The duo joined forces at Ford Field in Detroit on Saturday
Eminem and Ed Sheeran are one dynamic duo!
The pair joined forces in Detroit on Saturday, when Eminem, 50, surprised Sheeran fans by joining the English singer-songwriter, 32, on stage for his covers of the rapper’s hits “Lose Yourself” and “Stan.”
“I wondered if I can play you a cover of an Eminem song tonight,” Sheeran first asked cheering fans at Ford Field, as seen in various videos from the moment shared on social media. “I think you know it. We rehearsed it today — see how it goes.”
After Sheeran cut into an acoustic version of the 8 Mile Road soundtrack song, Eminem appeared on stage and began rapping.
Wearing his signature black hoodie worn over a baseball cap, the Detroit-born artist prowled around the stage with high energy as Sheeran continued to back him on guitar.
When the song ended, Eminem greeted Sheeran and shouted “Detroit!” to rally up the crowd before him.
“I want to say one thing,” Sheeran cut in. “He was going to come on and do one song, and I say, ‘You can’t come on in Detroit and only do one song, do you want another song?’ “
The pair then broke into a rendition of “Stan” off Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP, with Sheeran taking over Dido’s role in the 2000 song about an obsessed fan.
Eminem then concluded the two-song set by shouting “Detroit, I missed ya’ll” into his microphone before heading off stage.
Sheeran’s appreciation for the fellow Grammy winner and his music goes much deeper than his love for his songs. He credited Eminem’s raps with helping him lose his stutter when he was younger, a story that he shared during a past interview on The Howard Stern Show.
As Sheeran explained to the longtime on-air personality, he developed a stutter after undergoing surgery to remove a birthmark in his early years, and being gifted The Marshall Mathers LP as a kid helped him grow out of it.
“I was going through all sorts of speech therapy. When I was 9, my uncle bought me The Marshall Mathers LP. He just said to my dad, ‘This guy’s the next Bob Dylan.’ My dad didn’t really clock it, he’s just like, ‘Okay, Edward’s gonna go and listen to that.’ “
“And by learning that record, and by rapping it back, to back, to back, to back, it cured my stutter,” Sheeran said. “And I stopped … talking like that.”
Sheeran has worked with the rap great a few times in the past, most recently having performed “Stan” at Eminem’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in November.
The two have also joined forces for Sheeran’s “Remember the Name” as well as Eminem’s tracks “River” and “Those Kinda Nights.”