Ed Sheeran, the Perfect songwriter who brought lovers everywhere their weddings songs, is opening up a bit about his substance abuse problem.
The Shape of You singer took a hiatus from the music business for a year and is opening up about his secret battle with substance abuse — but he hasn’t disclosed the substance.
“I think you need to, when you get into the industry, adjust to [fame], and I didn’t adjust because I was constantly working on tour,” the 26-year-old singer reveals on “The Jonathan Ross Show” airing Saturday, E! News reported. “And all the pitfalls that people read about, I just found myself slipping into all of them. Mostly, like, substance abuse.”
Sheeran has admitted to drinking heavily, but this new revelation suggests something more than alcohol was affecting his life.
Sheeran admitted it happened so gradually, he didn’t even notice.
“It just started gradually happening, and then some people took me to one side and were like, ‘Calm yourself down.’ It’s all fun to begin with,” he said. “It all starts off as a party, and then you’re doing it on your own and it’s not, so that was a wake-up call and [I took] a year off.”
After the 2016 Grammy Awards, Sheeran ditched his cellphone and went off the grid.
He explained, “I focused on work, and I can’t work under the influence. I can’t write songs under the influence. I can’t perform under the influence. So, the more I worked, the less [that happened]. I’ve worked my whole life to get to where I am, and you can’t lose that over something that you do in your spare time.”
Sheeran also gave props to his girlfriend, Cherry Seaborn, for helping to straighten him out.
“We live together now, and I think that was a real help grounding me,” he said, adding that he “needed someone to balance me out.”
Sheeran recently canceled upcoming shows after fracturing his wrist and elbow in a bike accident.
