“I don’t understand any artists that don’t recognise their influences.”
Ed Sheeran has revealed that his fears about meeting one of his musical inspirations, Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice.
The 32-year-old spoke to Ryan Tubridy on this week’s Late Late Show about his time spent busking on the streets of Galway. When a photo was show of him at the age of fifteen, the singer said, “I can guarantee you that is a Damian Rice song.”
He then opened up about meeting his idol just a few years ago to tell him how much of an inspiration he had on his career.
“It had been such a long time since I have been obviously young and seen him at Whelan’s,” he said. “And I sort of got to know his sister a bit here and I never knew whether he liked me because he is a very elusive person and I’d sort of gone through life…you know, Van Morrison is sort of an elusive person and he said he liked me.
“And I was like ‘if Van Morrison said that he liked me’ and Eminem did the same and Eric Clapton and all these people and then I’m like ‘I wonder does Damien Rice like me?’”
Rice, famous for his singles Cannonball and The Blower’s Daughter off his 2001 album “O”, recently returned to touring in March and April of this year. His last album released in 2014, but new music is set to be on the way.
“Yeah, so I got to the country that he was living in, that his sister said that he was living in,” Sheeran told Tubridy. “I just sort of knocked on his door and we went for a long walk and a big catch up. And it’s weird saying it was like hanging out with an old friend, like we got on instantly.
“And now we email all the time and catch up and we shared songs. We had like a 12-hour chat, and it was like, it was such a nice full circle moment.
“Because I spent my whole life idolising him and also shouting him out at every opportunity because I would not be a singer-songwriter had I not gone to Whelan’s and watched Damien Rice play.”
You can watch Ryan’s full chat with Ed Sheeran on the RTÉ Player.
Related articles:
- Ed Sheeran speaks out about Irish grandmother’s death after winning US court battle
- Ed Sheeran heartbroken over death of his Irish grandmother
- Dermot Kennedy’s ‘guilty pleasure’ musician has some underrated bangers
- One particular song could be accidentally turning off your phone alarm
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
