Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John just released their brand-new holiday single, “Merry Christmas,” but it turns out only one of them was eager to do a holiday song at first.
Speaking with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Ed confessed he used to think there was “no point” in making a song for the holidays.
“When Elton rang me and said, ‘Let’s do a Christmas song,’ I was like, ‘There’s no point doing a Christmas song, because there is so many great ones out there,'” Ed recalled. “I’ve never actually thought of making a Christmas song. It’s always been the type of thing that I thought I’d do when I was 60.”
But Ed was intrigued by the prospect of doing something for the holidays with his idol, and said, “To be honest, if it wasn’t with Elton, I wouldn’t be doing it. I’ve always wanted to work with him and this made the most sense.”
That said, Ed still had a few conditions before he jumped in the recording studio with the legendary artist.
“If we’re going to do it, we have to chuck the kitchen sink at it and it has to tick every single box. It has to be sleigh bells…It has to be ding-dong church bells, it has to be mistletoe, dancing and wine!” he told Sir Elton.
They did exactly that and produced a song lush with camp and Christmas cheer. They went all-out for the song’s music video, too — although Ed says he almost “killed [Elton] with a bell” during filming.
“I kick a present, but the present had a big metal bell on top of it…the bell flew past his head and would’ve cracked him in the head,” Ed explained, and promised to release that outtake in the future.
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