Ed Sheeran offered The 1975 an 'insane' amount of money to support him on tour but they turned it down

The 1975 frontman Matty Healy recently revealed that the band were offered an ‘insane’ amount of money to tour with Ed Sheeran, but turned him down.

The 33-year-old clarified that the band has ‘mad respect’ for the singer, 31, but they wanted to focus on their own live shows instead.

Speaking in an interview with the New York Times, Healy said he often says no to opportunities for money.

Explaining his thoughts behind it, he said: “It’s difficult to be big and say – genuinely – that I have zero commercial ambition.”

He went on: “I tend to say no to stuff for money. I don’t know how you can write this up without it being rude or inappropriate, but I just got offered a four-month tour next year of stadiums with the biggest singer-songwriter in the world that would’ve made me money that I’ve never even seen or heard of in my life.”

After confirming the musician in question was Sheeran, who is currently traveling the world for his +-= ÷x tour, Healy added: “Think about the money you think I’m getting offered – it’s not just offered, it’s what he can afford because of what he makes for shows – and then just triple it. It’s insane.”

The singer and guitarist added that the opportunity was ‘not worth it’ but rest assured music fans, there is no beef between the pair.

“The thing that’s stopped me just doing that is because – I don’t care. It’s not worth it,” he went on.

“Not because I don’t like Ed Sheeran. I think he’s, in a lot of ways, a genius, and he does what he does better than anybody else.

“But opening up for somebody and not just being real, that’s the kind of stuff I think about”.

Healy took to Twitter to clear up his comments and ‘respect’ for the chart topping singer-songwriter.

“Just to be clear I have mad respect for Ed Sheeran and I didn’t decline sharing a stage with him I just wanted to do our own shows instead and he’s always been so nice to me personally and publicly so don’t start a Twitter thing for fun.”

The 1975 will be touring in support of their most recent album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language, which will visit the UK and Ireland starting in January 2023.

The album – which was co-produced by Jack Antonoff – will be released on 14 October 2022.

Ed Sheeran’s representatives have been approached for comment.