Ed Sheeran: “I almost quit music”
He almost gave it up before he hit the big time
Ed Sheeran has admitted in his new book that he almost gave up making music.
In an extract taken from ‘A Visual Journey’, published by the Mirror, the Thinking Out Loud singer recollects how he was ready to quit music after a gig in 2010, because he was tired of having no money.
The 23-year-old says: “There came a point when I wanted to quit. When I thought: ‘this is horrible. This isn’t going to work.'
“It was 2010 and I’d sold out Cargo in Shoreditch, the biggest show I’d ever played. There were 500 people there… even my dad turned up.
“After the show, I was drinking with my dad and loads of other people. One by one, they started leaving. My dad said: ‘Do you mind if I get off?’ Then it was just me and the bar staff. ‘We’ve got to go', they said. ‘Cool, safe’, I said.
He continues: “I took out my phone. It was dead. I was really drunk, but very aware that I had no money on me at all. I’d spent all the cash I had buying people drinks, ‘This isn’t great,’ I thought.
“I’d worked really f***ing hard and gigged my ass off for three years. I’d released four EPs. I’d just played a sold-out show. But I’d come out of it with no money, no place to live, a dead phone and nowhere to go.
Ed adds: “I ended up walking to a friend’s house and burst into tears. 'Dude, I can’t do this anymore’. I was in a proper state.”
However the pop star mentions how “quickly” everything changed for him, from receiving calls from Elton John to singing on stage with Paul McCartney.
Since then, he has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Ivor Novello prize in 2012, and most recently bagged four nominations at the forthcoming BRITs awards ceremony.