Ed Sheeran has spoken candidly about his roller-coaster 2022, a year which saw the death of his close friend Jamal Edwards, his wife Cherry's cancer diagnosis while she was pregnant and a legal battle over one of his songs.
Speaking on tonight's Late Late Show in a pre-recorded two-part interview, which took place before the death of Sheeran’s Wexford-born grandmother earlier this week and his victory in a copyright lawsuit in New York, the singer also admitted that criticism of his music does hurt him.
"Every single one of my albums has got slated and then every single next album they always say it’s not as good as the last album," he tells host Ryan Tubridy.
"Every single time. When I released Multiply, they were like `it’s not as good as Plus and then when I released Divide, then they say it is not as good as Multiply, so I never believe it.
Asked if he cared, Sheeran said, "Clearly. I make music for me. I sit in my room, and I write songs that make me feel happy. When I choose to release them, you are going to the world, 'I hope you like this’ you are, otherwise you wouldn’t release them.
"I don’t understand artists that sign to major record companies, and they go ‘I don’t care how it does.’ Like you have literally signed to a huge corporation, of course you f***** care!
"It’s like the done cool, artist thing to be like, ‘ah yeah you know, I don’t mind’ but you do care what people think about your art, otherwise you wouldn’t release it.
"I wouldn’t be sat here on a chat show in Ireland talking about my album if I didn’t want people to listen to it. I want people to listen to it."
In a Late Late Show first, Tubirdy interviewed Sheeran in the round, surrounded by Irish fans who got the chance to chat with the singer and hear exclusive acoustic performances of Sheeran’s hit singles Perfect and Eyes Closed as well as another track from his new album Subtract, which was released this morning.
He also discusses the Irish influences on his life and music. Asked about pictures of him busking in Ireland when he was younger, he says, "I can guarantee you I was singing a Damien Rice song.
"I ended up properly meeting him the other day - the other day was probably four years ago - but mate, the pandemic is just like . . . "
Sheeran adds, "It had been such a long time since I have been obviously young and seen him at Whelan’s. And I sort of got to know his sister a bit here and I never knew whether he liked me because he is a very elusive person and I’d sort of gone through life . . . you know Van Morrison is sort of an elusive person and he said he liked me.
"And I was like ‘if Van Morrison said that he liked me’ and Eminem did the same and Eric Clapton and all these people and then I am like ‘I wonder does Damien Rice like me?’"
Sheeran reveals that he decided to seek Rice out and see if he did, indeed, like his music.
"So, I got to the country that he was living in, that his sister said that he was living in, and yeah, I just sort of knocked on his door and we went for a long walk and a big catch-up.
"And it is weird saying it was like hanging out with an old friend, like we got on instantly. And now we email all the time and catch up and we shared songs.
"We had like a 12-hour chat, and it was like, it was such a nice full circle moment. Because I spent my whole life idolising him and also shouting him out at every opportunity because I would not be a singer-songwriter had I not gone to Whelan’s and watched Damien Rice play."
Tubridy remarks, "I like how you hunted him down and you knocked on his door essentially to say ‘do you like me?’"
Laughing, Sheeran replies, "It wasn’t so much ‘do you like me’ it was more just ‘I really like you’."
The Late Late Show airs tonight on RTÉ One & RTE Player, 9:35pm.
