The American Institute For Stuttering honored Ed Sheeran at its Freeing Voices Changing Lives event this week.
Hosted by Emily Blunt, the event helped raise money to provide state-of-the-art treatment to people who stutter, and support to their families. The evening also included a performance by Sheeran, who donated $20,000 to the AIS.
Sheeran revealed he developed a stutter after receiving laser treatment to remove a birthmark as a child, and overcame it after learning to rap like Eminem.
“The thing I found most difficult was knowing what to say but not really being able to express it the right way,” he said. "My Uncle Jim told my dad that Eminem was the next Bob Dylan — it’s pretty similar, it’s all just storytelling — so my dad bought me The Marshall Mathers LP when I was nine years old, not knowing what was on it. I learned every word of it, back to front, by the time I was 10. He raps very fast and melodically and percussively, and it helped me get rid of the stutter.
""If you have quirks and weirdness, you shouldn’t be worried about that… Just be yourself, because there’s no one in the world that can be a better you than you… Be yourself. Embrace your quirks. Being weird is a wonderful thing."
