Ed Sheeran has revealed a battle with substance abuse that prompted him to take a year-long break from music.
“I didn’t really have any growing up time into getting famous,” the singer said during a taping of The Jonathan Ross Show in the UK.
“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. And all the pitfalls that people read about, I just found myself slipping into all of them. Mostly, like, substance abuse.”
Sheeran added: “I'd never touched anything. I started slipping into it, and that’s why I took a year off and buggered off.”
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The 26-year-old, who didn’t specify which substance(s) he was using, said it was a gradual thing.
“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.”
Sheeran said he immersed himself in his work because he’s not able to write songs or perform while 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,” he said.