You may have heard that Ed Sheeran recently lost all his opening acts. After Macklemore ruffled feathers by using his platform as Sheeran's opening act to advocate for a free Palestine, Sheeran capitulated to his friend Robert Kraft and other stadium owners by kicking Macklemore off his tour, then shared self-pitying statements online and onstage. All of the rest of Sheeran's support acts dropped off the tour in solidarity, as did Sheeran's backing band. At his first show back, Sheeran performed without an opening act, but he's since found at least one performer willing to share a stage with him.
Saturday at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, former the Fray singer Isaac Slade opened for Sheeran. It may not surprise you to learn that the guy who sang the mid-2000s Grey's Anatomy fixtures "How To Save A Life" and "Over My Head (Cable Car)" has a worldview that amounts to mush. Slade, who performed "How To Save A Life" with Sheeran at Toronto's Rogers Centre back in August, spent a couple minutes during his six-song set explaining why he thinks Sheeran's staunchly apolitical stance is admirable. Here's what he had to say:
I respect Ed for making this place safe and welcoming for all of us, regardless of what we believe. Everybody seems to be taking sides on this one. And that's good. What's happening over there is not right. But if we're going to get through this, we also need people who are brave enough to step out into the middle place, that common ground, that bonfire in the middle of the field that sees both sides and understands that peace is not the lack of conflict. Peace is not a blank canvas that we need to guard and be polite. Peace is a messy, messy painting that holds enough beauty and enough tragedy and enough sorrow and enough joy and life that if we learn how to integrate it and hold each other in balance, we will find a way through this, together.
This makes Sheeran's own statements seem articulate and insightful by comparison. Footage of Slade delivering these words is viewable here.
