Backlash over his “Game of Thrones” cameo isn’t the worst thing that has happened to Ed Sheeran over the past year.
Aside from a recent cycling accident that has left him with a broken arm, the British singer told U.K. talk show host Jonathan Ross that he has battled substance abuse.
“All the pitfalls that people read about, I just found myself slipping into all of them,” Sheeran, 26, said. “Mostly like, substance abuse.
“I didn’t really notice it was happening. It just started gradually happening, and then some people took me to one side and were like, ‘Calm yourself down’ … It’s all fun to begin with, it all starts off as a party and then you’re doing it on your own and it’s not, so that was a wake-up call and taking a year off,” he continued.
Rather than getting dragged in too deep, the “Shape of You” singer said he took action to deal with the temptation.
“I never touched anything,” Sheeran said. “I started slipping into it and that’s why I took a year off and buggered off.”
Instead, he turned to his music, “I focused on work and I can’t work under the influence,” he said. “I can’t write songs under the influence, I can’t perform under the influence so the more I worked the less [that happened].
“I’ve rekindled with a girl I went to high school with and we live together now and I think that was a real help grounding me,” he added, referring to current girlfriend and former high school crush Cherry Seaborn.
Having canceled the Asia leg of his world tour due to his broken arms, Sheeran will join BFF Taylor Swift, The Chainsmokers, Sam Smith, Demi Lovato, Logic, Kesha, Niall Horan, Halsey, Charlie Puth and Liam Payne at the iHeart Radio Jingle Ball in Los Angeles at L.A. Forum on Dec.1.