Skip To Content

    Ed Sheeran Just Opened Up About His Struggles With Substance Abuse

    "It all starts off as a party."

    Ed Sheeran appeared on Britain's The Jonathan Ross Show yesterday, and opened up about his issues with substance abuse for the first time.

    “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," he began.

    "All the pitfalls that people read about, I just found myself slipping into all of them. Mostly, like, substance abuse."

    But Sheeran says he took some time off between albums to take care of himself, before things got too out of control.

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

    Sheeran also talked about how hard it can be to realize you have a problem.

    “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."

    In the end, Sheeran credits the year he took off — as well as his girlfriend Cherry Seaborn — for helping him get back on track.

    “I focused on work, and I can’t work under the influence. I can’t write songs under the influence... 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."