From Facial Scars to Mariah Carey's New Year's Eve Mishap: 5 Things You Missed from Ed Sheeran's Radio Rounds

Ed Sheeran's upcoming album ÷ is available for preorder now and will be released on March 3

Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty

Ed Sheeran must have been thinking out loud on Thursday morning.

The singer, 25, spent his early hours hopping around various New York radio stations to promote his upcoming album, ÷, which is available now for preorder in anticipation of its March 3 release date. But he also took time to give his thoughts on some other buzzy topics.

Here are five highlights from his recent radio rounds.

1. He stuck up for Mariah Carey after her New Year’s Eve mishap.

Accidents happen — and that’s exactly why Sheeran feels for Mariah Carey after her botched New Year’s Eve performance in New York City’s Times Square.

“I feel like that could happen to anyone,” he told Cubby and Carolina from KTU 103.5. “That’s happened to me before, when the in-ears just didn’t work.”

He continues, “She’s in the middle of Times Square with no monitors. It’s really difficult. You can’t sing in time for that. I know people are watching that and poking fun at her, but that’s a really, really horrible situation to be in. You’re just there, powerless.”

2. He revealed the pros and cons of his warrior wound, reportedly from Princess Beatrice.

Last November, the singer suffered a laceration to the face after being struck with a sword, reportedly by Princess Beatrice, who was pretending to knight James Blunt. Now the facial scar on his right cheekbone has become a part of his look.

“I quite like the scar! I think it adds!” Sheeran joked with iHeartRadio host Elvis Duran. “I started going under the radar when I first got big, then I got loads of tattoos and then everyone was like, ‘Okay, you’re definitely you because you have red hair and tattoos,’ so I started wearing hoodies and hats. Now I’ve got this face scar, there’s no not recognizing me because it’s like, ‘You’ve got ginger hair, tattoos, and a face scar, it’s definitely you!'”

3. He offered the very reasonable explanation for his electronic cleanse.

Sheeran is all about talking to the face, not the hand — that’s why he decided to ditch most of the technology in his life and focus strictly on the present.

“I got rid of my phone! I don’t have a phone. I just bought an iPad so I have all my socials on the iPad, but no one can ring or text me,” he told Duran. “I emailed you [Elvis], and that’s about it, that’s all I can do is email people, which means that people can’t get in touch with me, which means that I don’t have an influx of knowing what’s going on.”

He admits that cutting the digital cord helped relieve a certain amount of anxiety. “I just go about my day and every now and then read the paper and go, ‘Oh wow, wish I didn’t read the paper,’ and then put it down again!'”

Sheeran tossed social media out the door at one point, too, after realizing his peers were more invested in what was going on inside their screens than in real-time before their eyes.

“I was at a house party on Saturday around my friend’s house and someone was saying, ‘Why did you unplug?’,” he says. “I was there having fun with my best mates and I just said to him, ‘Look around the room now.’ Five of my best mates were there at this party — we’re all catching up, and they’re all on their phones,” he said. “I was like, ‘That’s exactly why.’ So my reason of unplugging was I was an unsociable guy who would always be glued to my screen, and I needed to change that.”

4. He reflected on his year spent traveling the world.

Sheeran may travel the globe while on tour, but that doesn’t mean he gets to see what every country has to offer. Now, with some free time on his hands, he was able to take his time and explore.

“I did six months of traveling, and I went to every country that I toured and wanted to see and had not seen,” he told Duran. “I did like a month and a half in Japan, I went to Ghana in Africa, which was really beautiful. I went to Iceland, which I would recommend to everyone! It’s incredible. I rented a convertible mini and drove up the coast of Australia, which was quite cool, blasting tunes. New Zealand, Tasmania, I just went around!”

5. He revealed priceless romantic advice from his grandma.

You know what they say: mother knows best, but grandma knows everything! Sheeran says that advice from his grandmother directly inspired one of his tunes.

“I wrote a song that the lyrics were, ‘Be easy in the eyes and smile, cause bodies age and fade with time,’ which is true. If you go for someone with a smoking hot body now, eventually that’s going to sag but their eyes and smile are always going to be their eyes and smile! So if you fall in love with their eyes and smile, you’re going to be in love for life!”