artist i hugely admire, but dont like

Heard he is a real nice guy. Not into his music if the kids like it that's okay. I guess it's a sign of getting older and going into decay when new things come my way it just shows I was born on the wrong day.   Remembering we are now the oldies whose ears are tuned differently.     

Ed does a lot of work for charities, big donor to cancer research.

as far as his music - he has some real nice songs (31 top 10 hits) , and some album fillers, just as all the rest do.
His new album however called " Subtract"  came out this past May - and it was different.  His wife Cherry had a cancerous tumor develop while pregnant - and they could do nothing about til after the child was born.  All went well, they welcomed a baby girl (Jupiter)  and then had the  tumor removed and she was cleared of cancer - but had to undergo some weeks of radiation - she is cancer free.      He also had one of his best friends, Jamal Edwards, die unexpectedly (cocaine and alcohol mix)at the age of 31.
He said it changed him - he threw out over a hundred songs that he had written too choose from for the album - he said ....

"For the first time I'm not trying to craft an album people will like, I'm merely putting something out that's honest and true to where I am in my adult life.

"It's opening the trapdoor into my soul."   "I wrote without thought of what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever tumbled out. And in just over a week, I replaced a decade's worth of work with my deepest, darkest thoughts. ( he went into depression for weeks)
he said " this album was written against "a backdrop of grief and hope".

one other thing ....
He found out that a young woman with downs syndrome was getting married in the USA and he was touring near that city.
He surprised her and her husband at the wedding  reception and played " Thinking Out Loud" for her  - took some pictures with her and her family - - and then left.

The album Subtract  has become one of the fastest selling albums ever.
I do like him better than the rest though due to his compassion and personality.

Jim