Ed Sheeran Reveals ‘Naughty’ Gift He Sent Elton John: ‘That Might Be A Step Too Far’

Ed Sheeran rolled the dice on a risque present for Elton John.

Sheeran recently appeared on SiriusXM’s “The Morning Mash Up” and dished on the “naughty” birthday present he sent to the music legend. The “Shape of You” singer sent John a “giant marble penis with the C-word” engraved on it: “It said, ‘happy birthday, you C-word.'”

“I was so excited about it. The guy that engraved it was like, ‘You sure, you sure? You sure?’ And, uh, so I sent it off and then as soon as I sent it off, I was like, ‘that might be a step too far. He’s got, he’s got an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old,” Sheeran said. “I didn’t hear anything for a bit. Cause obviously it was his birthday. I think David was holding it back to give him on his birthday.

“I just got this call, ‘I love that.’ I get like people that I bump into that I know, know him, they were like, ‘We saw your birthday present’ and he’s so proud about it. He’s so proud about it.’ But he used to send me videos. Uh, and uh, it was, I mean, he still does.”

Sheeran also touched on the impending release of his fourth studio album, Equals (stylized as =), due out Oct. 29.

“Kanye and Drake spend years making these records and they come out and people go ‘What’s next?’ And it’s like, ‘I just spent the three years making this, digest it.’ Digest a little bit. And also man, the reviews that come out at like half past midnight at night, it’s like what? You’ve listened to it once,” he shared. “Everything’s upstreaming, everyone’s a music critic.

“Therefore like the public can decide, why are you going to listen to this dude, go and listen to it. Decide for yourself when these albums come out, like it’s good not to listen to people’s opinions before you’ve listened to it. You haven’t, you got to decide whether you like this stuff yourself. Otherwise you just turn into a sheep.”

Sheeran has been an established marquee artist for years, and he takes a moment to spotlight the next wave of singer-songwriters.

“I just contacted him and said, ‘Can I take you out for pizza tomorrow? And we’ll, we’ll have like a proper chat’ and he’s Australian,” Sheeran says of The Kid LAROI. “And that is pretty much English in my book. We had a great, we had a great chat… I don’t want to sound condescending and say, he reminds me of myself because… But I see a lot of the things from the start of my career there.

“We wrote a song, uh, together kind of over the internet for someone else. He’s a very talented writer as well. He writes songs for people and, uh, yeah, he’s just a supreme. His melodies are mental, lyrics are crazy and, and a very sweet guy,” he continued. “When there’s Olivia Rodrigo who is 17 or 18 and is also the biggest artist, but it’s nice to have young songwriters killing it.”