The life of Ed Sheeran

Brut America

He never wanted to be famous. But he loved music so much, he traded having a roof over his head to be able to play gig after gig ... Becoming one of the top songwriters of his generation.   This is the life of Ed Sheeran.

Transcript

00:00For me, being able to do what I love every single day, the trade-off is the fame.

00:05Like that's the part that's actually the...

00:08I know that's cliche to say that that's the downside of it,

00:10but that's the part that most people think is the thing that they want,

00:13whereas I think if you do what you love every day,

00:16that's actually what you should aim for, basically.

00:30I always wanted to play music, I always knew I could make a living doing music.

00:39I don't think it was I want to be successful, I think it was I want to get by.

00:43I know I can play a guitar at a wedding once a week and be able to sort of pay rent.

01:00I learned every word of it back to front by the age I was 10,

01:08and he raps very fast and very melodically and very percussively,

01:11and it helped me get rid of the stutter.

01:19My relationship with music growing up was, I think, just obsessive.

01:25I was obsessed. It was the only thing I cared about, the only thing I did,

01:28the only thing I listened to, the only thing I talked about.

01:31I did not care about school, I did not care about grades.

01:43I arrived in London and realised that people do this as they're living,

01:46and they're better than me, like much better than me.

01:49And my thought process was like, OK, I can't out-sing or out-write these people,

01:55but I know I can out-work them. I know I can play more shows than you.

01:58I know I can write more songs than you.

02:00I know I can take all my time and focus it on this thing.

02:12I knew a lot of the promoters of the Open Mic Nights.

02:14I knew a lot of the singer-songwriters from the Open Mic Nights.

02:16There was a lot of fans that would come to gig after gig.

02:19One of my best friends now, Daryl, was this American fan who just came to a lot of my gigs.

02:24And one day I was like, can I crash? And he was like, sure.

02:26Like, you're not going to say to a 17-year-old kid, no, you can't have a place to stay.

02:30So I was very lucky in the sense of people giving me sofas and spare rooms every now and then.

02:47I saw YouTube as like a business card to your live show.

02:53So I would film things and have them put on YouTube.

02:57Someone would go online and be like, I quite like that song, I'm going to see it live.

03:00And it sort of built up that way.

03:05I was selling CDs at this point and I literally just kept cash in my bag.

03:09It was just CDs and cash from gigs.

03:11So I counted the cash. I had enough money to buy a ticket.

03:14I bought a ticket.

03:15I made my mum cry because it was the first time I'd left the country on my own.

03:20I remember leaving and flying to Los Angeles, getting there, going straight to Inglewood

03:26and playing on stage and obviously being a British kid with a small acoustic guitar

03:32who raps in Inglewood at a poetry night.

03:35It stood out like a sore thumb, but in a good way.

03:42And one of the nights was this place called The Foxhole, which is Jamie Foxx's club.

03:47Jamie Foxx's manager was there and said, we liked your performance.

03:49We're going to get you on Jamie's radio show.

03:51So I went to do Jamie's radio show and he said, really liked it.

03:54Come to my house and use my studio.

03:55Went to his house, lived there for a bit.

04:19And trust me, I'll give it.

04:21Darling, come and set the tone.

04:23If you feel me falling, won't you let me know?

04:27Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.

04:31Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.

04:33Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.

04:40I found a love for me.

04:47Someone said you disappeared in 2016.

04:49Like, I didn't.

04:51I was actually probably more visible than I ever was because I was out and about doing stuff.

04:54But I feel like if you don't post on social media, no one thinks that you're alive.

05:03It's a pretty song.

05:04I've never heard it before.

05:05It's a new one.

05:06I was a big fan of Game of Thrones, but I spent ages trying to get mates into it.

05:10I would literally invite friends around my house to watch the entirety of season one with them

05:15to be like, you will like this.

05:16And then obviously it became this thing.

05:18Oh, that makes me sound so like, I liked it before it was cool.

05:22Baby, we found love right where we are.

05:28And we found love.

05:31Yeah, she was the year below me.

05:32All the girls in my year always just dated guys from the year above.

05:36And that was just how it worked.

05:37Even though, like, there's like a year's difference.

05:41It's just like, oh, my God, he's a year older.

05:52I do pop star shit.

05:53Like, I do go to L.A. every now and then, go to wanky restaurants with people.

05:58And, you know, that is a side of my life.

06:00But I also lived in the place that I grew up with my wife who grew up there,

06:04with my friends who grew up there.

06:20It's very important for me to write my own songs, because I think as an artist,

06:24music is obviously expression of self.

06:26I write songs because they make me feel better.

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