Ed Sheeran's guitar gifted to him by Eric Clapton was restored after being "burnt to a crisp".
Ed Sheeran
The 30-year-old star has be friends with the 'Wonderful Tonight' legend for six years, and he was worried when the instrument was badly damaged in a fire at his studio.
Appearing on the 'Hot Ones' podcast, he said: "My hero is Eric. When I was 11 I heard Layla, picked up a guitar and went from there. I got to know him in 2015 and we’ve been friends ever since.
"I went to his house and he took his guitar off the wall and just gave it to me. He signed the back and said, ‘Keep my guitar’. I was like, ‘F. Cool.’
“It was the only guitar in my studio at home and I was on tour and the person looking after my house phoned me up and said, ‘Your music studio is on fire’, and I was like, ‘F! The guitar is in that studio.’
“The guitar comes out and it’s burnt to a crisp."
Thankfully for Ed, a friend was able to fix the precious guitar - with the autograph still intact - although it's been lefting smelling "like a burnt house".
He added: "He brought it back totally restored, but now it smells like a burnt house.
“But it plays amazing, looks amazing, actually kind of smells amazing and it still has Eric’s signature on it. That’s my favourite guitar.”
After the fire in 2019, the guitar was restored by Monty's Guitars, and a post on the company's Instagram recently revealed the work they did on the Martin.
They wrote: "Once we had looked it over it became apparent that, structurally, the guitar was pretty much sound and the damage was largely cosmetic.
"Luckily the back with EC’s signature was really the only thing not resembling a charcoal briquette, so we decided he best thing to do was strip it, spray it and rebuild it...
"We were really proud to be part of the project and thrilled that Ed was happy with the guitar!"
Tagged in Eric Clapton Ed Sheeran