Disney+ shows a new four-part documentary about one of the biggest pop sensations of recent years, English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. Titled “The Sum Of It All”, the series delves into Ed’s background, his family life, how the early death of his best friend upended his emotional balance and how the death-scare with his wife’s diagnosis made him think about his own mortality.
There are some surprising parallels between Ed and Em that can partly explain their unlikely friendship. But everything started earlier. As Sheeran mentioned earlier, he was prescribed rapping Eminem by a speech therapist to battle his stutter. The documentary used a home video that shows a boy “speccy, ginger hair, really short, English, from the countryside”, as Ed himself says, chopping Marshall’s “Criminal”. Sheeran then says in the montage:
If you had gone back to my school, in my classroom and gone, “Who in this class is gonna be on a song with 50 Cent and Eminem in 15 years, rapping with them? Which one?” It’s so unlikely.
But it did happen, and this was an exact snippet Ed has chosen to promote the documentary on his Instagram account.
In the third episode of the docuseries, Ed talked about coming to the US to sing at Eminem’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ed narrates:
This weekend I’m flying to Los Angeles to do the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Eminem. And I’m singing “Stan” with him.
It was a significant moment in his career and he was feeling nervous even if he could call Marshall a friend by then:
I’m friends with him and we work together. But for him to want to stand on stage with me at one of the biggest moments of his career, and to want me to sing one of the biggest songs of his career — I’m honoured.
Then Ed and his father recall how the harsh pain of medical treatment in early childhood has become his earliest memory and the reason for his stutter. The stutter he has overcome by sheer determination and Marshall’s music:
I would be in school, put my hand up to answer a question and not be able to get words out. Then I got “The Slim Shady LP”. Learning all the Eminem raps because they all are really fast and choppy. I had learned the entire thing, back to back. And that pretty much sorted it. Because I think when your mind is on something else you don’t try to get the words out. So, I think singing and rapping along, this stuff can really help.
And then Ed Sheeran comes back to reality in which he has to go on stage and sing with his hero. Over the backstage and onstage footage of Marshall’s Hall of Fame performance, you can hear Ed Sheeran reflecting on the experience he was going through:
Time to go and sing one of the greatest songs of all time with Em. It’s weird because I still feel like a 12-year-old fan. You’d think being a pop star for a very long time would be, “Ah, it’s normal or him to go on stage and sing with Eminem but this is literally a dream of mine as a kid to do this. And it’s not normal.
The documentary premiered ahead Sheeran’s new album release set on the upcoming Friday.
