Talk about a surprise performance. Ed Sheeran ahd already been announced as a performer for the 2023 ACM Awards, but no one expected Luke Combs to join him on stage. The two singers collaborated on “Life Goes On,” from Sheeran’s latest Subtract album, out now.
After his performance, Garth Brooks, who hosted the live ceremony alongside Dolly Parton, asked Sheeran how the collaboration came to be.
“We met like 2018, I’d heard Luke’s music through a friend… and we’ve just been friends for years now,” Sheeran said. “It’s been great.”
Backstage, Sheeran revealed that he is a fan of country music, and has even resided in Music City at times.
“I’ve lived in Nashville all of 2013 and all of 2018,” Sheeran said (via People). “It really left a lasting mark on me. I love country music, and I feel accepted here. It’s great.”
Sheeran likes country music so much, he is considering putting out his own country album someday.
“I talk about this to my wife all the time. I would love to transition into country,” Sheeran told Billboard. “I love the culture of it, I just love the songwriting. It’s just like brilliant songs.”
The 32-year-old would also consider another move to Nashville, especially so he could collaborate with other songwriters.
“It’s like a community,” Sheeran says. “There’s not really a place in Europe where you could point and say, ‘That’s the home of songwriting. 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.”
The collaboration came a week after Sheeran won in a copyright trial over his “Thinking Out Loud” track, which he was accused of copying Marvin Gaye’s 1973 hit, “Let’s Get It On.”
“I am obviously very happy with the outcome of the case, and it looks like I’m not going to have to retire from my day job after all — but, at the same time, I am unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all,” Sheeran said in a statement. “We have spent the last eight years talking about two songs with dramatically different lyrics, melodies and four chords which are also different and used by songwriters every day, all over the world.
“These chords are common building blocks which were used to create music long before ‘Let’s Get It On’ was written and will be used to make music long after we are all gone,” he continued. “They are a songwriter’s ‘alphabet’, our tool kit and should be there for us all to use. No-one owns them, or the way they are played, in the same way, nobody owns the color blue.”