PHOTOGRAPH BY Zakary Walters | 15
Sheeran’s
Calm
Before
the Show
EVERY NIGHT BEFORE Ed Sheeran
plays a concert, security clears out
his dressing room and he heads
over to the stage, where he puts
on his guitar and ear monitors and
tests everything out. “It’s quite a
nice moment before he goes out
to 65,000 people,” says Sheeran’s
touring photographer, Zakary
Walters, of this image taken in Lyon,
France. “He’s very much in thought.
He’s not talking to anyone.”
When Sheeran’s Divide tour ends
August 26th with hometown shows
in Ipswich, England, he will have
sold 8.8 million tickets and proba-
bly surpassed U2’s record for the
highest-grossing concert tour ever.
“I asked him the other day, ‘Do you
know how you’re going to feel when
it’s done?’ ” Walters says. “He said,
‘I really don’t know if I’m going to be
happy or sad.’ ”
Walters has known Sheeran since
high school; they once shared a bill
at a Baptist church. A few years later,
Walters was working as a graphic
designer in New York and Sheeran
asked him to come on the road for
two years as his touring photogra-
pher. “He doesn’t mind me pointing
a camera in his face,” says Walters.
“I think there was one time when
he was stressed out, and he said,
‘No photos.’ ” Though the tour will
be over soon, Sheeran’s radio rule
isn’t likely to slow down; his new
album, No. 6 Collaborations Project,
featuring songs with Bruno Mars,
Camila Cabello, Justin Bieber, and
others, was just released. PATRICK DOYLE