Following the release of his seventh studio album, ‘Autumn Variations,’ Ed Sheeran joined the Daily Star for an interview and revealed that he’s been waiting to meet Bob Dylan. Talking about his idols, he explained:
“I’ve met them all, apart from Dylan… but if you meet Bob Dylan prematurely… I don’t want the picture thing. My rule was always I am never going to seek someone out to meet them; I’m going to wait for them to meet me.”
The singer also cited Eminem as one of his role models since childhood and went on to recall meeting him by saying:
“I wanted him to be like, ‘I like your stuff.’ I waited, and after four years, he said, ‘We should do a song,’ and we became like friends.”
Sheeran collaborated with Eminem on the 2017 track ‘River,’ and the two performed it live during the Revival Tour 2018. Years before that, he talked about the things that set the rapper and Bob Dylan apart from each other during a chat with WatchMojo:
“You might look at them and say they’re two totally different acts, but all you have to do with Eminem is put a guitar behind his words, and it’s a very similar thing.”
The singer added:
“Folk music tells stories and hip hop tells stories; there’s just a beat that separates it. Bob Dylan [raps] his tunes. If you listen to ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues,’ that’s not a million miles away from an Eminem tune.”
In his recent interview, Sheeran also mentioned meeting Van Morrison:
“He doorstepped me at my hotel. I’d just made ‘Thinking out Loud,’ and I remember my gran came to the gig, and we had a lot of whisky, as you do. I went to bed at 4 in the morning, and I remember getting this phone call at six and the front desk saying, ‘Van Morrison is here; he wants to have breakfast with you.’ I thought they were taking the p***. It was really surreal because I was still drunk, but he’s really sweet.”
In other news, the ‘Thinking Out Loud’ singer recently released a live version of his latest album under the title ‘(Fan Living Room Sessions).’ This edition included live renditions of the original songs, recorded at the houses of 14 fans.