Cranberries Fame Drove Dolores O'Riordan to Brink of Sanity

The Cranberries star Dolores O'Riordan has revealed the extent of her personal problems at the height of the band's fame, insisting she "hit rock bottom" and almost went insane.

The Linger hitmakers were catapulted to international stardom in 1993 and enjoyed a string of hits throughout the '90s as they became one of thebiggest bands in the world.

But the pressure of constant touring and promotion took its toll on frontwoman O'Riordan - she recently revealed she underwent therapy to cope, and now she's told how she almost lost her mind but was saved by having ababy with her husband.

The singer tells Britain's Telegraph magazine, "By the third Cranberries album I started to lose the plot. We'd signed up to tour for two years straight, and I can't remember much of that time because it was all aboutgetting up early, working, working, working, and then trying to catch some sleep before getting up again... Soon enough I hit rock bottom.

"I thought the best thing to do to bring me back to reality would be tohave a child, and by the time I had my first, Taylor, when I was 25, we'd sold 35 million records as a band and I'd had enough; I knew my sanity was more important than success".