Hi, I’m Ed Sheeran and this is my last meal. Every person has exactly two things in common. We all gotta eat and we’re all gonna die. Today’s guest is one of the most successful recording artists of all time with more than 200 million albums sold, almost 60 billion Spotify streams. And his new album “Play” is out now. He’s still the police’s lead suspect in a petty theft case from more than 17 years ago. Ed Sheeran, welcome to the show. What was the case? Ed, it’s 2008. Right. You’re in Dalston. You’re on the corner of the A10 and Shacklewell Lane, Ed- How do you know this? Why’d you do it? How do you know this? Oh my God, it was a bigger bottle than this. This wouldn’t have been worth it. It was a proper big bottle. And they- How big are we talking? It was the one that they have in the restaurant and at this time… So you couldn’t buy this in the supermarket- So that’s what led you to the life of crime? Yeah, but you know what? It smashed in my backpack and all of that hot sauce went all over all of my equipment, all of my CDs that I was selling and it was a life lesson. Don’t steal. Well, have you thought about your last meal before? Yeah, I actually have. Interesting. Yeah. Why is that? Just ’cause it’s a conversation that comes up, you know, you’re having a pint with someone. “What’s your death row meal?” Yeah, yeah. What was the first round draft pick in the death row meal. Like what’s the- It’s always… Aldeburghfish and chips is always my death row meal, yeah. I cannot wait to hear that. Scampi chips, battered sausage. Cover it with salt and vinegar. Eat it on the beach. Bosh. Bosh indeed. Bosh. Did I nail the pronunciation of that? It’s more like… Yeah, I was just about to bosh, but yeah. Wait, that’s… No, no, no, no, no. Let’s go back to this. And this is bosh? Bosh. How often do you think about death? I guess every day. Every day you always think about something. Just in a car today, I sat in the car and 20 seconds into the journey I was like, “Damn, I gotta put my seatbelt on. I forgot, I don’t wanna die.” I think you… Every day there’s something that reminds you that you’re lucky to be alive. Yeah, do you think though there’s kind of two ways that you think about death? ‘Cause there’s the, “gotta put my seatbelt on, don’t wanna die.” And then there’s the part that really freaks me out where I like really contemplate the idea of nothingness for eternity. And then I get really scared. I mean, that’s a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think it is nothingness for eternity. You don’t? No, that depresses me to think of nothingness ’cause I’ve lost people that I love in my life and I don’t want to think of them in nothingness. I think of them somewhere having a nice time. I think it’s really beautiful and also it’s more depressing to think about on an empty stomach. You ready to eat? Tell you a little secret. I ate about an hour ago. I completely forgot. Ed, for the first course of your final meal, we have the basket of warm bread with butter. We have a pint of ice cold Stella Artois. Can I drink it before it goes cold? Drink it before it goes cold. Here, drink now, cheers. Look, mazel tov on the album, the success. Cheers, mate. And then you asked us for otoro nigiri. We wanted to make you a special last meal omokase that sort of tells the story of your life. This is the otoro nigiri inspired by the presentation at the Araki in London. Do I just down in one if you love your mum? Down in one if you love your mum. I’m learning so much new vocabulary. Yeah. Hot damn. Well, I… All I know is that someone who knows how to make sushi made that. I wanna tell you about these other pieces here. Like I said, we wanted to kind of tell the story of things that you love with the sushi. So I know you’re a big movie guy. Mm hmm. One of your favorite movies is “Cool Runnings.” So here we have a Jamaican jerk cured red snapper cold smoked. And then over here, you have your own hot sauce, Tingly Ted’s. We wanted to make a salmon tartare that has the flavor profile of Tingly Ted’s. So there’s ginger, lemon supremes, and jalapeno in there with a little bit of caviar on top. I came and here though I was gonna nibble everything. That ain’t gonna happen, is it? This ain’t “Hot Ones.” You gotta finish it. Cheers. I finished… Did you not watch my “Hot Ones?” I did watch your “Hot Ones.” Can I try the tinglies? Try the tinglies. And this last piece. Your wife’s Name is Cherry. Yeah? Like cherry blossom. You have a pub called Bertie Blossoms. So what we’ve done is we’ve actually done a cherry blossom cured scallop with a little bit of gold leaf on top. Gold leaf always weirds me up. Do you know what I mean? Oh yeah, a 100%. Shitting Gold is not the way forward. I think shitting gold is the point though. But you’re also shitting a metaphor for your wife. Right. It was tasty. I’d say the other three banged. What’s your connection to bread and butter? Just a big fan? I think sometimes you go to these like amazing three Michelin star restaurants and the best bit is the bread. And I just love bread. Like really well done bread and butter. I sort of feel like maybe they should bring out a restaurant where