It was very courageous,” he added of O’Connor, who was 26 at the time. “It just seemed to me wrong booing that little girl out there, but she’s always had courage.”

A representative for Kristofferson confirmed to PEOPLE that he died “peacefully” while surrounded by family at his home in Maui this weekend.

“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 28 at home. We’re all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all,” the family statement reads.