Sinead O'Connor holds Simon Cowell responsible for 'murdering music'

Sinead O'Connor and Simon Cowell

The Irish singer appeared on The Late Late Show on RTÉ One yesterday evening to address her ongoing feud with Miley Cyrus, but instead let rip at the music mogul and his flagship show The X Factor, blaming him for the death of rock 'n' roll and the exploitation of young female artists' sexuality .

The war of words began earlier this week when Sinead warned Miley in an open letter about the dangers of the music industry and projecting an overly-sexual image, and the 20-year-old singer responded by lashing out on Twitter, mocking bipolar disease sufferer Sinead for her mental health issues.

Sinead said on the Irish chat show: "I don't feel sorry for me or for anybody else in the matter, that's not what it's about. The broader issue, I feel sorry for the murder of music. I feel sorry for the murder of rock 'n' roll which has happened because of the industry. Because of Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and the lot of them [talent show judges] have murdered music.

"They're murderers of music! I stand and say it on behalf of every musician in the world and they will all agree with it. I don't give a s**t if I hurt them ... All the sexualisation of young people, all the worship of bling and money and diamonds and 'Pop Idol' stuff, Simon Cowell - it all amounts to the murder of music."

The Nothing Compares 2U hitmaker - who has since written two more open letters to Miley, threatening to sue her and demanding she "take five minutes between G-string changes" to apologise to her - revealed she tried to reach out to the young singer in the first place because she feels she is being naively "exploited" by the commercial machine of the music industry, represented by the likes of Simon.

Sinead continued: "I'm not dismissing the records [Simon has] made. Miley's records are great records as far as I'm concerned. What I'm saying is that I feel the industry of music does exploit people who are possibly a little too young to know what they're doing."

"Why I got involved in the issue of whether or not it's appropriate for a 20-year-old woman to be asked to lick sledgehammers for songs that has no lyrical reference to any such thing in them is that I would see it as an exploitation of somebody who's possibly a little too young to understand the dangers of allowing oneself to be exploited in that way."

- BANG! Showbiz