Sheeran told Howard Stern that he developed a stutter after undergoing surgery to remove a birthmark in his early years

Ed Sheeran, Eminem. Photo: Mike Marsland/WireImage, Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Ed Sheeran is crediting Eminem for helping make a major change in his life.

The “Eyes Closed” singer, 32, opened up in a new interview on The Howard Stern Show about how a classic Em album left a huge impact on him.

As he explained to the longtime on-air personality, Sheeran developed a stutter after undergoing surgery to remove a birthmark in his early years, and being gifted The Marshall Mathers LP as a kid helped him grow out of it.

“I was going through all sorts of speech therapy. When I was 9, my uncle bought me The Marshall Mathers LP. He just said to my dad, ‘This guy’s the next Bob Dylan.’ My dad didn’t really clock it, he’s just like, ‘OK, Edward’s gonna go and listen to that.’”

Eminem and Ed Sheeran perform at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

“And by learning that record, and by rapping it back, to back, to back, to back, it cured my stutter,” Sheeran said of Eminem, 50. “And I stopped… talking like that.”

Of course, Sheeran has gone on to work with the rap great a few times over, including recently joining him for a performance of “Stan” at Em’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in November.

The two have also shared space on wax before, collaborating for Sheeran’s “Remember the Name” as well as Em’s tracks “River” and “Those Kinda Nights.”

“Years later, I’ve made songs with Eminem now and we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well. And he asked me to play ‘Stan’ with him at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I remember getting the call to do it… and I’m shooting 14 music videos back-to-back. It was on my day off from shooting the music videos and I was like, I can’t say no,” Sheeran said.

“So I got a plane straight after my music video, flew there, sung and then that night flew back. And it was really worth it.”

While Em certainly has a fan in Ed, he also has one in Bob Dylan, who revealed in a 2022 interview with The Wall Street Journal that he is a “fan” of “anybody with a feeling for words and language” and “anybody whose vision parallels mine.” That list of names includes Wu-Tang Clan, Leonard Cohen and Slim Shady himself.

Jack Harlow also garnered headlines in recent weeks after revealing that he’s trying to be “the hardest white boy” since Em. In “They Don’t Love It,” the second track on his new album Jackman, Harlow, 25, compares himself to the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, as he raps, “Your boy’s striving to be the most dominant ever / The hardest white boy since the one who rapped about vomit and sweaters.”

Listeners were quick to note that Harlow’s “vomit and sweaters” reference compared him to Eminem, who rapped about both in 2002’s “Lose Yourself.”