Substance abuse was the real reason Ed Sheeran took a break from music

Ed Sheeran has spoken out about the real reason behind his decision to step away from music for a while.

The singer-songwriter has admitted that substance abuse is what drove him to dedicate himself to a year-long break from the music industry. "All the pitfalls that people read about, I just found myself slipping into all of them. Mostly, like, substance abuse," Sheeran said on The Jonathan Ross Show on Friday night. https://www.instagram.com/p/BaGQP24FCWH/?hl=en&taken-by=teddysphotos In late 2015, Sheeran suddenly announced that he would be taking a break from music but he initially claimed that he'd arrived at that choice due to a concern over his new material not being received as positively as it once was. However it's now emerged that the 26-year-old's struggles with substance abuse resulted in his self-imposed time off. "I didn’t really notice it was happening," he continued. "It just started gradually happening, and then some people took me to one side and were like, ‘Calm yourself down.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGwWNGJdvx8 "It’s all fun to begin with, it all starts off as a party and then you’re doing it on your own and it’s not, so that was a wake-up call and taking a year off." Thankfully, Sheeran says that the break actually improved his music and that it's done him the world of good mentally. Meanwhile, the Thinking Out Loud singer has reassured his fans that he will be back on tour in less than a month after he broke his ribs and wrist in a cycling crash earlier this week.