After becoming a dad, Ed Sheeran planned on quitting music forever

Dan Martensen

Ed Sheeran and his wife Cherry welcomed their first child, daughter Lyra, in September of last year, and he says becoming a dad nearly made him quit music altogether — until he thought better of it.

Ed recently told Sirius XM Hits 1 that after he completed his record-breaking Divide tour, he felt like he’s already accomplished everything he possibly could in music and wasn’t sure what he could do next, so he stopped making music for a while.  Then, after Lyra arrived, he figured, “Right, that’s it, I’m just gonna be a dad. I’m not gonna play music any more.”

But then, Ed says, “I found myself getting really sad and having zero purpose…and then I suddenly was like, ‘I think it’s more important for my daughter to grow up knowing that her parents have a work ethic and her parents love working hard and and love creating and enjoy their jobs…rather than, like, looking at your dad as technically unemployed.”

“So I slowly got back into music that way, and then the creative process started flowing again,” he explains. “But there was a long period of time where everything was directionless.”

Ed also says he realized that it’s not about chasing the next sales record. 

“I have people in my family that are like, ‘The next album has to be even bigger!'” he reveals. “And I know they’re saying to be supportive, but I’m like, ‘Maybe it shouldn’t be. Maybe it should just be an album, and maybe a career can kinda go [up and down] rather than always up.'”

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