Dolores O’Riordan’s struggles with nerves plagued her performances with The Cranberries
It’s fair to say that the gifts that came with fame were never exactly the most kind to Dolores O’Riordan.
She was certainly one of the most famous frontwomen in the world for a time, and she put Ireland firmly on the musical map, but this all paled into insignificance for The Cranberries’ lead singer, compared to the wrath of some of her demons.
This is not to suggest in any way that there weren’t obviously many highlight points, creating some of the defining songs of the generation and being beloved all over the world aren’t going to be dismissed by anyone, but for O’Riordan, all of that was by the by. When all was said and done, fame and luxury could never be afforded if it weren’t for one thing. She and her voice were the lynch pin.
This naturally puts masses of pressure on any sort of singer or leader of a band, and famously can manifest into all kinds of ugly egos as a result. But in the case of The Cranberries, this often grated against O’Riordan and her image of everything she once was: a religious young woman living out in the sticks of Ireland. The life she ended up living couldn’t have been more starkly different.
But plastering on a persona was one thing; building yourself up to actually go and perform it was quite another. This was the area in which the singer found her greatest sticking point, even decades after she had started treading the boards. No matter how many concerts the band had sold out, and no matter how much the crowd adored her, the nerves of pushing herself out onto that stage was something that still ate O’Riordan alive.
She lamented this in one of the latest stages of her life, during a 2017 interview with Songfacts, in which she mostly came across as being done with the industry entirely. But when asked about the best and worst parts of her job, her answer was far more illuminating: “When I’m on stage performing and everything is great, I’ll forget every single thing. All my worries go out the window, and it’s the best feeling.”
Yet the downside to this was even more revealing. “The part I don’t like about it is the nerves that go along with it,” O’Riordan admitted, “The fact that you’re nervous all day on a show day and that you’re nervous before the gig.” When asked, almost in disbelief, if she still gets nervous after everything she’s been through, her simple answer was “yes”, although she claimed that the payoff was for the books.
In many respects, this goes the longest way in symbolising the struggles the singer faced but never let define her career. Yet, there’s no denying they plagued her majorly, influencing the paths she took and the spirits she embodied. The rush of fame could only go so far in softening the blows before they became her biggest enemies. O’Riordan knew, however, that everything boiled down to how she stood on the stage, and there’s really nothing more terrifying when you think about it.
