Matty Healy on turning down Ed Sheeran: ‘I wanted to do our own shows’
The 1975 declined a four-month stadium tour support slot
By Joe Goggins
Matty Healy has expanded on his decision to turn down a lavish offer to support Ed Sheeran on tour.
The 1975 frontman has been doing the press rounds ahead of the release next month of Being Funny in a Foreign Language, the fifth full-length from the Wilmslow indie rockers. He appears to be in typically forthright form, and in a recent interview with The New York Times, revealed that the band had been offered a four-month deal by “the biggest singer-songwriter in the world” to open a stadium tour in 2023.
Healy initially left the artist in question unnamed, but confirmed he was referring to Sheeran when prompted by the journalist. The offer, he said, “would have made me money that I’ve never even seen or heard of in my life”.
The band turned it down, however, with Healy going on to explain their thinking. “ I got offered to be main support and do whatever I want. Think about the money you think I’m getting offered – it’s not just offered, it’s what he can afford because of what he makes for shows – and then just triple it. It’s insane.”
The thing that’s stopped me just doing that is because — I don’t care. It’s not worth it,” he continued. “Not because I don’t like Ed Sheeran. I think he’s, in a lot of ways, a genius, and he does what he does better than anybody else. But opening up for somebody and not just being real, that’s the kind of stuff I think about.”
With his response circulating on social media, Healy took to his own Twitter account last night (September 12) to clarify that there are no hard feelings between Sheeran and the band. “Just to be clear I have mad respect for Ed Sheeran,” he wrote, “and I didn’t decline sharing a stage with him I just wanted to do our own shows instead and he’s always been so nice to me personally and publicaly [sic] olso don’t start a twitter thing for fun.”
Being Funny in a Foreign Language is out via Dirty Hit on October 14. The 1975 will tour the UK next January, and added two new dates to the run in London and Cardiff after the initial shows in those cities sold out.