Jamie Foxx revealed in a recent interview on “The Graham Norton Show” that he helped launch the career of Ed Sheeran by letting the English singer-songwriter crash on his couch “for six weeks before he was famous.”
Foxx was hosting a radio show in Los Angeles at the time, and Sheeran came to the station to try and show Foxx his music. Foxx said he liked Sheeran’s music enough to let the up-and-coming musician stay at his home for a while.
Soon after, Sheeran received a foreshadowing sign of his future success when Foxx took him to an open mic event that he was hosting.
“It was like 800 black people, all black, just the best musicians,” Foxx said of the show. He explained that his musician friends were initially incredulous that Sheeran would do well in such an environment.
“So all of a sudden I say, ‘Ladies and gentleman, Ed Sheeran!’ He pops out, with red hair and a ukulele,” Foxx continued. “It was just like a movie. I said, ‘Well, let’s see what the kid has.’ And he went out there on that ukulele – got a standing ovation in 12 minutes. And the rest was history.”
Sheeran has gone on to have all of his first three albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard album charts, and each of his three albums have been certified platinum.
Watch Foxx tell the story in the segment below: