Pop Quiz: Dolores O'Riordan

Pop Quiz: Dolores O'Riordan

Aidin Vaziri | As the lead singer of the Cranberries, Dolores O'Riordan owned the '90s. Named the highest-earning woman in Ireland, she married Duran Duran's tour manager in a transparent dress, relegated her band members to separate tour buses and feverishly battled anorexia rumors. The Irish band sold more than 30 million albums before imploding after its fifth release, "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee," in 2001. After taking six years off to raise her family, O'Riordan, 35, returns with her solo premiere CD, "Are You Listening?"


Dolores O'Riordan
Q: Britney Spears shaved her head after she had her babies. You did it before you had yours. What was your problem?
A:I was 18 years old when I joined the 'Berries. The first album was huge. Six million is an awful lot to sell for a bunch of kids from a small town in Ireland. It was all a big party, and then the pressure was on to make another. The next one was even bigger, so there's even more pressure. We were living in buses for five years now. No sense of normality. No friends. No freedom. I overdid it. I was obviously losing too much weight and getting depressed from working too much. I had no normality, no sanity.
Q: How did you get through it?
A: It was just getting away from the public eye. You have to jump off the treadmill because you're going to break your neck otherwise.
Q: Do you feel sane now?
A: Totally. You relax more in your 30s. You realize the most important thing is that you have to look after yourself and get dinner on the table. It's grand when you find that head space.
Q: So people shouldn't be afraid of you anymore?
A: No. I don't bite at all.