Ed Sheeran admits he once turned down the chance to hit the town with The Rolling Stones—not because he didn’t want to, but because he’d already been partying too hard.
Back in 2015, Sheeran opened for the rock legends during their Zip Code Tour stop in Kansas City. After the show, Keith Richards invited him out for drinks, but Ed had to pass. “I was grey,” he told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “Back then I’d smoke, drink, stay up all night, work in the studio for 12 hours, and then do a three-hour show. Keith asked if I was coming for a drink and I was like, ‘Mate, I physically can’t. I’ve got to go to bed.’” He laughs now, saying Richards probably thought he couldn’t hang, when really he’d just overdone it.
These days, Ed’s lifestyle looks pretty different. After his best friend Jamal Edwards died in 2022 from cardiac arrest linked to cocaine and alcohol, Sheeran swore off drugs for good. “I’d never touch anything again—it would feel disrespectful to Jamal’s memory,” he said.
He’s also cut back heavily on drinking. Ed and his wife Cherry Seaborn are raising two daughters, Lyra and Jupiter, and he didn’t want alcohol to interfere with fatherhood. “Having a couple of beers is fine, but I never want to be drunk holding my kids,” he explained. “When Cherry asked if I really wanted someone else to drive her to the hospital if her waters broke, that was the moment it clicked.”
Now 34, Sheeran says he’s happy to leave the wild nights behind. “I partied enough in my twenties. I’m in my thirties now—it’s time to grow up,” he said. He still enjoys a glass of red wine or a beer but keeps things in balance. “I don’t know any old rockers who aren’t either sober or alcoholics, and I don’t want to be either.”
SOURCE: Music News