Celebrity Spotlight: Ed Sheeran

Now a seasoned singer/songwriter, Ed Sheeran first burst onto the music scene with his hit single, The A Team, in 2011. Sheeran hit No. 1 on the iTunes chart before even signing with a record label. Since then, songs like Give Me Love and Thinking Out Loud have kept Sheeran at the top of the charts. He is also widely recognized for collaborating with big artists such as One Direction and Taylor Swift. But before reaching A-level status, winning Best British Male Solo Artist and becoming one of today’s most popular artists, Sheeran dealt with stuttering as a child growing up in England.

In a June 2015 honorary speech, Sheeran shared what he felt was the hardest part about dealing with a stutter: “The thing that I found most difficult about it was knowing what to say but not really being able to express it in the right way.” For years, Sheeran tried a variety of speech therapies to help with his stuttering, but it was memorizing music that he said helped him effectively remedy his stutter. “I got heavily into music at a young age, and got very, very into rap music,” Sheeran said. “Eminem was the first album that my dad bought me. He bought me the Marshall Mathers LP when I was nine years old, not knowing what was on it. And he let me listen to it, and I learned every word of it back to front by the age I was 10.”

Sheeran elaborated on listening to Eminem’s music on repeat, saying, “he raps very fast and very melodically, and very percussively, and it helped me get rid of the stutter.” The singer told the audience to embrace their inner weirdness: “Just be yourself. Embrace your quirks.” Sheeran then shared his advice for coping with stuttering with the audience: “Work through it and get the treatment that you want to get, but … don’t see it as a plight on your life, and carry on pushing forward.”

In an interview with ABC News, Sheeran spoke on how kids can often worry about fitting in, but that, “the moment you stop trying to fit in is when stuff fits around you.”

Sheeran certainly hasn’t let his stuttering limit him in his career; tickets to his stadium concerts sold out in less than three minutes. The secret to his success? “Don’t be scared to be honest with yourself and with the people that love you.” Ed Sheeran’s acceptance of his stutter and his will to persevere in spite of it is a true inspiration to the stuttering community.

Photo credits: Eva Rinaldi and Harald Krichel via Creative Commons and WikiMedia Commons

From the Winter 2023 Magazine

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.

Carly Simon

Carly Simon began stuttering severely when she was eight years old.

Kenyon Martin

Kenyon Martin, the basketball sensation who was named to the NBA’s All Star Team in 2004, joins other famous people who stutter in a new brochure. The brochure - which unfolds into a small poster - is available free of charge from The Stuttering Foundation.

The poster is intended to give children and adults who stutter inspiration as they grapple with their speech disorder.

King George

In November 2010, worldwide movie audiences were presented with a most interesting and unusual movie release with The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth as King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, history may have forgotten the courageous and inspiring story of Prince Albert who stuttered badly and never dreamed that he would ever be king when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abruptly abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.

Marilyn Monroe

From Edward S. Herrington's letter to Southcoasttoday.com

I am writing in response to "The importance of voice" (May 29), which mentioned that famous actor James Earl Jones struggled with stuttering. Another famous voice that you cited was the trademark breathy voice of Marilyn Monroe; however, you did not make mention of the fact that Marilyn Monroe also struggled with stuttering at various points in her life, sometimes very painfully.