Our inner fangirl was alive and real when we watched Ed Sheeran join Sam Smith on stage for a surprise duet performance of 'Stay With Me.' And now Sheeran is explaining how it went down.

"Sam's had the same outlook as me, we both hero-worship classic musicians from 20, 30, 40 years ago and they all hung out and sung together," the 'Thinking Out Loud' singer explained (quote via Contactmusic). "The music industry is so overcrowded and competitive these days that everyone is fighting for a spot at the top and no one wants to jump on stage with another or help each other out. It's nice when that happens."

And Sheeran is apparently bringing that same attitude to his next venture: He's starting his own record label!

The British crooner made the exciting announcement to the Sun, saying:

"The door has now been opened. I’ve set up the label and I’m going to start signing people. It’ll be an imprint that goes through [his label] Warner. But I’ll get the rights back in about ten years," he revealed (quote via Sugarscape). "I’ve got my first signing in mind. I’m looking at people like me, who came through the singer-songwriter scene.”

“The first time I properly thought about it was when I took Passenger on tour for two years," he added. "I took him into my record company and played them the record but they didn’t get it. Then I was too busy on my own stuff and I let it slide. Then he had a worldwide No. 1 ['Let Her Go']. After that, everyone was like, ‘Maybe Ed DOES know what he’s talking about.'”

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