Ed Sheeran surprised fans at his Detroit concert by bringing out the city’s very own rap legend, Eminem.
The ‘Shape of You’ hitmaker, who was inspired to rap as a young child by the hip-hop legend and has collaborated with him a handful of times since, duetted with Eminem – whose real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III – on ‘Lose Yourself’ and ‘Stan’.
He was performing at the Ford Field on Saturday night (15.07.23) when the flame-haired Grammy winner announced he was going to attempt to cover his 2002 classic ‘Lose Yourself’.
Ed then smiled: “Let’s see how this goes.”
Just as the song kicked off, the crowd was shocked to see the man himself join Ed onstage for the performance.
They then gave a rousing rendition of 2000’s ‘Stan’, which features a sample of Dido’s ‘Thank You’.
Recently, Ed claimed rapping along to Eminem’s 2000 album ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ “cured” his stutter.
The 32-year-old megastar revealed that he has the 50-year-old superstar to thank for helping to fix his speech impediment.
Appearing on ‘The Howard Stern Show’ on SiriusXM, he recalled: “(My uncle) just said to my dad, ‘This guy is the next Bob Dylan. You gotta let him listen.’
“And by learning that record – and rapping it back to back to back to back – it cured my stutter.”
Ed continued: “I think it’s different with Eminem because he is quite reclusive, doesn’t see or meet that many people. I’ve known him now (for) six years and we’ve done three songs together, I’ve played with him twice onstage. He’s another person I really relate to, as he lives in his hometown still and has his eco-system around him.”
The pair previously performed ‘Stan’ when the rapper was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, a gig he refused to turn down.
Ed said: “I remember getting the call to do it. I was shooting … 14 music videos back to back … and it was like on my day off from shooting the music videos, and I was like, ‘I can’t say no. I can’t.’
“So, I got a plane straight after my music video, flew there for the song, and then that night flew back. It was really worth it.”