Ed Sheeran has made the shock admission he honoured his late Australian close friend and music industry icon Michael Gudinski by installing a life size statue of him in his home.
The English pop star, 33, revealed on the Gudinski podcast that he installed a huge statue of his late music promoter friend Michael Gudinski in his pub at home.
‘So I’ve got Michael’s statue in my pub at my house. I felt like I wanted to have him always in the pub, so I asked him to get a bronze statue of himself made which he did,’ Sheeran began.
Sheeran and Gudinski became close friends in 2018 when Michael worked with him to help promote his national Australian Divide tour.
The hitmaker added that he often visited the statue and had a drink in its company as a tribute to his late friend, who died in March 2021.
‘The night he passed away, I woke up at three to a phone call and the first thing I did is went into the wine cellar and had a drink with the statue. It was just a really nice thing.
‘That’s what I do on his birthday, I just go and have a drink with him and I feel very fortunate to be able to have this thing in my house.’
Ed previously paid tribute on Instagram to Gudinski in 2021 following his shock death at age 68, describing the late Mushroom Group boss as a ‘father figure and mentor’.
Ed Sheeran has made the shock admission that he honoured his late Australian close friend and music industry icon Michael Gudinski by installing a life size statue of him in his home. Both pictured
He said Gudinski was full of joy and that it was ‘hard to put into words’ the impact the promoter had on him.
‘Michael was a tornado of joy. You would know he arrived in the building just by hearing the chaotic bark of his, and you could feel the room get excited about the arrival of his presence,’ he said.
‘He was such a force and would make everyone feel like they were the most important person to him.
‘He had a way with words, that most people couldn’t understand. We always joked he needed a translator because of the pure speed in which he would talk in a thick growling Aussie accent. But his passion was always the thing you never needed translating, as you could feel it whenever he spoke.’
The English pop star, 33, revealed on the Gudinski podcast that he installed a huge statue of his late music promoter friend Michael Gudinski in his pub at home. Pictured: Ed and Gudinski’s son Matt with the statue
Sheeran added: ‘To me, and many others, he is the heart of Australian music, and always will be.
Ed said that while the bronze statue gift was originally a joke, he was glad to have it because he could now ‘share his favourite wine with Michael and say goodbye’.
‘Nothing will fill the void he left in our lives, but the memories we all have of him will live on,’ he continued in his tribute.
‘So I’ve got Michael’s statue in my pub. I have a pub in my house. I felt like I wanted to have him always in the pub, so I asked him to get a bronze statue of himself made which he did,’ Sheeran said
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