Dolores O’Riordan happy, enthusiastic in message left before her death
If an autopsy ultimately determines that Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan committed suicide, a newly discovered voicemail left hours before her death will only serve to further confuse the fans she left behind.
Several outlets are reporting O’Riordan sounded upbeat, energetic and excited in the voicemail left for her manager and longtime friend, Dan Waite.
In particular, she mentioned the hotel where she was staying in London and her enthusiasm about a cover of “Zombie” the band Bad Wolves was working on recording.
“It sounds fucking awesome, it sounds fucking terribly good,” she says in the message, left on Waite’s answering machine at 1:12 a.m. London time on January 15. She added “I’ll come into the studio if you need my time.”
O’Riordon also asked about Waite’s wife, Irene, and comments about a leather jacket.
Within hours, she was gone.
For what it’s worth, we knew this message existed. Shortly after her death. Waite said at the time “Dolores left me a message just after midnight last night stating how much she loved Bad Wolves’ version of ‘Zombie.’ She was looking forward to seeing me in the studio and recording vocals.”
Waite also told Rolling Stone that at the time of her death, O’Riordan “was in a good space. I’ve seen a few things saying she was depressed but she was definitely making plans for the week,” including a dinner with him and his wife.
Last month, the surviving members of the band confirmed they were working on a new album when O’Riordan died.
“We can confirm that since last summer the band had been working with Universal Music on the creation of a very special 25th anniversary edition of the album, a newly remastered version with previously unreleased material of ours as well as other bonus material from the era of our debut album,” the band said. “We had planned to release this special edition this month to coincide with the 25th anniversary. However, given Dolores’ passing in January we put the entire project on hold.”
