Ed Sheeran: 'My manager Stuart said he'd retire if I ever made a Christmas album'

Ed Sheeran joins Zane Lowe on New Music Daily on Apple Music 1 to discuss his new holiday collaboration with Elton John "Merry Christmas”. He tells Zane about when Elton first reached out to him to propose doing a Christmas song, why he never thought he would make one at this stage in his career, 'almost killing' Elton when filming the music video, and more.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music About The Origin of “Merry Christmas”…
When Elton rang me and said, "Let's do a Christmas song." I was like, "There's no point doing a Christmas song, because there are so many great ones out there. If we're going to do it, we have to chuck the kitchen sink at it and it has to tick every single box. It has to be sleigh bells… It has to be ding-dong church bells, it has to be mistletoe, dancing and wine.” I've never actually thought of making a Christmas song. It's always been the type of thing that I thought I'd do when I was 60. It was, basically, my manager Stuart said he'd retire if I ever made a Christmas album… but to be honest, if it wasn't with Elton, I wouldn't be doing it. I've always wanted to work with him and this made the most sense…

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music About Shooting The Music Video For “Merry Christmas” and Almost Killing Elton John...
We just shot a Christmas music video. Oh, mate. I almost killed him with a bell… On the video. There's footage of, I'm dressed up as sort of sexy Santa Claus and I kick a present, but the present had a big metal bell on top of it. I showed him the footage of it today, because we slowed it down and the bell flew past his head and would've cracked him in the head. I'll post it. David, Elton's partner said that you should post that. So, I will post it eventually, but it was one of these things, I had the video, I was like, "I got to show him this.” But, man, the music video is wild. We've parodied all the great British music videos that came at Christmas.

Ed Sheeran Tells Apple Music About The Song’s Title…
Zane, I feel like there's a glitch in the matrix, because, and I swear, that is the only song called "Merry Christmas". Look it up. Look it up. Look it up now. There's Happy Xmas, Merry Xmas, Xmas is Here. Just look it up.

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