9781422273302

There were many nights as he tried to make a living playing music that Sheeran found himself having to sleep underground in the London subway.

“I’d go out and play a gig, wait until 5 am when the Underground opened, sleep on the Circle Line until 12, go to a session — and then repeat,” the ginger songwriter remembers. He even slept next to the Queen—sort of. There was an arch outside Buckingham Palace that has a heating duct where he spent a couple of rough nights. When Sheeran finally scraped enough cash together for a plane ticket, he knew he had to take his shot. He had honed his skills for years playing live shows big and small in England. Now the only way to get noticed was to head across the pond.

“Before, I felt like America was this untouched gem that only Coldplay did. But then when Adele smashed the door down, and then One Direction and Mumford & Sons did it, I was like, ‘Not only is it possible now, other people are doing it.’”

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Ed sheeran