“River” is Marshall’s 12th song to cross the 750 million threshold on Spotify.
Released as the second single for “Revival”, the song now has 2x Platinum status in the UK, Denmark, and Sweden, 3x Platinum in Australia, and none at all in the US.
Ed Sheeran, for whom it was the first out of three collaborations with Marshall, told to Billboard in 2017:
“I was travelling Australia and Russell Crowe has a house, this big farm,” Sheeran explained, adding that the actor told him he was welcome to stay in the home — complete with a recording studio — while he was travelling.
“I get an email from Paul Rosenberg, Eminem’s manager, and he said, ‘We’re gonna start putting the album together, send any ideas,’” Sheeran says, revealing that in the back of his mind, he always knew exactly what he would want to do if he ever had the opportunity to work with Eminem.
“So I used the studio at Russell’s house… played the drums on it, and then played the guitar, and then recorded the thing and wrote the chorus and did the piano on it, and then sent it off and then didn’t hear anything back. This was like March 2016.”
It wasn’t until May 2017, while Sheeran was in Mexico, when he heard from a friend of his who frequently produces for Eminem who said that he played some drums for the song, adding that Eminem had already recorded his verses for it.
Sheeran says that he got to meet Eminem in Detroit when he played there, describing the rapper as “such a sweet, talented guy,” adding that the experience was “a door that I thought was closed and just opened randomly.”
Listen to Eminem — “River” feat. Ed Sheeran on the album below:
