Ed Sheeran was dumped by a management company because it did not think a ginger who played guitar with effects pedals would ever make it.
“The other management actually resigned from him because they said he wasn’t going anywhere,” revealed Stuart Camp during an appearance on Straight Up. He said the singer was told “he had to drop the looping [pedal] and dye his hair black … and give up the rapping.”
Sheeran released his debut album in 2011 and has become one of the biggest-selling music artists in the world. His ÷ Tour, which ended last year, was the top-grossing concert tour ever.
Camp said the management company’s website later boasted about having discovered Ed Sheeran. “You didn’t mention the bit where you said he was s**t and he went away.”
Camp worked with Sheeran when the singer was with Elton John’s Rocket Music and then signed him, in 2014, to his own company. “At the end of the day, my job is just to keep him alive,” he explained. “Your first instinct is to always to make sure the little sod doesn’t do something stupid, because he is clumsy.”
Camp said Sheeran, who welcomed his first child this year, will probably release a new album this time next year.