Ed Sheeran: Singer talks his career, fame, and his 2026 Loop Tour

One of the world’s bestselling artists, Ed Sheeran is one of the most influential artists of his generation. 

He’s sold almost 200 million albums and is one of only a handful of artists on Spotify Billions Club with more than ten tracks with over one billion streams. 

Sheeran last toured New Zealand’s stages back in 2023, and he’s returning three years later, with 2026’s ‘Loop Tour’. 

Despite his global musical success, Ed Sheeran has a reputation for being down to earth and humble, shrugging off the trappings of stardom in favour of a much more grounded presence.  

He alternates between projects – huge stadium tours and local gigs, painting and podcasts, parenting and performing.  

While the most enjoyable period of his career was the first two years after the release of Plus in which the world opened up to him, Sheeran explains that nowadays he prioritises balance. 

“It's about finding the balance and not going nuts,” he told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking. 

“Not being like, I am just a popstar and that is all that I am, I think it’s really nice to be a dad, and also be a popstar, and have a balance of the two.”  

Stardom and fame can take its toll, some people becoming jaded and disconnected from the world around them, however, Sheeran believes that only happens if you live in a bubble. 

“I think you get jaded when things start getting very self-centred, and you think like, oh this is happening to me, and this is this, and this is that, and it’s very me, me, me, me, me.” 

Sheeran tries to keep himself grounded, surrounding himself with regular people, getting out into the world, and taking public transport at his wife’s strong encouragement.  

“I do remember playing shows where no one wants to come to them and releasing music that fell on deaf ears,” he told Hosking. 

“So I feel super grateful to be, you know, people are still interested in my music, people are still coming to the shows.” 

“I don’t think you can get jaded with that.” 

‘Loop Tour’ is Sheeran’s sixth major concert tour, and although he still performs in the occasional pub, stadium tours are on a completely different level.  

Although there’s definitely a pressure to match and even outperform his previous tours, Sheeran has faith in his music and what it means to his audience. 

“I know I can create special moments.” 

“I think that when you’re doing these shows, it’s an understanding that it’s not about me, it’s about the community and about the couples that are coming to the gig, the families that are coming to the gig, and what the songs mean to them.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we got the Sheeran news yesterday. He's coming to
a stadium near you in the early part of next
year if you follow him. A couple of interesting things
actually has turned with James Blunt the other night in Ipswich.
That's well worth looking up today. He's also involved in
a very cool project with Chris Hinsworth for his Disney
show called Limitless. So there's a lot to talk about.
So we got together with the Itchuran on Tuesday night.

(00:23):
What's that for? This is on video as well. What's
that stick in the background? I mean, what's that? Does
that look? It can't be little cross?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Oh no, that's a yeah. No, that is from Coke
Croake Park and it's a hurling stick or a camogie stick.
I'm not No, it's hurling. So in Islands there's any
called Croake Park. It doesn't have British sports ever played
in it, and it's always either has Gaelic football or hurling.
And I played Croke Park that's from twenty to fifteen.

(00:51):
My first time playing Croke and they gave me a
hurling stick.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
So do you collect stuff generally?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, I think I'm a hoarder. I think I'm a hoarder,
which I have a This is a pub in London,
but the pub that I have in my garden is
where everything goes, and it very much looks like a
hoarders pub. Right.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
I need to be brought up to speed here because
I've been trying hard. I'm working on this, but I'm
watching you one at pubs. You're at pubs singing, You're
in America. Then I see you in Ipswich the other day.
I check your schedule. You're going into Scandinavia. What exactly
are you doing at the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
At the moment, I'm sort of I'm on tour. I'm
finishing the Mathematics tour but also promoting the Play album,
and one of the songs on Play is called the
Old Phone. So we build an Old Phone pub where
we go when we do these small acoustic shows instant
in amongst the tour, and they're fun. It's sort of

(01:48):
like a different it's a different thing. It's still it's
still a performance. You still get a buzz, but it's
just a different It's not a stadium. It's just a
different kind of performance.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Who comes up with all that stuff?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Me? Me? I think the older that I'm getting the
more I want diversity and the stuff that I'm doing.
I think playing a sold out stadium every weekend is
obviously super fun, but it's like having a really great
steak every meal. You want you want a bit of difference,

