Ed Sheeran: How Eminem cured my stammer – and the despair that nearly made me quit pop to work in a shop
ED SHEERAN today reveals how he considered himself a misfit and struggled with a stammer before setting out on his road to fame and fortune.
And even when people started to sit up and take notice of his songs, he nearly abandoned his music to work in a supermarket.
On Desert Island Discs, the 26-year-old with a £45m fortune tells host Kirsty Young he cured his stammer by listening to the rapper Eminem.
The singer-songwriter says: ‘I was a bit of a weird kid. I had huge blue NHS specs, I had a huge port wine stain birthmark on my eye which has subsequently gone, and a really, really bad stammer.’ His attempts to fit in were not helped by the fact that he wasn’t allowed to watch TV as a child. ‘It was a very arty household. We were encouraged to paint and play instruments and do artistic stuff.’
A turning point came when an uncle bought him an album by the controversial Eminem.
Sheeran says: ‘My parents didn’t know what the content of the album was. When you are nine and someone is saying rude stuff, you want to learn it. He raps at such a fast pace that my stammer would go ... that was the speech therapy that cured me.’ Ten years later came another turning point. He says: ‘I got to this point in 2010 when I was going round in circles. I thought I might as well go and work in a supermarket. They [the record companies] said specifically “don’t use a loop pedal and don’t rap because no-one wants to see a ginger, white guy rapping”.’ After flying to Los Angeles to do open mic nights, he was spotted by actor Jamie Foxx who let him use his recording studio. Sheeran returned to London with renewed confidence and soon had his first hit, The A Team.
He says he initially found fame hard to handle and sought solace in ‘girls, drugs and booze’ – until an ultimatum from a family member. Sheeran reveals: ‘It was my cousin who worked on the tour. He basically said he was leaving if it didn’t calm down.’ Desert Island Discs is on BBC Radio 4 today at 11.15am.