Ed Sheeran Tonight Show H 2015
Douglas Gorenstein/NBCEd Sheeran has the Midas touch right now. But surely he couldn’t turn ‘80s heavy metal classics and ropey rap-rock tracks into feathery pop delights?
The task was set to him for a sketch on The Tonight Show, where Sheeran sang works from a mock release titled Ed Sheeran Sings Heavy Metal (well, we hope it’s a mock release), an album billed as a collection of 25 “of the darkest, most skull-crushing songs ever written.”
Sheeran, or rather “pop music’s cherub-faced troubadour” (as Jimmy Fallon in pseudo-Carl Sagan garb described him), performed Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” and Limp Bizkit’s late ‘90s effort “Break Stuff.”
But wait, there’s more. There’s an Ed Sheeran Sings Hardcore Rap album, which features a version of Ty Dolla $ign’s “Paranoid,” a track Sheeran performed for the viewers back home.
Sheeran, whose X tour is winding its way through North America, doesn’t convert gold. But it all could have turned out a whole lot worse. Check out the clip below.
Sheeran also noted that after Jay Z and Beyonce came to see his concert at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, the three of them hung out afterward — at a dive bar. And ate pizza, took shots and “jammed some folk.”
“They’re the coolest, coolest people, just open to whatever,” he said of the two of them.
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A version of this article originally appeared on Billboard.com.