(02:22):
you can't. You want a dirty burger every now and then,
you want some kebab chips every now. You know, you
want a balanced career of doing balanced things.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
I think so artistically answer me this because I mean,
be honest with me. How big is your group these days?
I mean how big is your organization? Because you don't
just say, look, let's let's build a part and a
couple of other people in the room go, oh cool it,
let's do that, because that's not how this works.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, I'd say in total, on our side of the organization,
including tour, there's probably about two hundred people that work
within the camp, and that's not including record lay Well,
I'd say, you know, it's a it's a big it's
a big operation, but then it's a it's a big tour,
and it's they're big albums, and I think that they

(03:08):
it's definitely grown. It used to just be me and
my manager and we would plug into local record labels
wherever we go. But I think even now more so,
record label's role has shifted so much, so you kind
of have to have like we have each specific people
on the team. Be it press, but it international, be
it social, be at this but at that. So it's yeah,

(03:30):
it's a big it's a big operation, but I think
it's it becomes. But now I have children and a family,
I can then plug in and out of it a
lot more than I used to because lots of people
are making it move, so I can sort of it out.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
So is this the most enjoyable time of your career
so far? Giving you achieved this level of success, I mean,
basically you can creatively do anything you want.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
I'd say that, Yeah, Well, it depends on what sort
of level of enjoyment. Like I definitely love I love
having a family and having the balance of that and
dipping in and out of work, and yes, as you said,
creatively being like I'm going to do this show or
this show or this show. I think the most enjoyable
part of my career though, was the first two years

(04:15):
of Plus and everything was new and everything was exciting,
and I'd gone from playing to nobody and no one
being interested to suddenly like coming to New Zealand for
the first time, coming to Australia, going to Japan and
going to America. Instead of having the world open up
for me. I think that was probably the most exciting
and enjoyable part of my career. But I think now
it's about finding the balance and not going nuts and

(04:40):
not being like I am just a pop star and
that is all that I am. I think it's really
nice to be a dad and also be a pop
star and have a balance of the two.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Do you reckon that's an adherent skill? What do you
run the rest potentially? Do you think of getting a
bit jaded at some point?

Speaker 2 (04:57):
I think you only get j if you live within
a bubble and you think that. I think you get
jaded when things start getting very self centered and you
think like, oh, this is happening to me, and this
is this, and this is that, and it's very me, me, me,
me me, And I think that by having it's not

(05:18):
even having the big team, it's more like being in
the world, like I still like my wife will still
like not make me makes me the wrong wrong word,
strongly encourage me to take public transport and do normal
things and go to pubs and blah blah blah and
just be out in the world. And I think it's
I think it's difficult to get jaded when you are

(05:39):
in amongst so many other people's lives and seeing how
they work, and realizing how fortunate being a musician, and
also being a musician where people actually want to come
to the shows. And so I do remember playing shows
where no one wants to come to them and releasing
music that fell on deaf ears. So I feel like
super great to be you know, people are still interested

(06:03):
in my music, people are still coming to the shows,
and I get to pick and choose my schedule. So
I'm I don't think you can get jaded with that.
I think that's just a really privileged position to be in.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
And what about the pressure, because I mean, do you
feel that each time you announce a big tour, a
stadium tour. I mean, it's wonderful to perform in a pub.
Who doesn't love a pub, But a stadium tour that's business.
I mean, do you feel the pressure of that. What
it looks like, what it sounds like. What's the comparison
to last time? Because I paid my three hundred dollars
and I'm paying another three hundred dollars and your bit

(06:33):
to be good. I mean, do you feel that?

