Ed Sheeran Performs ‘Life Goes On’ With Luke Combs At 2023 ACM Awards

“Well, he’d hit me up, and was like, ‘Hey,’ you know it’s like, ‘Let’s hang out or whatever,’ and that’s where he told me he was,” said Combs in April 2022. “And I was like, ‘OK.’ So I’m on the way, and it’s like me and my wife and stuff, and I was like, ‘Hey man, just checking, we’re going here.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, yeah dude, we’re here, come on.’ So I get in there, and it’s like all of a sudden, dude, the people start coming up, coming up, coming up, and he’s like, ‘Dude, I’m really sorry, man. No one ever bothers me here, you know?’”

Earlier this week, Sheeran opened up to Billboard about his surprising love for country music and revealed that he’s even considered dipping his toe into the genre.

“I talk about this to my wife [Cherry Seaborn] all the time. I would love to transition into country,” said the “Thinking Out Loud” musician. “I love the culture of it, I just love the songwriting. It’s just like, brilliant songs.”

Elsewhere during the interview, he praised his duet partner: “Luke Combs could probably play a stadium in England. I think if he put on Wembley [Stadium] next summer, he could sell it.”

In a backstage chat with the Academy of Country Music Awards during rehearsals, Sheeran said “Life Goes On” was written about “dealing with loss.”

He went on to say that he’s “a massive fan” of country, and that he and Seaborn play it in their home “all day long.”

“I’ve lived in Nashville all of 2013 and all of 2018,” Sheeran said. “It really left a lasting mark on me. I love country music, and I feel accepted here. It’s great.”

The star also revealed his connections to Brooks and his co-host Dolly Parton, explaining that he and his dad John got to meet the “Jolene” singer-songwriter at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in November, which he called “a really cool moment.”

Sheeran explained that Brooks’ country classics are often covered by other artists in England, so he’d “sort of inadvertently grown up listening to it.”