Self-made singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has worked his way up to become one of the biggest names in music, with a string of hits and two multi-platinum albums. Here are facts about everyone’s favourite redhead singer that show us how real, vital, organic and true to his cause is he?
The first time he heard one of his songs on the radio, the DJ mistakenly referred to him as ‘Ben Sherman’
2. He gave John Mayer a tattoo of a cat doodle and in return Mayer gave him a tattoo saying ‘Kool Guy’
3. He recorded his first studio album + in his friend’s garden shed because he wanted it to have a more organic sound
4. His second studio album X was originally going to have swear words in it, until Sheeran decided to remove all the expletives after a taxi driver convinced him to do so for his daughter
5. His tattoo collection includes over 100 different inkings, including some really random ones like the Heinz ketchup logo, a teddy bear, a kiwi bird, a teacup and a lion across his chest, to name just a few
6. He’s spent most of his life practising music; in fact, when he was four he was a choir boy and sang in his local church with his mother
7. When he was younger, he wanted to be a train driver before becoming interested in music and deciding to pursue that instead
8. He gave Harry Styles a tattoo of an anchor, though Harry apparently later regretted getting it done
9. Van Morrison and The Beatles are some of his biggest musical influences
10. He has names for his guitars, including Nigel, Cyril, Felix, Lloyd, Keith, Trevor and James the Second
11. He’s recorded two songs with Taylor Swift; one of them, ‘Everything Has Changed’, featured on Swift’s fourth album Red, while the other remains unreleased and is on Sheeran’s iPhone
12. It was hit idea to have Harry Potter star Rupert Grint feature in the video for ‘Lego House’
13. He’s put an insane amount of time into performing and in one year, he did more than 300 live shows
I'm a Classics graduate and have been writing for over three years. Hopefully going to go into novel writing some day. I'm mostly interested in theme parks and roller coasters - I've been on 300 coasters and plan on going on lots more!