Ed Sheeran is glad he had a "hard ride" to success because he can appreciate his career more.
The ‘Don’t’ hitmaker used to sleep rough on the streets of London – including outside Buckingham Palace – when he was trying to make it as a pop star, but insists he doesn’t regret his homeless days because he knew at the time he had to be in the capital to get where he wanted to be.
He said: "I think anything worth having is going to be hard to get and I wasn’t expecting it to be an easy ride.
"I kind of wanted it to be the hard ride because when you get it it’s actually worth it.
"I don’t think I’m the only one to do that [use the Tube to catch up on sleep]. I think that’s a common thing if you go out late.
"I could’ve gone home, back to Suffolk, to live with my parents but I needed to be in London and I was gigging every day for free."
The 23-year-old star left home at 16 to pursue his music dream and he believes people who are keen to succeed within the arts shouldn’t go to university because they can achieve just as much by doing menial jobs in the industry to gain experience and then working their way up.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme, he added: "I’m not dismissive of the value of university for people who need to learn academic stuff. If you want to be a doctor, go to university. But I’m dismissive of university in terms of the arts.
"The amount of people I know who left school at 16 and started making tea for photographers and for radio stations and now they have pretty successful jobs at 23/24.
"Whereas, the people I know who went to university and did anything to get a degree at university have come out in £20,000 of debt and are having to start off where everyone started at 16."
Despite achieving worldwide success with his two studio albums, ‘+’ and ‘x’ – which are pronounced "plus" and "multiply" respectively – Ed insists he is yet to have "broken through to the big time".
He explained: "I don’t know if that’s happened yet. Only because I remember the people that were the biggest when I was 15/16 and not a lot of them are around now and I’m 23.
"I look at myself and my peers and think in seven or eight years will I still be around?
"Once you’ve had a 10-year career, that’s when you’ve fully made it. Maybe 20 years time, who knows."
Ed Sheeran glad of ‘hard ride’ to success
