"I started slipping into it, and that’s why I took a year off and buggered off."
Ed Sheeran admits that he had a hard time acclimating to fame.
During an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show, which will air on Saturday, the "Shape of You" singer opens up about his secret struggle with substance abuse when first coming up in the music industry.
“I think you need to, when you get into the industry, adjust to it -- and I didn’t adjust because I was constantly working on tour," he confides while on the show (quotes via People). "All the pitfalls that people read about, I just found myself slipping into all of them. Mostly, like, substance abuse."
Sheeran says his unhealthy habits ended up getting the best of him but it was all very subtle. “I didn’t really notice it was happening. It just started gradually happening, and then some people took me to one side and were like, ‘Calm yourself down,'" he recalls. "It’s all fun to begin with, it all starts off as a party and then you’re doing it on your own and it’s not, so that was a wake-up call and taking a year off."
The songwriter notes, "I never touched anything. I started slipping into it, and that’s why I took a year off and buggered off."
Sheeran -- who recently canceled a few tour dates after breaking his arm following a bike accident -- credits music and settling down with girlfriend Cherry Seaborn, 24, with helping him to work through his issues. “I focused on work, and I can’t work under the influence, I can’t write songs under the influence, I can’t perform under the influence -- so the more I worked the less [that happened]," he continues. "I’ve worked my whole life to get to where I am and you can’t lose that over something that you do in your spare time."
As for Seaborn, Sheeran gushes, "We live together now, and I think that was a real help grounding me. I was a 25 year old in the music industry on tour so I just needed someone to balance me out."
Back in 2014, Sheeran revealed to ET that he had ditched the beer in an effort to drop some weight. "I've dropped 35 pounds in, like, three months just from not drinking beer," he shared.
As for whether the change was hard for him, he quipped, "Not really. I’ve just replaced it with vodka."
