Ed Sheeran has donated his guitar to a primary school in his hometown.
The ‘Shivers’ hitmaker, 30, used the guitar as a prototype before composing his latest album ‘=’ and has now given it to Sir Robert Hitcham’s CEVA School in Suffolk as prize for a raffle which will help fund a music pod and disabled access facilities
He told the BBC: “There is not another guitar like this. This is the guitar that gets sent to me to check that all the other guitars are all right – it says prototype in it. To win this, it’s a £5 raffle which goes to charity. It’s going to build a music centre at a primary school near me, which I’m really excited about.”
As a nod to his latest album, the guitar is described by NME as having “custom maple inlay at the seventh fret, a butterfly inlay motif – a recurring theme within the album – at the truss rod cover and neck heel cap, and a custom-designed edition internal label.”
The ‘Bad Habits’ hitmaker also donated three signed Ipswich Town Football Club 2021-22 home shirts as prizes for runners-up in the fundraising raffle.
Ed’s generous donation comes after he opened up about becoming a dad for the first time, noting that fatherhood gave him “a purpose” outside of music.
The popstar – whose wife Cherry Seaborn gave birth to Lyra in August 2020 – told Ellen DeGeneres on her show: “I just found that I really didn’t have purpose outside of [music] because when I was giving myself fixed time of no work, I wasn’t doing anything I enjoyed because I love doing music. And [being a dad] has actually given me purpose and something in life that’s actually more important than my job.”