Watch Ed Sheeran Cover “Layla” On The Howard Stern Show

In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, global pop singer Ed Sheeran shared a special memory from his musical journey. As the US comedian and presenter Howard Stern, delved into the topic of influential musicians, Sheeran reflect on a memorable encounter with one of his musical idols—Eric Clapton, that then led to forming their friendship.

Sheeran was surprised upon hearing “Layla” for the first time, “Wow, what is that?” He further mentioned that his father explained the music. Sheeran then bought the Derek and the Dominos album, which are Clapton’s greatest hits, and purchased Eric Clapton Unplugged, dedicating himself to learning and mastering all the songs from these albums.

Years later, he purchased a copy of the guitar that Clapton played during his Unplugged concert. Sheeran even performed with it on a British music show called Later… with Jools Holland. He also shared that he remembers receiving an email when he woke up on New Year’s Day, which was the day after this episode aired on TV. He said:

“The title was just ‘E,’ and it just said, ‘Nice guitar,’ I was like, “I think that’s Eric Clapton?’ and yeah, we just got friends from there.”

When asked how he began playing the guitar, he explained to Stern:

“It was the first and only thing I could play on the guitar for a long time.” Making Stern curious if he can still play Layla. Sheeran then proceeded to perform a short song cover after saying, “I’m not like the world’s best guitar player.”

Watch the full video of Ed Sheeran’s “Layla” Cover below.