Ed Sheeran takes on Croke Park, twice, this weekend and ahead of the first of his sold-out shows this evening the 'Sing' star met with the press, Hot Press included. Our snapper Kathrin Baumbach captured all the goings-on - check our the gallery here.
With our very own deputy editor Stuart Clark handling the Q&A, and Sheeran joined by support act Jamie Lawson, the headliner acknowledged the "special place this venue has in everyone's heart."
He pointed to "the fact that there are not that many people in Ireland and there's about 160,000 coming here – it's a fair chunk of the population."
Does he have butterflies before these massive stadium shows?
"I'm not so nervous for this," he said. "I was really nervous for Wembley. Everybody kept coming up to me before Wembley being like 'oh, do you think you can do it?' and that made me quite nervous."
It turned out he could do it, so the pressure is off.
"I said after Wembley was done that this was going to be more fun. Just because there's no nerves. And the Irish crowd has always been the best crowd I've played to. They're just mental!"
He dismissed rumours U2 would be joining him (though it was something that originally crossed his mind) and talked up Lawson – his first signing to his own Gingerbread label – and other special guests Gavin James (playing tonight) and Bell X1 (playing Saturday). Sheeran was particularly excited by Bell X1's appearance, considering Marc Aubele, who recently married his cousin Laura Sheeran, will be joining them on keys.
How has he spent his time since that surprise Whelan's gig?
"I've been at my gran's. We ate pasta last night. Did that. I hung out with the dog... Nothing really that rock 'n' roll to be honest!"
And who would he have on his fantasy Croke Park bill? A reformed Planxty. Oh, and if you're a Planxty newcomer, he recommends their Live 2004 as a good introduction.
We'll have more Sheeran goodness very shortly, so stick with hotpress.com...