Every week after profitable his landmark copyright case, Ed Sheeran is celebrating by enjoying the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards in Frisco, Texas tonight. Though solely introduced Tuesday (May 9), his look has been within the works for a couple of weeks when an unrevealed artist invited him to play collectively.
That artist and their efficiency are a secret, however Sheeran can also be enjoying “Life Goes On,” from his new album – (Subtract).
If he has it his method, Sheeran can be making much more nation music. “I talk about this to my wife all the time. I would love to transition into country,” he tells Billboard backstage on the Ford Center at The Star at Frisco following rehearsal. “I love the culture of it, I just love the songwriting. It’s just like brilliant songs.”
Sheeran considers himself a serious nation music fan. He’s lived in Nashville twice for prolonged durations of time in 2013 and 2018 and discovered himself very impressed by the native songwriters. “It’s like a community. There’s not really a place in Europe where you could point and say, ‘That’s the home of songwriting,’” he says. “It’s not just for country music. Nashville is just a hub of incredible songwriters, incredible performers. And I really felt inspired just being there being around everyone.”
He has Taylor Swift to thank for turning him on to nation music. “I’d never really listened to country music as a kid growing up. It was only being on Taylor’s Red tour and living in Nashville and her basically introducing me to that side of it.”
Now he’s a convert, including that “there’s a radio station in England called [CountryLine Radio] that me and my wife have on all day, every day in the kitchen.”
As nation grows in recognition internationally, he predicts extra artists experiencing world success. “Luke Combs could probably play a stadium in England. I think if he put on Wembley [Stadium] next summer, he could sell it.” (Combs, who’s on a world tour, already has two O2 Arena dates in London on his October calendar.)
As Sheeran celebrates his May 4 copyright victory throughout which a jury dominated that his 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud” didn’t copy Marvin Gaye’s 1973 basic “Let’s Get It On,” he hopes that his willingness to combat as a substitute of settle helps different songwriters, although he admits it might take a while to vary the present tradition the place such fits have “become a big money business,” he says.
“But the more that people step up and fight, the less it’s going to happen because the reason it has become a culture and a big money business is because of the threat of it. And so, people settle because they don’t want to spend a lot of money on lawyers and take time out,” he says. “I took time out of promoting my album two weeks, I spent a lot of money on lawyers to prove my innocence. And I think that if that happens more and more and more, it’ll just stop people thinking that they can just do a hit and run basically.”
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