every single course is bread and butter. I think you should probably fund that ’cause I think that would do really well. Too many people like watch their weight and a lot of people avoid bread. I don’t know, man. I think KFC’s doing pretty good across the globe. I feel like the bread and butter restaurant would work. I feel like if it was like deep fried bread then yeah that would probably- A 100%. You ever been to Scotland? I’ve never been to Scotland. I’d really like to though. They deep fry pretty much anything there. Deep fried pizza is really good. I ate a deep fried Mars bar with Gordon Ramsey once. And that isn’t to name drop, but he’s a Scottish man. I know he is. But he doesn’t sound Scottish. I think he was born in Scotland and he’s a Rangers- Lewis Capaldi is a massive Celtic fan. Mm. And he wrote a Celtic phrase on me that I got tattooed, that’s like tattooed on my back. So whenever I meet a Celtic fan, I’ve just got Lewis Capaldi’s handwriting. That’s pretty sweet though. He’s got my handwriting on his leg with my football team, but he’s got like two tattoos. When you say your football team, are you talking about the Tennessee Titans or are you talking about Ipswich? Well, this is the difference between football and football. In England football is a game where you use your feet and in America football is a game where you use your hands. Yeah, I can see how you would be confused because I feel like we got that one right. But also if you think about the fact that our football is the one where you repeatedly bash your heads together, you could see how we would come up with the wrong name. I like NFL. I like watching NFL. Yeah. It does confuse me that it’s called football. Please dig into the bread and butter. So this is from our favorite bakery in LA. It’s a place called . Mm. That banged. Cultured butter from Normandy. Little bit of flair to sell on top. Speaking of international influences, Ed. You have a new album. It’s called “Play.” There’s a lot of international influences on it. From India, from Iran, from beyond. One of my favorite things is learning new cooking techniques from people from other cultures ’cause for me it gets me to like rethink all the rules that I grew up learning and they can teach you bigger lessons around the world. Have you ever been taught like a big life lesson from an international artist you collaborated with? I think the biggest life lesson is like music really does like break down barriers and I think I’ve learned so much about culture through music and music has been the door opener for me to like sit down with people and hear about their life and their experience. And I started off life as a singer-songwriter and had I remained an acoustic singer-songwriter, my life would be far less rich in diversity as it is now. I feel like I can travel the world and music is my passport in a… I know that sounds really cheesy, but I go places and I end up being brought to areas of countries that I would never usually see through music. And I think it’s hugely important. And also just to understand people and where they’re coming from and it’s about not being like obtuse, you know. No you’re speaking a universal language with people who sort of at least share the same creative values in trying to make something beautiful. Totally. I found your opening song on “Play” really interesting because it was almost like you were wiping this emotional slate clean. Mm. Where you said like you cried tears at your brother’s grave, you shook hands with your wife’s surgeon. Now the day bursts wild and open. But then the actual album from that point bursts wild and open with like “Sapphire” and and “Azizam.” Did you feel like you were hitting a reset button and was that for you or was that for the listener? That was for me and I feel like “Sapphire” was the first song on the album originally and I just felt that it was jarring to me that the album just begun and it was like, “Oh my God, everything’s so happy. The last record was like really emotional and deep and about depression and grief and then suddenly this record isn’t. Yeah. I wanted to have a bridge between the two to explain what’s happened in the last two and a half years for me to get to this point, I think. When you go like from “Azizam” into like “Old Phone,” right, it’s kinda like this beautiful rollercoaster that you’re writing, right? “Old Phone” talks a lot about the idea of like nostalgia and then, right, and just like a banger of “Symmetry.” It almost feels like you’re like writing these like big loud… Like they’re bops, right? Like “Symmetry” has that just like heavy Hindi, you know, sample on it. But then “Old Phone” is kinda like delving back into this like kind of dealing with your own emotions. It almost feels like you were trying to find like an excuse to write these big happy songs. There was almost like this sense of like guilt behind it or am I reading way too far into it? I wouldn’t say guilt, but I feel like a necessity to try and enjoy myself again. And like I feel like you can live in grief and depression and just be in it, but at some point it’s good to try and find ways out of it and I feel