Seven years ago, Sheeran explained his plans for the future in impressive detail, from album releases to his semi-retirement this week. Can we learn from his example?
Ed Sheeran has announced his sort-of-retirement at the tender age of 28, with a reported net worth of £160m. On stage at Chantry Park in Ipswich on Monday night, the last gig of his two-year Divide world tour, Sheeran said he would be taking an 18-month break from touring – probably to spend time with his new wife, Cherry Seaborn, and do a bit of DIY on their ever-developing Grand Design in Suffolk.
This seems to have been his plan all along. In 2012, when Sheeran’s album + had just spent its fifth week at No 1 and he was well on track to become the megastar that he is today, he told the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis that, no, he was not surprised by his success. “Because the
music I write is like love songs with big hooks, I kind of knew it would end up where it’s ended up if it got the right radio play.”