Ed Sheeran had to turn down a boozy night out with The Rolling Stones because he’d been partying too hard.
The 34-year-old pop star opened for the rock ‘n’ roll legends at the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on their 2015 Zip Code Tour, and when hell-raising guitarist Keith Richards invited him to join the band for a nightcap, he refused because he’d already been burning the candle at both ends.
He recounted to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1: “I was grey. I used to smoke then as well. And I look at it now, I really take care of my voice now. And back then I would smoke, drink, stay up all night, be in the studio for 12 hours a day, then do a three-hour show and then go and do it again. I remember what was funny about that run of shows. We had those three Hollywood Bowl shows that I just went out, out, out, out, out. And then I opened up for The Stones and I remember Keith Richards being like, ‘Hey man, we’re going for a drink afterwards.’ And me just being like … I was like, ‘I physically f***** can’t, man. I got to go to bed.’ And I look back at that and I’m like, he just thinks I can’t hang and I could have hung.”
Ed has overhauled his lifestyle since then and vowed to quit drugs in the wake of the death of his best friend Jamal Edwards.
The Bad Habits hitmaker was so shattered by the February 2022 passing of music producer Jamal – who died aged 31 after a cardiac arrest brought on by cocaine and alcohol – he decided to never to “touch [drugs] again”.
He told Rolling Stone: “I would never, ever, ever touch anything again, because that’s how Jamal died.
“And that’s just disrespectful to his memory to even, like, go near.”
Ed added about falling into drug use: “I remember just being at a festival and being like, ‘Well, if all of my friends do it, it can’t be that bad.’
“And then sort of dabbling. And then it just turns into a habit that you do once a week and then once a day and then, like, twice a day and then, like, without booze. It just became bad vibes.”
Ed – who has daughters Lyra, five, and two-year-old Jupiter with his wife Cherry Seaborn – also said he stopped drinking hard liquor as he never wanted to be “p*****” around his daughters.
He added: “I was always a drinker. I didn’t touch any sort of like, drug, until I was 24.
“Two months before Lyra was born, Cherry said, ‘If my waters break, do you really want someone else to drive me to the hospital?’
“Because I was just drinking a lot. And that’s when it clicked. I was like, ‘No, actually, I really don’t.’
“And I don’t ever want to be p***** holding my kid. Ever, ever.
“Having a couple of beers is one thing. But having a bottle of vodka is another thing. It’s just a realisation of, ‘I’m getting into my thirties. Grow up! You’ve partied, you’ve had this experience. Be happy with that and just be done.’
“I love red wine, and I love beer. I don’t know any old rockers that aren’t alcoholics or sober, and I didn’t want to be either.”