Ed Sheeran talks about forgetting and relearning his own songs ahead of upcoming anniversary show

During the conversation he sings his first ever song, 'Typical Average Teen' to Judd and says it was nearly used by the creator of The Simpsons.

On August 12, 2021, English superstar, Ed Sheeran joined Rebecca Judd on Apple Music 1 to pick his favourite throwback classics, and reflects on the tenth anniversary of his debut album, '+'.

During the conversation he sings his first ever song, 'Typical Average Teen' to Judd and says it was nearly used by the creator of The Simpsons, reveals that following their first date, he and wife Cherry went for dinner with Beyoncé and Jay-Z, and explains why he doesn't believe in meeting his heroes unless they reach out to him.

He also looks back on his first, unexpected meeting with Van Morrison, working with Eminem, his relationship with Damien Rice, and more.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music About His First Ever Song And How It Almost Featured In A Show By The Creator Of The Simpsons…

It was before I was a teenager and it was called 'Typical Average Teen' [sings]. The creator of the Simpsons was doing a show, my cousin knew him. And they were like, "Oh, they're doing this show about a typical average teen." And he was like, "My cousin wrote something like that." So it was actually going to be the soundtrack to this thing for a while. I don't know what happened, it would have been so weird to have my first song end up being the soundtrack of a TV show... I think that might have been the first time I've actually sung more than the first line of it.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music About Relearning His Songs Ahead Of His Forthcoming '+' Tenth Anniversary Show In London…

Ed Sheeran: I actually haven't listened to it ['+'] since it came out, but I'm doing a 10th anniversary show at some point this year, so I'm going to go back and relearn all of it. There'll be songs that I'll have to literally relearn the lyrics to, because I wouldn't have played them since the tour in 2011.

Rebecca Judd: Do you think when you listen to them, you're going to feel the same as you did when they released or you're going to look back and be like, "Oh, this tune was actually rusty. Why did I put this out?"

Ed Sheeran: Of course. I think everything has a progression to it and it leads on to the next thing....I actually ended up listening to a song called 'U.N.I' from the record because Charlamagne tha God had emailed me being like, "Rod Wave covered you today." And I was like, "What?" And yeah, he was like, "Yeah. And it was like a deep album cut." And Rod Wave was on the Breakfast Club and had sung some of 'U.N.I'. So I went back to listen to that because I couldn't even remember the bit that he was singing. Like it's been that long.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music About Working With Eminem…

It [the studio] was in Detroit and I was playing a gig in Detroit. And yeah, I arrived. He's got loads of games consoles there. He loves games. I actually bought him a Nintendo 64 with GoldenEye on it as a gift. Yeah. I just stepped in there. Actually, first time we met, we didn't make music. I hung out there for about four hours and we just spoke Marvel and Avengers for about four hours. And then the next time I went back, we made a tune. The first tune we made, I was in Mexico and his producer flew to Mexico and I did the hook there and stuff, but yeah.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music That He and His Now Wife Had Dinner with Beyoncé and Jay-Z The Evening After Their First Date…

I learned it ['Empire State Of Mind'] for a Live Lounge. And then Jay-Z and Beyonce came to a gig that I did in Brooklyn. And they were like, "Come out to this restaurant with us afterwards." So I went out to this restaurant and then my mates were in town. Actually my now wife. It was like the day after we'd had our first date. And she was there with my friend Martha and this guy, Foy Vance. So we went to dinner and then we went to this bar and I remember a guitar was getting passed around between me and Foy. And I remember playing that [Empire State of Mind']. Five of us in a room with Jay-Z and Beyoncé. I gave Beyoncé a Jägerbomb.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music About The Importance of Date Night….

Me and my wife have a date night. It's a strict date night every single week. And no matter who's in town or who wants to see us, it's always this one night in the week and we go out and our rule is we can't talk about our baby. We have to talk about each other and catch up because if you spend... As a parent, you spend so much time discussing being a parent that you kind of forget who you were before. So we have one night a week where we are who we were before.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music About Being Unexpectedly Woken At His Hotel By Van Morrison…

If you get the chance to listen to this whole album ['Irish Heartbeat'], it is so beautiful. It's so good. I've met Van a couple of times now, but the first time I met him, we were in Northern Ireland. I'd just played the Odyssey Arena and I was staying at this hotel and I'd stayed up really late the night before having drinks. And I'd got woken up two hours later by the concierge being like, "Van Morrison's in the lobby. He'd like to see you." And I just said, "No, he isn't," and just hung up the phone.

