Ed Sheeran Teases Potential Country Music Career

Ed Sheeran will make an appearance with a mystery country artist at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Frisco, Texas Thursday night. Country music fans might need to get used to seeing him more often, though, as he is considering recording songs in the genre. Sheeran is scheduled to perform a duet with a mysterious artist and his latest single, “Life Goes On.”

“I talk about this to my wife all the time. I would love to transition into country,” Sheeran told Billboard backstage at the Ford Center at The Star at Frisco after a rehearsal. “I love the culture of it, I just love the songwriting. It’s just like brilliant songs.”

The interest in country music didn’t come out of nowhere. He spent part of 2013 and 2018 in Nashville and was inspired by local 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,’” the “Shape of You” singer said. “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.”

Sheeran also toured with Taylor Swift during her Red era and co-wrote “Everything Has Changed” with her. She was Swift’s opening act on The Red Tour in 2013. Before meeting Swift, Sheeran said he never listened to country music. “It was only being on Taylor’s Red tour and living in Nashville and her basically introducing me to that side of it,” he told Billboard.

The ACM Awards will feature Sheeran’s first awards show performance since he won a copyright infringement lawsuit in New York last week. The heirs of songwriter Ed Townsend accused Sheeran of stealing parts of the 1973 Marvin Gaye hit “Let’s Get It On” when he wrote “Thinking Out Loud.” While testifying on the stand, Sheeran said he would have to quit music if the jury found against him.

Sheeran felt he had to stand up and fight the suit instead of reaching a settlement on behalf of other pop music stars. Otherwise, he predicted there would be more and more similar copyright lawsuits filed against artists. “I took time out of promoting my album two weeks, I spent a lot of money on lawyers to prove my innocence,” he told Billboard. “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.”

The 58th ACM Awards will be streamed live on Amazon’s Prime Video platform Thursday night. Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton are hosting. Kate Brown, Hardy, and Lainey Wilson are the most-nominated artists with five each. All three are set to perform as well.