as “Azizam” was a way out of it, “Sapphire” was a way out of it, “Symmetry” was a way out of it. Yeah, making music like that makes me inherently happy and upbeat and I don’t know. A song like “Old Phone,” I feel needed to be written, but that’s still me dwelling in the past rather than pushing towards the future. You’re going on your Loop tour starting at the end of 2025. Yeah. Kicks off in North America, middle of 2026. Are you bringing your family along for this tour? My girls have been on tour with me since start of “Mathematics.” Yeah, I feel like my life only works when we’re together. It feels like you’ve done almost everything that you can in the music industry. What keeps you still traveling for like an entire year at a time? Is any of it obligation or are you just like, this is what you were meant to do- I don’t think any of it is obligation. I really enjoy my career. I love touring, I love songwriting. Touring has got to a point now because of where my career is at, that it can fit around my family and I can dictate what I do. So if I’m like, I only wanna play Saturdays, that’s what I do. If I wanna play Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I can do that as well. But if that feels like too much then I’ll say, “I just wanna play Saturdays.” And I think being in at a stage in my career where my family life takes precedent and I can do all of that as well, it’s kind of the perfect balance. Yeah, you’ve talked about the feeling of getting off stage. You have, you know, 50, 100,000 people roaring at you and then suddenly you’re almost in this vacuum just completely by yourself, listening to the sound of the air conditioning. How much better does it feel now listening to the sound of your screaming children instead of the air conditioning unit alone? No, it’s nice, you know. It’s nice having them on the road. Finishing a show now, it’s not necessarily screaming children, but it’s climbing into bed with your children, which I think is a really like really wholesome things to be able to do on the road. My life used to not be that wholesome on the road. It used to be finish a show and go out and drink as many of those as you possibly can. Yeah. And for course number two we have Aldeburgh scampi and chips with battered sausages and we have the Sarson’s vinegar, of course. Please dig in, man. This is hot. It’s 10 outta 10 for effort. But I don’t think America can ever like make British fish and chips, you know. Why do you think that is? What do you think the biggest thing separating fish and chip culture from the UK and America’s. The Atlantic Ocean? We have one of those too. But I mean the type of fish that we eat- Yeah. You don’t eat. Oh man, these scampi are like aggressively large. Everything’s bigger in America. Is that the- That’s the sausage. So this is the sausage. There you go. Mm. Oh, now we’re talking. It seems like there’s almost an interesting paradox with being a pop star because you can never be the underdog again. Society raises people up just so they can tear them down just so they can raise ’em up again. Or do you think it’s more complicated than that? I don’t think society raise people up just to raise ’em down. I think society raise people up ’cause they like seeing people who shouldn’t usually do well do well. Yeah. And then I think once they’ve done well, they kinda wanna see the next person do it. Yeah. I think. What stage do you think you’re at in your career regarding that? I think I’ve had my up and my down and I think I’m level. I don’t struggle to sell tickets. People are still at least like interested when I put out records. Even if they don’t like them, they at least check for them. I don’t think I’m in some sort of like bargain bin somewhere. I’m just existing. I get to tour the music that I’ve made, I get to release music that every now and then people are- Yeah. Interested in. You’ve raised a hell of a high bar for just existing though. Yeah, I guess so. I think it’s kind of incredible. Thank you. Even thinking about though the way that journalists, say, write about “Play.” I remember when Azizam came out, I read a review that talked about how Azizam was like, “Oh, just another Ed Sheeran safe pop song.” And I was like, “I don’t know that I’ve ever heard Farsi on the radio, dude.” I feel like a lot of people have their minds made up on me and no matter what I do- Yeah. It won’t change their mind. So I… But I think that’s also like, it’s almost a superpower ’cause I never have to like do anything to appease anyone because they think what they think. So I just get to do what I wanna do, make what I wanna make. Like I had so much fun making “Azizam.” The whole process from making the song to being in the studio and recording with like fantastic instruments that I didn’t even know existed before working with like Persian singers and artists on that tune and then shooting the video and then it coming out. So anyone saying anything reductive after that point, it’s sort of irrelevant ’cause all of the joy that I’ve found from that song is what makes that song worth it. Yeah. And you know, I know it’s not a cookie cutter tune that sounds like everything