Do you remember when Ed Sheeran announced at the end of 2015 that he was taking some time off?

“Hello all. I’m taking a break from my phone, emails and all social media for a while.”

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/_ONOpUkpDz/

 

Well we know he spent a lot of time travelling and making music ( and creating his most recent album, Divide ), but we also know that he needed the time off because of some deeper issues.

He spoke on The Jonathan Ross Show and said the fame was starting affect him,

“I think you need to, when you get into the industry, adjust to it — and I didn’t adjust because I was constantly working on tour. And all the pitfalls that people read about, I just found myself slipping into all of them. Mostly, like, substance abuse.”

He added, “I never touched anything. I started slipping into it, and that’s why I took a year off and buggered off.”

“I didn’t really notice it was happening. 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, 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 taking a year off.”

Thankfully for Ed, his girlfriend Cherry Seaborn helped him get back on the right track,

“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.”

Glad to see that Ed is doing better and hope he continues to stay strong!

 

Filed under: Ed Sheeran, substance abuse, time off