Ed Sheeran underwent laser surgery as a baby to remove a birthmark from his face, ultimately leading to the development of a stutter throughout his childhood years. During an interview with Howard Stern, Sheeran explained that the doctors accidentally forgot to give him anesthesia when the birthmark was burned off, impacting his nervous system to the point of speech impairment. He participated in speech therapy, but it was something entirely different that cured him of the stutter once and for all.
“I was going through all sorts of speech therapy and when I was nine, my uncle bought me The Marshall Mathers LP, and he just said to my dad, ‘This guy’s the next Bob Dylan, you gotta let him listen.' My dad didn’t really clock it. He was just like, ‘Okay, Edward’s gonna go and listen to that.’ And by learning that record and rapping it back to back to back to back, it cured my stutter.”
Years later, the "Thinking Out Loud" artist met Eminem in person and told him the story of how his stutter miraculously took a back seat after rapping along with The Marshall Mathers LP.
“I was super nervous beforehand. I got invited to his studio in Detroit and I was sort of sitting there being like, ‘Ooh, is he standoffish?’ And as soon as he walked in, we just started talking about Marvel comics and stuff like that. I was like, ‘Okay, we’re cool.'” Sheeran and Eminem have since written three songs together and performed live on stage twice.