Sinéad O'Connor died in love with Lou Reed

She said in one of her last in-depth interviews, with Ireland's Hot Press magazine, which has resurfaced since her shock passing: "I knew that I loved Lou Reed, but I didn't know how much I loved him until I met him at The Who's 50th birthday.

"I'd been a bit naughty and asked someone to ask Lou if I could sing backing vocals with him. He came in and acting all fatherly said, 'I hear you want to sing with me. Yeah, of course you can'.

"I could see his lips moving but I couldn't comprehend what he was saying. I had to get my friend to hold my hand!"

Sinéad added Lou, who died in 2013 aged 71, had also been "incredibly kind" to her during the backlash that followed her famous TV stunt of tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II during her 1992 musical performance on 'Saturday Night Live' in protest at the Catholic church's cover-up of sexual abuse.

She said about her encounter with Lou in 2014 at The Who event: "That was the second time he was extraordinarily kind to me.

"The first was after the Pope business. I was a bit of a pariah among musicians and artists.

"I remember going to do the Channel 4 TV show 'The White Room' and everyone was kind of treating me like, 'Oh yeah, there's that crazy b****.'

"Lou was on the show too and made a point in rehearsal of coming straight over and hugging me as if we knew each other really well, and saying, 'F** you!' to everyone.

"That was really f****** nice. He's the person who moved me the most, definitely."