Ed Sheeran: Ive never listened to a Radiohead album, to be honest

ed2

Ed Sheeran allowed Billboard to follow him around for an entire day in NYC and the cover story turned out to be… okay. I actually like Ed and think he’s an interesting guy, but he’s not, like, my favorite person in the world. The Billboard cover story is completely overwritten – they’re also following around a few other people, making this a “24 Hours In Music” piece – but the Ed parts are fine. Some highlights:

His friendship with Taylor Swift: “It’s quite a weird thing for the No. 1 and No. 2 biggest-selling artists in the world to be close friends. I don’t think that happens a lot.”

He was up late the night before. He says he had a “solo” night, hanging out in his hotel room and watching the Amy Winehouse documentary and drinking two bottles of Jay Z’s Armand de Brignac champagne, “a case of which Beyoncé sent over after the pair dueted flirtatiously on “Drunk in Love” at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park three days earlier. (She signed the card “A gangster’s wife.”)”

Launching his new label, Gingerbread Man: “Without sounding weird, I don’t need the money. It’s just me wanting to hear some cool music on the radio.”

His glad-handing smile: “It’s funny — my ex-girlfriend, who the whole first album is about, was like, ‘I can tell when you’re not happy in pictures, because you do this fake smile.’ If you can see my teeth, I’m happy.”

He’s not into streaming. “I don’t stream anything ever. I don’t even really get it. I buy everything off iTunes or physically.”

Wait, WHAT? “I’ve never listened to a Radiohead album, to be honest. I didn’t hear a Bruce Springsteen song until like two years ago, and now I f—ing love Springsteen. I didn’t hear Michael Jackson songs till I was 14. I like discovering things on my own. I want to have that moment of ‘holy sh-t,’ the moment of the epiphany.”

The difference between his entourage & a rapper’s entourage: “I haven’t got a weed guy. They always have a weed guy. A jewelry guy, too.”

His people want to release his new album next September, before the Grammy cutoff: “Adele is releasing her album in the same Grammy category. I don’t know if I’m brave enough to go up against her.”

When asked if he currently has a girlfriend: “I just never want to be public. It always, always backfires. I really wish I could disappear at moments that I’m with a significant other. It’s none of anyone’s f—ing business.”

Does he get to hang with Taylor Swift’s squad? “Of course. It’s not a vaginas-only club.”

[From Billboard]

I really don’t understand how someone with even a passing interest in modern music can say that they’ve never listened to a Radiohead album. WTF? It’s even weirder for a music professional, a singer-songwriter and a British artist! Thom Yorke is practically canonized in the UK. How can you go through life and never listen to OK Computer?! I kind of understand (maybe…?) how a British guy could have not heard Bruce Springsteen growing up, but seriously… he didn’t hear any Michael Jackson music until he was 14? What the what?

ed3

Photos courtesy of Billboard.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbW1ka4J6e8SdlqyglZq%2Forq%2Boq2el56aw6a%2BvqWgrKyVo7Klq9OolpqXopaxqrvHnpidl5Ghr7a5vq2mmJqVlLWwusSsq2g%3D