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The life of Ed Sheeran
Brut America
Follow
3/25/2025
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.
Category
🎵
Music
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
For me, being able to do what I love every single day, the trade-off is the fame.
00:05
Like that's the part that's actually the...
00:08
I know that's cliche to say that that's the downside of it,
00:10
but that's the part that most people think is the thing that they want,
00:13
whereas I think if you do what you love every day,
00:16
that's actually what you should aim for, basically.
00:30
I always wanted to play music, I always knew I could make a living doing music.
00:39
I don't think it was I want to be successful, I think it was I want to get by.
00:43
I know I can play a guitar at a wedding once a week and be able to sort of pay rent.
01:00
I learned every word of it back to front by the age I was 10,
01:08
and he raps very fast and very melodically and very percussively,
01:11
and it helped me get rid of the stutter.
01:19
My relationship with music growing up was, I think, just obsessive.
01:25
I was obsessed. It was the only thing I cared about, the only thing I did,
01:28
the only thing I listened to, the only thing I talked about.
01:31
I did not care about school, I did not care about grades.
01:43
I arrived in London and realised that people do this as they're living,
01:46
and they're better than me, like much better than me.
01:49
And my thought process was like, OK, I can't out-sing or out-write these people,
01:55
but I know I can out-work them. I know I can play more shows than you.
01:58
I know I can write more songs than you.
02:00
I know I can take all my time and focus it on this thing.
02:12
I knew a lot of the promoters of the Open Mic Nights.
02:14
I knew a lot of the singer-songwriters from the Open Mic Nights.
02:16
There was a lot of fans that would come to gig after gig.
02:19
One of my best friends now, Daryl, was this American fan who just came to a lot of my gigs.
02:24
And one day I was like, can I crash? And he was like, sure.
02:26
Like, you're not going to say to a 17-year-old kid, no, you can't have a place to stay.
02:30
So I was very lucky in the sense of people giving me sofas and spare rooms every now and then.
02:47
I saw YouTube as like a business card to your live show.
02:53
So I would film things and have them put on YouTube.
02:57
Someone would go online and be like, I quite like that song, I'm going to see it live.
03:00
And it sort of built up that way.
03:05
I was selling CDs at this point and I literally just kept cash in my bag.
03:09
It was just CDs and cash from gigs.
03:11
So I counted the cash. I had enough money to buy a ticket.
03:14
I bought a ticket.
03:15
I made my mum cry because it was the first time I'd left the country on my own.
03:20
I remember leaving and flying to Los Angeles, getting there, going straight to Inglewood
03:26
and playing on stage and obviously being a British kid with a small acoustic guitar
03:32
who raps in Inglewood at a poetry night.
03:35
It stood out like a sore thumb, but in a good way.
03:42
And one of the nights was this place called The Foxhole, which is Jamie Foxx's club.
03:47
Jamie Foxx's manager was there and said, we liked your performance.
03:49
We're going to get you on Jamie's radio show.
03:51
So I went to do Jamie's radio show and he said, really liked it.
03:54
Come to my house and use my studio.
03:55
Went to his house, lived there for a bit.
04:19
And trust me, I'll give it.
04:21
Darling, come and set the tone.
04:23
If you feel me falling, won't you let me know?
04:27
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
04:31
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
04:33
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
04:40
I found a love for me.
04:47
Someone said you disappeared in 2016.
04:49
Like, I didn't.
04:51
I was actually probably more visible than I ever was because I was out and about doing stuff.
04:54
But I feel like if you don't post on social media, no one thinks that you're alive.
05:03
It's a pretty song.
05:04
I've never heard it before.
05:05
It's a new one.
05:06
I was a big fan of Game of Thrones, but I spent ages trying to get mates into it.
05:10
I would literally invite friends around my house to watch the entirety of season one with them
05:15
to be like, you will like this.
05:16
And then obviously it became this thing.
05:18
Oh, that makes me sound so like, I liked it before it was cool.
05:22
Baby, we found love right where we are.
05:28
And we found love.
05:31
Yeah, she was the year below me.
05:32
All the girls in my year always just dated guys from the year above.
05:36
And that was just how it worked.
05:37
Even though, like, there's like a year's difference.
05:41
It's just like, oh, my God, he's a year older.
05:52
I do pop star shit.
05:53
Like, I do go to L.A. every now and then, go to wanky restaurants with people.
05:58
And, you know, that is a side of my life.
06:00
But I also lived in the place that I grew up with my wife who grew up there,
06:04
with my friends who grew up there.
06:20
It's very important for me to write my own songs, because I think as an artist,
06:24
music is obviously expression of self.
06:26
I write songs because they make me feel better.
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