UK superstar Ed Sheeran has said he has become healthier since becoming a dad as he reveals his family have all travelled to Dublin to see him play at Croke Park.
As many as 160,000 fans will descend onto Dublin stadium on Saturday and Sunday to watch the Bad Habits hitmaker perform at the GAA venue.
Sheeran revealed this trip to Ireland is a "family affair" with his wife, Cherry Seaborn, and, for the first time, his daughter, Lyra Antarctica, joining him for the tour.
READ MORE: All you need to know ahead of Ed Sheeran's Croke Park gigs
He said: “My life had been touring, I was always away and I was always in a different city every single day - then suddenly my life became at home, and I had a kid and was a dad. Now my family are on the road with me and I’ve got the balance of the two.
"My routine for tour usually would be whatever… but I’ve never really taken my health that seriously on stage but because this is in the round, you’re running to one side and the other side.
“I became healthy when I became a Dad because I just stopped going on all night benders - I am a lot healthier, I stopped smoking, I stopped drinking spirits. I’ll have a couple of beers and maybe a half a bottle of wine or a whole bottle of wine.”
The 31-year-old performed at Dublin’s Whelan and Vicar Street this week as part of warm up shows, and he said he was feeling good after "playing two of my favourite venues in the entire world.”
"I would say Croker is the same as Whelan's - at the end of the day, it's an audience you have to entertain. I find the bigger venues, it's more of a big communal singalong,” he told 2FM Breakfast with Doireann, Donncha, and Carl.
The musician is "feeling prepped and ready" for his Croke Park gigs, and said he is looking forward to playing some of his top hits as well as some unexpected songs to fans.
We revealed during the week how there will be 50 per cent more portaloos around Croke Park for fans this weekend. Ed also revealed he once gave a festival goer his clothes after she ended up trapped in a portaloo for two hours.
Reacting to the increase, Ed told how he does use portaloos himself and has his own personal portaloo underneath his stage.
“Quite a lot actually because we have one underneath the stage and yeah, I guess at weddings," he said.
“I actually played V festival in 2012 and I remember I was outside having a smoke at like 2am and this steward ran around to me and was like ‘have you got any clothes’…. A girl had been in a portaloo and it had been pushed over on its front and she had been there for like two hours.
“So anyway, I just kind of was like ‘yeah cool have my clothes.’”
Sheeran also revealed he would consider buying a home in Ireland – but would tell no one about it.
Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on his Rte Radio 1 show, he said: “Yeah, absolutely. The thing is if I had a place here, I probably wouldn't tell people. This is such a special part of the world.
"It's one of these things when, you know when you go to America and people are so in tune with their culture, even if they're one-sixteenth something, they're so in tune with it and I never want to lose that.
"[My Irish heritage] is such an integral part of my family, I don't want to lose that. With my children, I want them to come back and experience the same things that I did."
Sheeran's paternal grandparents are Irish and his grandmother lives in Wexford and he intends to meet relatives from across Ireland during his time here.
"It's a family affair," he said of his Irish tour. "It's nice for me with my new family, my wife and daughter, because I came here four times a year as a kid and I would always spend my birthday here.
"Just to show my daughter the culture that her family comes from is a really nice thing because she hasn't been here yet, it's the first time she's been here.
"My wife has been to Ireland a few times but not for this extended period of time, so we're actually going to be submerged here which is nice."
