Ed Sheeran would "love to transition into country" music: "It's just, like, brilliant songs"

Ed Sheeran is going to perform on tonight's Academy of Country Music Awards with an as-yet unnamed country star, and he says he wouldn't mind eventually becoming one himself.

Speaking to Billboard ahead of the awards, Ed says, "I talk about this to my wife all the time. I would love to transition into country. I love the culture of it, I just love the songwriting. It's just like, brilliant, songs."

Ed says it was Taylor Swift -- of course -- who's responsible for his love of country music, because he says he didn't listen to it when he was growing up.

"It was only being on Taylor's Red tour and living in Nashville and her basically introducing me to that side of it," he explains.  Now, he says he and his wife have a U.K. country radio station on in their kitchen "all day, every day."

Ed lived in Nashville twice between 2013 and 2018, and says he likes it so much because, he notes, "It’s like a community."

"There’s not really a place in Europe where you could point and say, ‘That’s the home of songwriting'...Nashville is just a hub of incredible songwriters, incredible performers," he says. "And I really felt inspired just being there being around everyone.”

Ed's already appeared on the country charts as a songwriter: He co-wrote "Tip of My Tongue," a top 15 hit for country superstar Kenny Chesney.  He also co-wrote a track on country star Kelsea Ballerini's 2020 album kelsea.

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