Jamie Foxx Is to Blame for Ed Sheeran’s Success… Sort Of (Video)

Foxx said the budding musician stayed on his couch for six weeks when he first arrived in LA

He’s now a Grammy award-winning artist, but Ed Sheeran started out like any other struggling artist in Los Angeles: sleeping on a friend’s couch. But for Sheeran, that couch belonged to Jamie Foxx.

In an appearance on “The Graham Norton Show,” Foxx — who was promoting “Baby Driver” — said he helped give the musician his start when he came to the city with no place to stay and no money in his pockets.

According to Foxx, he met Sheeran at his satellite radio show in Los Angeles. He invited the budding musician to his home and heard his music, which he described as “incredible.”

Sheeran then stayed on Foxx’s couch for six weeks, which he said is no big deal.

“I would always champion the artist,” Foxx explained.

Besides giving Sheeran a place to stay, Foxx also provided him with one of his first big gigs.

Foxx said he told Sheeran, “I think you’ve got the goods, but I need to check you out.” He continued, “So I took him down to this show that I was doing every Monday in LA. It was like 800 black people. All black. Just like the best musicians.”

The initial reaction wasn’t very strong.

“All of a sudden, I’m like ‘Here’s Ed Sheeran,’ and he pops out with his little red hair and ukulele. One of my homies — who’s this incredible guitarist but he’s true to the music — is saying to me ‘Foxx, come on man, what’s this man? What are you doing to the room? You’ve gotta respect the room.’

“And it was just like a movie, I said, ‘Well let’s see what the kid has.’”

According to Foxx, Sheeran got a standing ovation, and the rest is redhead history.

Watch the full clip above, which also includes a story from Dame Judi Dench about being famous.

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