Live Lounge: Ed Sheeran 'petrified playing with band'

Ed Sheeran says he prefers to play on stage alone with his guitar rather than with a full band.

Speaking ahead of his Radio 1 Live Lounge performance he said: "It's always been me and the guitar.

"I'm more petrified of using a band on stage, the full band is only for radio and TV."

He told Annie Mac the reason he decided to go with a full band for the Live Lounge appearance was because it's "a pretty big deal for me".

The 23-year-old, who said he "always" had a guitar strapped to his back, sang his own track Sing before covering Stay With Me by Sam Smith.

The singer has just finished working on his second album X which is out on 23 June.

But while producing the record he says he had to make some tough decisions, like living in the US for a year.

"It was a decision to either break the first album there or come back and make the second album," he said.

"But in fact it meant I had more time to make the second album, so it worked well and I got some great opportunities there, like getting to work with Rick Rubin (one of the founders of Def Jam Records) and Pharrell."

Sheeran lived between Hendersonville, Tennessee, and Los Angeles in 2013 and said his latest album encapsulates the last three years of his life through his songs.

"Some [songs] are very positive, some are very negative, some of them are about different things. I also had the opportunity to work with some really interesting people, like writing a song to perform with Rudimental."

Speaking about working with Pharrell he recalled: "The first proper session I had with him in the studio, he was at number one with Get Lucky and I said, 'Have you got somewhere more important to be?'

"But he's very good at knocking compliments back and is just such a humble guy."

Sheeran also looked ahead to his performance at this year's Glastonbury, where he's playing on the Sunday afternoon on the Pyramid stage.

"I'm a bit shocked to be honest to get such a good slot," he said. "I'm playing after Dolly Parton."

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