In a 2021 interview, the Irish singer shared what she had told her children 'since they were very small.'
Sinead O'Connor knew that it was important to plan for certain things in the event of her death.
In a 2021 interview with People, the Irish musician -- who died earlier this week at age 56 -- revealed that she had given her children instructions on how to protect her music and money when she died.
"I've always instructed my children since they were very small, 'If your mother drops dead tomorrow, before you call 911, call my accountant and make sure the record companies don't start releasing my records and not telling you where the money is,'" she revealed.
O’Connor had four children, three of whom were living at the time of her death: son Jake Reynolds was born in 1987 to the singer and her first husband, music producer John Reynolds. Her daughter, Roisin Waters, born in 1996, grew up living with her father, Irish journalist John Waters. She welcomed son Shane in 2004 with musician Donal Lunny, and son Yeshua Francis Neil Bonadio with Frank Bonadio in 2006.
"See, when the artists are dead, they're much more valuable than when they're alive," O'Connor continued of her advice to her kids. "Tupac has released way more albums since he died than he ever did alive, so it's kind of gross what record companies do."
O'Connor found her greatest success with a cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U," and while the two musicians had a complicated relationship that seemed to end with a physical encounter that left O'Connor "very angry with him," she was outspoken in her People interview about the way the Purple One's music had continued to be released following his death in 2016.
"One of the things that's a great bugbear with me, I get very angry when I think of it, is the fact that they're raping his vault," she shared.
"All musicians, we have songs that we really are embarrassed about that are crap. We don't want anyone hearing them," O'Connor continued. "Now this is a man who released every song he ever recorded, so if he went to the trouble of building a vault, which is a pretty strong thing to do, that means he really did not want these songs released. And I can't stand that people are, as I put it, raping the vault."
The thought of Prince's hit, "Let's Go Crazy," being licensed for a credit card commercial had her particularly incensed.
"That's a song about appreciation, friendship, and love and not the material things in life. It's a song about, 'Look, we could die anytime now. Let's love each other and appreciate,'" she noted. "I think he will be turning in his grave over it being used to sell a credit card."
ET confirmed this week that British police found O'Connor "unresponsive" and pronounced her dead at the scene at her London home on Wednesday. A file will be prepared and the London Inner South Coroner's Court said that an autopsy is being conducted. The results can take several weeks to complete, and an official cause of death has yet to be determined, however authorities said the death is not being treated as suspicious.
The GRAMMY-winning singer's death comes after her son Shane died by suicide at age 17 in January 2022 after going missing in Ireland.
Prior to her death, the "Nothing Compares 2 U" singer took to social media to speak about life since her son died, writing that she felt "lost."
"Been living as undead night creature since.. He was the love of my life, the lamp of my soul," O'Connor wrote of her son. "We were one soul in two halves. He was the only person who ever loved me unconditionally. I am lost in the bardo without him."
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