Justin Hawkins has praised Ed Sheeran for his “beautiful and humble” appearance at The Darkness concert.
The global megastar joined the rock band to perform guitar and sing their hit ‘Love Is Only A Feeling’ at London’s Roundhouse in Camden on December 9, much to the surprise of gig-goers, and the 48-year-old frontman has recalled how casual the ‘Bad Habits’ hitmaker, 32, was about it all.
Speaking to Jo Whiley about how they came to share the stage with the Grammy winner on BBC Radio 2, Justin said: “I think he [Ed] was supposed to come and sing with us on an earlier tour, but it didn’t work out then and so this time he was saying ‘Love to come and open for you’ to make amends to us for not doing the running on stage and singing with us stuff.
And we just thought, ‘OK Ed, course you can’, and we didn’t think he’d show up and he did and he brought all of his crew and his security and everything and he had his own little dressing room and he absolutely smashed it.
“He was really brilliant and he came on stage and he said something like ‘Hi, I’m Ed Sheeran, I’m a singer-songwriter from Suffolk’ – and it was beautiful and humble and it was just a great night.”
The ‘Shape of You’ hitmaker was the opening act at the event but had only been billed on the post as E.S.
Ed is known to pop up at all different types of concerts, including joining metal group Bring Me The Horizon to debut their metal version of ‘Bad Habits’ at the BRIT Awards last year, and more recently, teaming up with rap idol Eminem on a rendition of ‘Lose Yourself’.
Meanwhile, Justin has admitted he still feels “guilt” over The Darkness breaking up.
The ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ singer took a moment to reflect on the glam rock band’s rise and fall from grace as he battled addiction issues after the huge success of their 2004 debut album ‘Permission To Land’.
During the group’s ongoing UK tour to celebrate two decades of the record, he told fans in Manchester on Tuesday (12.12.23) that he “felt really bad” for his brother Dan.
He describes his sibling as the “brains” of the operation and joked: “Silly old Justin took all the drugs and [messed] it up.”
Reflecting on the split after 2005 LP ‘One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back’ – before reuniting in 2012 and continuing to put out music to this day – he added: “I’ve had to live with the consequences of that.”
Justin reflects on the experience in the new documentary film ‘Welcome To The Darkness’.