Ed Sheeran has credited the music of Eminem with helping him “cure” his childhood stutter.
During an appearance on The Howard Stern Show on Wednesday (May 10), Sheeran told the story of how his uncle gifted him the rapper’s classic album ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ when he was nine years old. When he started rapping along to the songs, he found he stammered less, even though he was also undergoing speech therapy at the time.
“[My uncle] just said to my dad, ‘This guy is the next Bob Dylan. You gotta let him listen,’” he said. “And by learning that record – and rapping it back to back to back to back – it cured my stutter.” [via MusicNews]
Sheeran also mentioned he had told that story to Eminem himself. “I think it’s different with Eminem because he is quite reclusive, doesn’t see or meet that many people,” he continued. “I’ve known him now [for] six years and we’ve done three songs together, I’ve played with him twice onstage. He’s another person I really relate to, as he lives in his hometown still and has his eco-system around him.”
Sheeran joined Eminem last year for a performance of ‘Stan’ when the latter was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
Recounting the performance, Sheeran said: “I remember getting the call to do it. I was shooting… 14 music videos back to back… and it was like on my day off from shooting the music videos, and I was like, ‘I can’t say no. I can’t.’
“So, I got a plane straight after my music video, flew there for the song, and then that night flew back. It was really worth it.”
Sheeran released his fifth studio album ‘Subtract’ last week, which has become the fastest-selling album of 2023.
Recently, Sheeran denied claims that he refused to perform at King Charles III’s coronation concert this past weekend (May 7).
In addition, he revealed on SiriusXM that he didn’t attend the show because he never received an invitation. “No one ever asked me (to perform),” he said, explaining where he was for the historic event, “I assume if they went online and went ‘What’s Ed doing on May 6’, they would go ‘Oh, he’s playing in Dallas’. I think that’s what’s happened.”