else because I was in the process of making it. So it doesn’t really matter what someone else thinks in terms of that, you know. Sure. It sort of takes away from the actual joy of it, which was the whole point of it in the first place. Yeah. You’ve talked about how growing up, you know, you kind of were the ultimate underdog to make it in this industry. Talk about having like the NHS specs, the red hair, the port wine- You like proper, proper researched. You’re not just like, “Eat your food and off. I don’t know. Eat your food and off would’ve been a better name for the show. And frankly I think we should have done that. My general theory, right? We’re all in these meat suits that have adult responsibilities but for me, I feel like I’m piloted by a scared 8-year-old, a pissed off 16-year-old and an emotionally numb 24-year-old. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like we’re kind of still these children trapped in these bodies. Do you still feel like there’s that child inside of you that is like, “I am the underdog, I have to grind, I have to scrap?” Yeah, I think that… I think you never lose that. I think that I was very aware getting into the industry that like no one was looking for me. No one was like, “Hey, we need a guy that looks like that and sounds like that.” So I had to really go out and like push it upon people and yeah, so there’s definitely that element and always like, I know that there’s always someone that works harder and wants it more. So you’ve gotta like equally like go after it like that. And there’s always more talented people and the way to hone talent is to work hard. I think my 20s was like proving myself and making sure that I was successful and blah blah blah. But I think now like “Play” for me was… The stuff that was coming outta my childhood was more like curiosity in, you know, my dad’s record collection and get to say like I was into the Beatles and you listen to “Sergeant Pepper” and suddenly you discovering who Ravi Shankar is. And then I think always in my head I was like, I wonder what it would sound like if I made music in India. And then suddenly you’re at a point where you’re touring and you’re in India and you get to do that. So I think it’s part of my childhood’s coming out in creativity in other ways now. And I think songs that I’ve made have sort of broken down invisible barriers in my mind to then lead to make other songs. Like what you were saying like things in your childhood that stick around, I think now there’s that element of curiosity that is coming out. Ed, for course number three of your final meal on earth. We have to start with the elephant in the room. We have the Joseph Phelps Napa Cabernet Sauvignon from 2019. Can I pour you up? Yeah, I’ve never actually had this before. Listen, we have a wine guy at Alameda Spirits and Liquor, it’s actually a really great wine shop in LA. Please. Why a magnum? Because this is a… I would call it almost a burden if you show up with one. Oh, I think that’s the key to a good night. That’s usually… If I’m going somewhere I’ll bring a magnum. It’s like a statement of intent. It sure is, man. It’s like we’re having it. Hey man, we’re having it today. As a great man once said, bosh. And then of course, we have the butter chicken and the naan with a little bit of garlic and butter on it. And then just on the side some papadam with mango chutney, tamarind chutney, mint chutney, and a little bit of chili chutney on the side. Well, the first time I toured India, I was so excited to be in India and have like proper butter chicken from India. I had this lunch and dinner every day for a month. You ate butter chicken every day in India? Every day for a month, yeah. I feel like that’s like eating a quesadilla every day in Mexico. It’s like a delightful food, but- It doesn’t sound like a bad idea though. No, I guess you’re right. Isn’t that right? I agree, man. What’s your favorite Indian dish? Oh, you were saying your friend’s an Indian cook, right? Yeah, there’s is such a specific type of food. Oh my god. Mate, if I was gonna die, everything up to now and then you drink this, get blind drunk. My mate has this… He was like if I was to ever go, He was like if I was terminally ill, he’d get a canoe and a bottle of vodka, take a pill and then have a big speaker on his back and just canoe out into the sea whilst drinking vodka. What’s the speaker playing? He’s going… ♪ Azizam ♪ It’s not the way you’d want to end it, would it? No, I reckon- I’m so sorry. Actually, if we were talking final meals, what would be your final album? There’s an album by Black Label Society called “Mafia” and I don’t know, there’s something about that album that just like speaks to me. Just some like really heavy early 2000s- Nostalgia though, that obviously was like tied to a part of your life that- A huge part of my life where I felt like I came into my own as almost like a pre-adult. Right, I’m like 12, 13 listening to this like heavy angry music and I was like, “This anger is what’s going to fuel me to be something one day.” Interesting. Yeah, I’d probably choose an album from that time as well. What would it be? Probably something