Ed Sheeran and Elton John.
Photo: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for EJAF
Ed Sheeran disappeared in 2016, taking a break from both the music scene and social media, but apparently that respite wasn’t 100 percent his own doing. Turns out, a nudge from Sheeran’s mentor, Elton John, was needed to properly push Sheeran out of public view. Speaking with Rolling Stone, John revealed that he told Sheeran to get lost for a while, at least until the (over)exposure faded a little bit. “He was so omnipresent I said, ‘Ed, even I’m sick of you. Go away.’ And he did,†John explains, though Sheeran didn’t follow all of John’s advice:
He just went to the Far East with his girlfriend, had a great time, put on a lot of weight, ate food and came back. One thing I said to him when he went, I said, “Don’t put on weight,†because he’s very prone to put on weight like I am. And he came back heavy, but he lost it all for the album.
All’s well that ends well, we suppose.