Videos from Ed Sheeran’s tour in India show him talking about Eminem and sharing the details of their friendship and work together.
Talking with Shubman Gill & Tanmay Bhat, Ed answered their question about what meeting Eminem was like.
Not what I expected. I expected him to be quite intense. And I didn’t know how I would warm up to him. And he’s completely opposite of that. A completely warm, sweet guy.
This refreshing perspective on Eminem shows there’s more to him than the persona he portrays in his music. And this is the side that not many outsiders can see. Remember recent revelations from Joyner Lucas, who saw Marshall as a distant, restrained person who avoided close contact with people outside his circle?
Then, during the conversation with India’s cricket captain Rohit Sharma and the leading face of music television and cricket in India, Gaurav Kapur, Ed also mentioned Eminem as one of his favourite collaborators, alongside Beyoncé.
I really enjoyed [the one with] Beyonce, just because I didn’t expect her to say yes. And then suddenly she was like, Yeah, I’d love to do that. And then suddenly you’re in the studio with her and making the song. And Eminem! Eminem is someone that I’ve now worked with four times.
Wait a minute, Ed says he and Em have actually worked on four songs together? So, there is another song besides “Remember The Name”, “River”, and “Those Kinda Nights”? Who has it locked up in the vault? Well, we probably know the answer, and it is unlikely that it will be Ed.
This revelation gets even more personal, considering Ed’s story about holding off on meeting Eminem.
He was my hero. I used to have a stutter and I cured my stutter by listening to Eminem music. I had an opportunity to meet him in 2013. I’d had some success, but not a lot of success, and I had an opportunity to meet him, and I let him walk by. And I said, I don’t want to meet him because I want him to meet me. I want that to be the moment. And then that came to fruition. And now we’re actually close, which I don’t think happens if you take one photo and keep it moving.
Ed seemed to want to meet Slim Shady when he had achieved his own musical success, making the encounter more meaningful. His patience paid off, and now they’ve built a close friendship on top of their musical connection. And, of course, they have three officially released collaborations — hopefully, one more to come.