like Damien Rice’s “O.” Yeah. Imagine just… I might just go ahead and do that anyway. That sounds fun. I know you often use wine to memorialize events in your life. And you have a collection of empty wine bottles at home signed and dated by you and your wife. Is there one wine bottle that sticks out for you as a core memory? Yeah, I’ve got two bottles. It’s actually… It’s a Napa Cab, Dominus. And both nights before my kids were born, we stayed at my manager’s house and we drank this bottle of Dominus 2015 on the first time, like with my manager and his wife, my wife was obviously heavily pregnant. So, and then there’s a bottle from our honeymoon. There’s like a bottle my friend Michael… Like the last bottle of wine I had with him before he passed away. That’s like what? That’s a magnum statement of intent wine. Yeah. Yeah, different ones. I’ve got one for like every album that came out. So they’re always cool. Was Michael the one that gave you the idea to do that? Yeah. You really do your research, yeah. We wanted to give you a bottle to take home that you could potentially drain to make a memory from tonight. Damn, Penfolds, brother. Let’s go. So this is Penfolds, this is Napa Cab. Penfolds. We’re hoping that when you’re out there on the canoe tonight you can maybe drain that. I don’t know, you and I might be out on the canoe tonight. That is a good night. Thank you, man. It’s such a treat. I know you’ve said that you started working out after your daughters were born. Yeah. And you said something that really resonated with me. Every old rocker is either sober or an alcoholic and I don’t wanna be either. How have you learned to balance that? Because I’ve found out when I drink too much, I get depressed. When I drink too little, I get depressed. And I’ve- Innit? I’ve done like months sober and I’m like, “This sucks.” Yeah, man, it’s balance. I think it’s balance. And I feel like I didn’t have balance in my life pre kids so I was just like… I was on a 100%. Yeah. I never want to be a 100% sober. I don’t see myself as an alcoholic. I just don’t have an off switch if I go on. So it’s more about learning how to have it on like dial number three, you know, I think your wife also said something to you when she was pregnant. Like, “If my water breaks right now, do you really want to be able to not drive me to the hospital because you’re drunk?” Yeah. And that’s… So I got married like eight months ago and like that hit me really hard ’cause the sense of duty that you kind of have to- Yeah. Well yeah, I mean, I’ve got kids, like my kids are top priority now, but like I rarely drink at home. So the pub inside your home is just going completely unused. It isn’t a space where people get like dribbly drunk. I have like four or five friends that live in a two mile radius and we’ll go and watch the football and we’ll have one or two pints or it’ll be like one of our kids’ birthdays and we’ll have a barbecue and have one or two pints. But it’s not like a space that we like lock in. It’s very much… It’s quite a communal place and I built it not so much to have a space to get dribbly drunk, but to have a space where me and my friends can hang out and people aren’t gonna film me. So I can like hang out with my kids and not worry that someone’s gonna be filming them when I’m watching football with my mates or something like that, you know. I think you and I share a favorite book series. “His Dark Materials.” When’s the first time you read it and what did it mean to you at the time? I just think it’s the greatest love story ever told. It’s such a like romantic tragedy. You know, I got a alethiometer tattooed on me. Get the hell outta here. I did not know that. Is it that side or the other side? I don’t see the alethiometer. There you go, the other side. Oh my god, that’s a big ass alethiometer. Yeah. Holy smokes. I also own- We call it in American, the Golden Compass. Yeah. You also call Harry Potter the Sorcerer’s Stone. That is true. wrong. But no, like how old were you when you read that book and was it just the love story that really spoke to you? Like I grew up going to church and stuff like that and I just sort of heavily leaning into like what is religion and blah blah blah. I just found the book fascinating and I thought I loved the world that Lyra lives and she’s got her demon, but then Will lives in a world where he doesn’t, but then- He doesn’t, but he does. But he does, yeah. And then there’s the world of the dead and then actually you have a death as well. And then there’s three… I just love the whole concept around it. I probably read that book when I was like 10 and then continually read it. BBC Radio 4 did a radio dramatization of it. I used to have a cassette I used to fall asleep to- Yeah. Every night. Yeah. I’ve collected all, but one golden compass from the movie as well. No way. Yeah, the props- Oh my god- Got them all in a case at home. They steadily got more expensive though ’cause I think people realized it was me buying them. So they started off quite reasonable and then by the end it was not so reasonable. This guy is a sucker with deep pockets. Yeah, exactly. I can only assume that you