And then I got a call back being like, "No," it was like seven o'clock in the morning. He's like, "He is. He wants to have breakfast with you." So I was like, "Actually, I do think he lives near here." So I got up and showered and went downstairs and yeah, we had salmon and cream cheese bagels and chatted about... He was obsessed with learning about streaming and stuff. But I remember saying that this was my favourite album of his and him being taken aback because it wasn't like ‘Astral Weeks’ or ‘The Moon Dance’ or the big albums that people would say was their favourite Van albums. But yeah, it's just a very special album to me.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music Why He Doesn’t Believe In Meeting His Heroes Unless They Reach Out…

My rule has always been never, ever meet your heroes unless they want to meet you. I know people say, "Don't meet your heroes," but I remember working with Rick Rubin and we went to New York for Saturday Night Live cause he'd done a song with Eminem and he was like, "Do you want to meet Eminem?" And I said, "No, I want to get to a point where Eminem wants to meet me." I left that opportunity. And then further on down the line, I had the opportunity to work with Eminem. And we've now done three tunes together and I would class him as a friend. But had I gone in and had a selfie, it would have been a completely different vibe. Does that make sense?

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music That A Damien Rice Show Inspired Him To Start Songwriting…

I actually can't remember the exact date, but it was definitely like lower school. What I liked about the gig is it was under eighteens only. And for adults to get in, they had to be accompanied by a child. And it was like four, 4:00 PM, no alcohol, no nothing. And afterwards my dad went for pint at the bar and Damien Rice was there. So I met him and that was the day I started songwriting.

Ed Sheeran On Connecting With Damien Rice…

There was a long time, I was kind of like; Van [Morrison] had reached out, Eric Clapton reached out, Eminem had reached out, Jay-Z had reached out. There's all these people that I loved as a kid, and they'd all reached out. And I was kind of like, "Why hasn't he reached out?" Now we've had our conversation. There's so many different elements to it. He, for instance, is just a hard man to contact. But yeah... He lives in the middle of nowhere. He doesn't really like the pop world or whatever. But I got to meet him on mine and his own terms and we hung out in Iceland. We went on a hike. We got in a hot springs. We spent the entire day chatting. And had I met him, probably... I think I had an opportunity 2014 when he was releasing an album...and I think it just would've been a different vibe. I now have special memories with people that inspired me to make music rather than a selfie.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music Why He Doesn’t Use A Phone…

I'm always snapped back into reality when I hang out with friends and you're having a conversation with them, and then suddenly they just start texting someone else and having another conversation. And the reason I got rid of it was that was me. And I feel like it's good to be in contact with people, and especially nowadays when you can't see people and you're in lockdown and blah, blah, blah, blah. Stuff like FaceTime and Zoom is really important, but it shouldn't detract from everyday interaction. If we were having a conversation right now and I just kind of was still talking to you, but texting...I just think it's rude, innit? You're not in the moment. And I find that every time I think I should get a phone, I end up in a situation like that. I played a friend of mine my album the other day, and he texted through the whole thing. And I just feel like he's not actually listening to the record and he's in a conversation.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music Why He No Longer Feels He 'Owns' His Songs Once They're Released…

So I feel like songs are mine until they're released and then they belong to other people. So I wouldn't say 'Thinking Out Loud' is my song anymore. I'd say it's this couple that had their first kiss to it or this couple that enjoyed their first dance to it or this couple... I've had people that have had it on in the birthing room where... Actually when we had our child, the song that came on there, it just came on randomly. But now that's our special song for that. And I feel there's songs of mine that are the most popular are no longer songs of mine. They're songs of the public. And they're just public domain. They're just owned by Sandra and Greg or, you know, like whoever.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music About Why His Jubilee Performance Was A 'Full Circle' Moment…

This is interesting actually. I was 11 years old and it was the Queen's Jubilee. And I watched on TV, Eric Clapton come on stage and play 'Layla'. And I remember very clearly being like, "I want to get a guitar and I want to learn that song." So I got a guitar. It was from Cash Converters. I don't think it was even a brand. It was a black Stratocaster. I can't remember. And I learned that song over and over. It was the only song I could play for months and months. But what I love about that is 10 years later at the next Jubilee, I played it and it was such a weird full circle standing on stage. And I would like to think that I don't know how many people tuned into that, but I would love to think that there was one kid that thought the same thing and then it just carries on. Like someone would have been like, "Oh, I want to learn guitar because I heard that." I'd like to think, but I'm not going to presume that.