Ed Sheeran’s Speech About Being A “Weird Child” Is The Cutest Thing You’ll Read Today

11 June 2015, 11:19

Ed reveals that it was actually Eminem that helped him to get rid of his stutter in his endearing speech for Freeing Voices Changing Lives.

One of our favourite things about Ed Sheeran is that despite being one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, he’s still ridiculously down to earth and happy to send himself up to help others.

WATCH: Ed Sheeran's stripped back cover of Fetty Wap's 'Trap Queen' is a must-see

Ed was honoured by the Stuttering’s Freeing Voices Changing Lives Benefit Gala this week for being open about overcoming his stutter. Ed said in his speech, “"I was a very, very weird child. I had a port-wine stain birthmark on my face that I got lasered off when I was very young; one day, they forgot to put the anesthetic on, and ever since then, I had a stutter.

“I also had very big, blue NHS glasses - NHS is the National Health Service, one day I hope you'll have the same! And I lacked an eardrum on one side of my ear, so stuttering was actually the least of my problems!"

"But it was still quite a difficult thing. The thing I found most difficult was knowing what to say but not really being able to express it the right way.”

And Ed revealed that learning to rap was the thing that helped Ed beat his stutter – it’s all thanks to Eminem, in fact! “My Uncle Jim told my dad that Eminem was the next Bob Dylan - it's pretty similar, it's all just storytelling - so my dad bought me ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ when I was nine years old, not knowing what was on it.

“I learned every word of it, back to front, by the time I was ten. He raps very fast and melodically and percussively, and it helped me get rid of the stutter."

"Stuttering is not a thing you have to be worried about at all. Even if you have quirks and weirdness, you shouldn't be worried about that. The people I went to school with that were the most normal and were the coolest when we grew up - one of the cool kids from school now does my plumbing! That's a fact!

"I wanted to not necessarily to shed light on stuttering or make it a thing, but stress to kids in general to just be yourself, because there's no one in the world that can be a better you than you. If you try to be the cool kid in class, you'll end up very boring and doing plumbing for someone who apparently wasn't that cool.

“Be yourself. Embrace your quirks. Being weird is a wonderful thing.… I have a f***ing football team now, that's pretty cool! Embrace your weirdness and carry on pushing forward." 

Yep, that’s probably our favourite motivational speech ever, we love ya Ed!

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