named your daughter after Lyra. A 100%. Silvertongue nee Balaqua. Yeah. If you have a son, will you name him Iorek Byrnison? Do you know what? Come on. Come on, Ed. Do you know what? That has been discussed, but we thought because our kid’s called Lyra, you can’t- You can’t just have- I think Iorek as a name is really cool. I agree. Iorek’s really, really cool. I have a question for you. How did you know how to pronounce Iorek? Because I only found out by listening to the BBC 4 dramatization. I always thought it was like Iorek. And then I heard it and I was like, “Oh shit.” I don’t know what it was, I think- Same as Hermione. I always called her Hermione. Yeah, yeah. No most people did. Yeah, yeah. So the Radio 4 dramatization in between the actors, the person that reads the book is Philip Pullman. So when he says it, you’re like- This guy probably knows. This guy probably knows, yeah. Ed, for the final course of your final meal before you go out into that sweet canoe- And shit myself. And shit yourself. We have the profiteroles and then we have the Lindt Lindor truffles, the red kind. So Blake, who I made my album with, when we finished my album, he bought me 10,000 of these in an oil drum. And I had that oil drum in my studio. Bear in mind we finished the album last October and they were in an oil drum in my studio and we have people pass through the studio. They are now gone. We’ve had 10,000 of these eaten in a year. Oh wait, it’s all gone now? All eaten. We actually ordered more for the oil drum. If there’s ever a Lindor truffle shortage, you know they’ve gone to Ed Sheeran’s oil drum inside the studio. I really like… And I’m glad you got these in America because I was getting worried that America didn’t know what good chocolate was. Have you eaten Hershey’s? I will take no Hershey slander as somebody whose family is from the proud state of Pennsylvania. Oh, mate, I’m not- Does it taste a little bit like plastic? Sure, that’s how we like it in America. So these actually look like quite fancy profiteroles. My profiterole experience as a kid, Do you know what Tesco’s is? Yeah, Tesco’s is like the big box grocery store. So they used to do like a pyramid of them in like a plastic thing. But you used to take the top off and then it is quite easy. But like that I remember as a kid. Oh yeah, there you go. Come on. Come on, I know you’re a Lego guy. There we go. Now they’re the Tesco- Do you know what? Let’s take that one off and let’s leave that like that. Okay, smart. There it is. Yeah. Now I need to eat one. Oh my gosh. God help us all. Mm. Mm, it’s really good. I will say my taste in food, it’s either like really, really… Like that curry, like high-end well cooked or like real shit. Yeah. And I think profiteroles for me can’t be too fancy. Same as like the sausage. There are some fish and chip shops in England that put like really well-made sausages in batter. Yeah. Just doesn’t slap. To me, it’s like an artisanal nacho cheese. It doesn’t exist. The point of it is that it is sort of like chemically and plasticky and flowing. Artisanal Hershey’s chocolate, no. Yeah, I feel like I rag on Hershey’s too much. I do like what American chocolate? Do Oreos count as chocolate? Yep. Quite like Oreos. Reese’s Pieces. Those are I believe made by the Hershey’s Corporation. Okay. Yeah. Look at you loving American culture. No it’s more… Do you know what? I remember coming over here for the first time and Hershey’s Kisses were like… You just know about them from watching movies as a kid. Like there were so many things when I came over to America for the first time where I was like, “Oh my god, I’ve got to try this and this and this.” And I remember trying a Hershey’s Kiss and being just quite disappointed. What was your biggest disappointment in American culture? Taco Bell? Can we wrap this up, guys? I have a hard out- Taco Bell. I got taken to Taco Bell in Nashville and we got to the… It’s probably changed now ’cause of inflation and whatever. But we got to the thing and the girl I was with was like, “What do you want?” I was like, “I don’t know.” And she was like, “Let’s just get the menu.” So we ordered the entire menu and it was like $14 or something. Yeah. For the entire… That was the golden age of Taco Bell, dude. Oh my God, yeah. And it was all right. It was all right. And I dunno what I was expecting, but like McDonald’s in the UK slaps so hard. And KFC in the UK slap so hard. I just expected Taco Bell to… There are some great ones here though. Whataburger in Texas. You been there? That’s a good one. Raisin Cane’s. Raisin Cane’s, we do like. What’s the one where they don’t open on a Sunday? Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A. I wanna go back to the thing you said about alternate universes. In the beginning you were talking about- Just Chick-fil-A, alternate… Let’s go. What? I think there’s a Chick-fil-A in alternate universes. No, there definitely is. Sorry, I got that… I got that ADHD thing where I’m kind of like having a conversation with somebody out loud. But then in my mind there’s a weird circular track. So I was thinking about alternate universes and you said the beginning, you don’t necessarily think that when you die, you just go into nothingness. Because you’ve had friends that passed. You say something in… Can’t remember if it’s “Opening” or “Old Phone.” So correct me, but you’re staring up at the dots in the sky wondering if your best friend, I assume, is in reference to Jamal Edwards would be proud of you or think that he lost his way. You still think about the people in your life very actively, like they are sort of living characters. Yeah. But I suppose they really are living characters, like that if you’re thinking those things actively about them, I think I would struggle more with their death if I didn’t believe that they were still here. Yeah. Ever since he’s passed away, foxes come up to me and he was always associated with a fox. Foxes will come up to me in the weirdest place. I was on a beach, middle of nowhere, middle of a beach having a coffee and a fox just comes up on the beach and sits next to me. Like that for me gives me chills. I think if you’ve had someone in your life that’s passed away that you were close to and stuff like that happens, that feels nice and special and you feel connected and I think to like say that, “Oh nah, that’s not real. It’s just nothing.” That’s like… I just think that’s unfair. I think people should be allowed to believe what they believe. I think people are quite cruel when it comes to death. They use it as like an opportunity to push their beliefs on religion or not religion or whatever. And I think everyone should be able to believe and feel whatever they want to about where their loved ones go. And that should never be questioned. People should just be allowed to feel what they feel. Yeah, do you feel like people have done that in your life, tried to like push those sort of beliefs on you regarding death? Oh yeah. I mean, I went to a Church of England school, so yeah, definitely. Like I grew up with Christianity, yeah. A 100%. I have my beliefs in different things. But I think my faith in general is just in… I don’t know, I don’t want to believe that there’s a nothingness. Yeah, there’s something you said and I believe it was in the “Sum of It All,” where you talked about how grief is the end of youth. Yeah. And that was something that I initially kind of heard and thought it was really tragic ’cause I’ve also dealt with that and I feel that very deeply. But then I was thinking about my own experience and I was like, “I’m a little bit grateful for the end of that youth.” Because I sort of came out the other side with a sense of more duty and purpose. Do you feel like you came out the other side? Because I know you had multiple friends die in the same month. I believe it was what? February, 2022. 2022, yeah. It was just like the month from hell. And your wife gets diagnosed with cancer while pregnant. How did that grief really change you as a person? Are those lasting effects still there today? As you said you are glad you went through it. I think in some ways there’s part of me that it’s like it’s inevitable that you go through that. Yeah. I’m really happy that I never went through it before I was 31. I think that that’s the one takeaway that I can find is some of my friends lost their parents when they were like 14. But yeah, it’s a funny thing ’cause it is… As you said at the beginning of this, the two things that certain in life is we need to eat and we’re all gonna die. And it’s true. And like the older I get and the people around me, from my parents to my uncles and my aunts and, you know, I’ve got one grandfather left. Like every… You just know that eventually all the people you love are not gonna be here. And the more that you live in life and the more people you lose, I think it doesn’t necessarily get easier, but you know how to handle it better than you did the first time, I think. How does songwriting fit into that? Because I know when Cherry got the cancer diagnosis, she said you went into the basement and wrote seven songs in four hours. Yeah. She almost said it in the way that it was like an alcoholic went to take a drink. It was like Ed went to write songs. Songwriting is extremities. The most in love you feel, you write perfect. The angriest you feel, you write a little more or don’t. It’s extremities of the most, the most, the most. And I think that when you are feeling at your lowest and your saddest, like the only thing that I can do is create and get that out. And then you can take a sort of holistic view, stand back and go, “Okay, this song’s important and I’m gonna basically put myself out on the line and put that out. And whatever comes from that comes from that.” There’s sort of justification of your feelings ’cause then the songs come out and then you start playing them live and you see how they connect with other people and suddenly your feelings that were quite isolating and you think that you are the only one to feel, suddenly you realize that millions of people feel the same… Exactly the same thing as you. Tell me about the album “Eject.” Yeah, everyone seems fascinated in me like basically having a will. Having a will. But that has been described as the 10 most perfect songs that