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah? But I think that the more I release, the
stronger the set listers. And I have a lot of
faith in people's emotions and memories and things that are
attached to these songs, and I think that I know
I can create special moments when I come to these
shows with people coming and they want to hear a
certain song in a certain way. And I think that

(06:58):
the artists that play these big stadiums know that that
is the that's the currency of the gig. You someone
comes to the gig, you play the song that they
want to play in the way that they want to
play it, and it makes them take Like if I
if I go and see Coldplay Coplay are like one
of my favorite bands. If I go and see them
and they don't play fix You, I'm annoyed. But I
know because of the way that Chris is and the

(07:20):
way that those shows are, that fix You is going
to get played. It's going to be amazing. It's going
to do exactly what I wanted to do within me
and within my heart. So I think that, yeah, I
think that when you're doing these shows, it's a it's
an understanding that it's not about me, it's about the
It's about the community and about the the couples that
are coming to the gig, the friends that are coming
to the gig, the families that are coming to the

(07:41):
gig and have what the songs mean to them, and
how you can facilitate their good time and emotions.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
I guess he mentioned before the break, of course Chris Martin,
which you know where I'm having to go there. But
before I got on to that, I remembered I'd watched
a very good video he was a nipswitch. The other
night any we had James Blunt on stage, which seemed
to be a real thing, so I wanted to know
from him whether or not this is something he does.
He just rings people up and they come running.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
I wouldn't say they come running. I think it always
has to be a good idea, and I think with
James was on tour and I said, look, I'm doing
my hometown stadium Ittswich Town Portman Road. The first time
I saw James was there when I was thirteen, opening
up Fell and John, and that was one of his
first gigs, and I said, wouldn't it be cool full
circle moment you come back. We sing Goodbye My Lover together,

(08:31):
which is one of my favorite James songs, and I
think it has to be special, has to be a
moment rather than just you do it for the sake
of it.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Well, I mean it looks special.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
It was special. I was emotional at that. You know,
James is one of the reasons that I'm a singer
songwriter and to bring him to essentially my homecoming show,
which was something that was special to him twenty one
years ago. Yeah, it felt really really great.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Like kiss cam. Yeah, do you run it? You've got
a jumbo tron.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
We've never done it, but they're you know, I think
that all shows are different, Like my show is very
different to the guns In the show and the Coldplay
show and the Taylor Show. And I think that that's
what makes stadium shows great. And yeah, it's that's been
part of their show since the beginning. It's just now
it is obviously international news for you know, something that

(09:24):
I feel like lots of lots of people go through
and I wouldn't say it's any like, I don't I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
No, I mean, I mean, let's be honest. I mean
I feel bad for them. I feel really bad for them.
I almost think it's an invasion of privacy. I mean,
I know you're at a show, and I get all
of that, but at some point, destroying somebody's life, you know,
I mean, you've got to feel about You got to
feel bad about that, don't you.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, I definitely. I don't like the way that it's unfolding.
And I think everyone just has to remember that there's
like children involved, families and.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, exactly listen, I gotta know because it doesn't come
out until August. But was Chris Him's worth any good
on the drums?

Speaker 2 (10:07):
It was great. He was really really good. Yeah, And
the first time I saw him play drums, I was like,
I don't know if this is going to work out
trump rhythms. You can't really rhythm. It has to sort
of be within within you. And he learned it and
it was it was great. I was really really impressed
with him, and I hope he I hope he carries

(10:27):
it on because I think music is really good for
the soul and I think he realized that and enjoyed it.
But yeah, we had a we had a great time.
I really like that guy. Man, He's like that. In
the entertainment industry, you know, you meet people all the
time and they're all right, and you meet sometimes you
meet people who you like, really bond with as humans,

(10:50):
and James Blunt is someone like that who I genuinely
like as a human being, like, regardless of career and songs.
I just like spending time with him. And Chris is
very much like that, and I'm grateful to when we
did all that stuff and he came Suffolk to learn
the drums and stuff he got to hang out with
I've hung out with his family before, he's hung out

(11:11):
with my family, and I feel like that's almost more
important than just doing something cool for the Discovery Channel,
you know, actually having having a bond with the human
being that works within the same space that you did.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Well. A lot of people like hanging with you as well,
and that'll be happening next year when you come here
for your big stadium tour. So it's a thrill as
always to catch up with you. Go well, appreciate it.
Maybe we'll catch up when you're here in twenty six.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Thank you man. Nice one.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
So there he was Saran. By the way, Limitless is
the program, the Hymnsworth program, and I'm almost certain it's Disney.
It's National Geographic, but it's through Disney and that comes
out in the middle of next month.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.