Ed Sheeran: Why Did He Dig His Own Grave In His Backyard?

Ed Sheeran attends the Netflix's "Extraction 2" New York premiere looking to the left wearing a plain white tee.

Ed Sheeran attends the Netflix’s “Extraction 2” New York premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on June 12, 2023 in New York City.

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Ed Sheeran isn't afraid to plan ahead -- very far ahead. The "Thinking Out Loud" singer has been thinking about his death and has gone to extreme lengths to prepare for it. Speaking to GQ this week, the 32-year-old Grammy winner explained that he had not only dug his own grave in his backyard, but he also built a chapel behind his house with room for his family when it is time for them to be buried as well. According to Sheeran, the idea for the chapel came from the desire to place his family members who had been cremated together. Though the chapel is planned with the dead in mind, Sheeran revealed the space has been used for friends tying the knot, too.

Planning For Family In Mind

As we previously reported, Sheeran received approval in 2019 to build the chapel. He described it as "a hole that’s dug in the ground with a bit of stone over it." Whenever the day comes that he passes away, he tells GQ, "I get to go in there." Addressing the fact that people think it is "really weird and really morbid," he explains that he had friends pass away without wills and left their loved ones not knowing what to do. As a father to daughters Lyra, two, and Jupiter, one, with wife Cherry Seaborn, the singer-songwriter wants to prepare for the day he passes.

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Sheeran and Seaborn, 31, wed in 2019 after dating for four years. They began dating in 2015 and have known each other all their lives. They both grew up in Sheffield, England, before reuniting in New York. In Sheeran’s 2023 Disney+ documentary series, The Sum Of It All, the couple reflected on their time attending high school in Suffolk. As teenagers, Seaborn said they "flirted with the idea of flirting" at the time, but the timing wasn’t right with graduation approaching. Sheeran added, "We did have a little smooch at that time, and she basically went to university in America, and I went on tour, and we didn’t see each other for a few years."

Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran knows how to make some of the saddest lines upbeat. His lyricism is top-tier, accompanied by his acoustic guitar and infectious pop melodies, and the Brit often strikes musical gold. Born Edward Christopher Sheeran on February 17, 1991, in England, he developed an interest in music at a very young age. He sang at a local church choir at the age of four. As we previously reported, Sheeran developed a stutter after undergoing surgery to remove a birthmark in his early years. He was gifted Eminem's The Marshall Mathers album as a kid by his uncle. The album helped him to grow out of it. When he was nine, his uncle told his dad his nephew would be "the next Bob Dylan." After learning the 2000 record and "rapping it back, to back, to back, to back," it cured his stutter.

Sheeran's Rise To Stardom

Gaining more confidence, Sheeran learned how to play the guitar and started writing songs when he was eleven. Two years later, at thirteen, Sheeran began recording music. He independently released his first collection of work, titled Spinning Man. In 2008, he moved to London, playing music in small venues and on the street. That same year, he auditioned for the ITV series Britannia High. Since the show's producers were looking for triple threats, Sheeran's dance skills proved to be highly uncoordinated, so he got cut. He wasn't too torn up about it, able to admit that everyone auditioning really wanted to be cast.

He released another EP in 2009, titled You Need Me. He and fellow English singer Leddra Chapman recorded covers with each other often, including CeeLo Green's "F--- You." In 2010, Sheeran released his critically acclaimed Loose Change EP, which featured his future debut single, "The A-Team."

With seven studio albums below his belt, see which of our favorite Ed Sheeran songs warms (or breaks) our hearts.

10. Drunk

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From Ed's 2011 '+ (Plus)' album, he cleverly sings, "On cold days cold plays out like the band's name. I know I can't heal things with a handshake." The singer-songwriter than admits he knows what he can change, but he's been cut wide open like a landscape. The lines, "Open bottles of beer but never champagne, to applaud you with the sound that my hands make," he chooses beer over champagne, which is used to celebrate something.

9. The A Team

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The worst things in life come free to us / 'Cause we're just under the upper hand / And go mad for a couple grams