you have ever written over the course of your life in an album called “Eject” as you are ejecting from the world. Yeah. I think that’s interesting. Yeah, I guess so. No, it’s kind of… Mate, how many times do you see an album come out of an artist that passed away and you go, “Do you think they wanted that album out?” And all I’m saying is, yes, I do and this is how I’d like it. I would like my wife to pick the songs from songs from my whole career that haven’t come out. Compile the perfect record in her eyes and then that comes out and that’s called “Eject.” And all I’m saying is that’s incredibly interesting- Oh yeah, well, yeah, I spoke about where I wanted to be buried and everyone found it like fascinating that I’d thought about where I wanted to get buried and I’m like- Sure. I don’t know. I’ve had friends pass away without wills and it’s chaotic, man. And then that falls on your loved ones to actually deal with, yeah. I think it’s good to plan. I also have in my will Johnny McDade who I make all my music with. A massive, huge diamanté dildo gets delivered to him on the day that I die because if he’s sad then suddenly he’s just like, ah, sake. How huge? We’re talking like six foot. Six foot? That’s too big, I don’t wanna body sham anyone, that’s too big. I want it to be big enough that like, it just reminds him every day just who I was. I got Sam Smith a six foot two ton as well. And Ed, you ready to move on to the lightning round? Yeah. Ed, who’s the one person dead or alive you’d wanna share your actual last meal with? My wife and kids. What song do you want to be played at your funeral? “Parting Glass,” yeah. It’s a… Some people say it’s an Irish folk song. Some people say it’s a Scottish folk song. Who knows? Have you ever tried to purchase the original Jamaican bobsled from “Cool Runnings?” No, but me, would I wanna buy that. I would buy that and make that into a bed. Man, some people, you know they can’t believe. Jamaica, we have our bobsled too. Goddamn, right. Kiss my egg. Who’s your dream eulogizer at your funeral? Oh, that I… Do you know what? Sounds stupid, I thought my dad, but then obviously by the time I’m dead, he won’t be there. But my dad is the best eulogizer. Johnny McDade, the guy that’s getting the massive- The massive . Yeah, he’s just… He’s got beautiful, beautiful way with words. And you’d want him to do it standing next to the massive . I might put that in my will. I want you to eulogize my funeral- I can’t give you anymore ideas for the will, man. Because this is gonna be like a legal doctrine after tonight. I’m gonna do that. I’m gonna do that. You have to wheel it in. What’s your biggest fear? Not seeing my kids grow old. I think I want to… I wanna live for a long time. Yeah, yeah. Hard pivot. How can we be sure it wasn’t you who peed in the hot tub with Benny Blanco and Ryan Tedder? ‘Cause it was my hot tub. Well, there’s an addendum here because we know you once wandered out naked in the hallway of a hotel with the intention to pee. So we know you do have a history of- Needing to pee. Yeah. No, I don’t know, I’m just saying, you know, there’s a chance that, you know, it could have been… Well… Benny went to bed at this point. Me and Tedder are sat in the hot tub drinking whiskey. Yeah. And I got out to pee and I just remember he never did. So I think it was Tedder. Benny Blanco, vindicated. It broke the hot tub. So like- Wait, pee can break a hot tub? Pee can break a hot tub, apparently, yeah. Do you piss in hot tubs? Not anymore. Finally, Ed, are you happy? Yeah, I am actually really happy. You know, when old people look back and go, “Oh, those were the good old days.” Like I’m in in that right now. Like my life at the moment and my children are young and my relationship, my wife’s great and we are living in a vibrant city and we’re living in the good old days. Well, I’m super happy that you took the time to eat with me today. Yeah, it was great. Like really great day. Got quite deep there for a bit. Ed, if you wanna deliver your last words to that camera right there? Thank you very much for having me for my last meal. It was really wonderful. Really great conversation. I would hope that for my last meal it would be a conversation like this. Call me when you’re on your death bed, I’ll stop by. Yeah, yeah. I do think if it was the day that I die, I’d wanna spend it with my wife though. No offense, like- That’s a fair point, I can share. You know, I don’t know. I’m not gonna be weird about it, but she can come. The real question is, do you want a diamanté ? Because I will- Totally I want a diamanté . Of course, I want a diamanté . Can I take your address and send you one? That would actually be really nice. I’d appreciate that. Thank you so much. I’m not joking. So everyone, check out “Play.” It’s out now. Loop tour coming to North America in mid 2026. Yeah. I’m bringing my giant diamanté to the concert. Defo, and then on your last meal and your funeral day, someone can wheel it out. Good Mythical Evening is blasting off on October 23rd at 10:00 P.m. Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Pacific. So get your tickets now at goodmythicalevening.com.