Ed Sheeran has revealed that his year-long break from the music industry, announced in October 2015, was due to struggles with substance abuse.

The musician opened up about his decision on the latest episode of The Jonathan Ross Show, airing tonight, and how his issues stemmed from the difficulty of coping with newfound fame.

"I think you need to, when you get into the industry, adjust to it — and I didn’t adjust because I was constantly working on tour," he confessed (via People). "And all the pitfalls that people read about, I just found myself slipping into all of them. Mostly, like, substance abuse."

"I never touched anything. I started slipping into it, and that’s why I took a year off and buggered off," he added.

"I didn’t really notice it was happening. It just started gradually happening, and then some people took me to one side and were like, ‘Calm yourself down.' It’s all fun to begin with, it all starts off as a party and then you’re doing it on your own and it’s not, so that was a wake-up call and taking a year off."

"I focused on work, and I can't work under the influence. I can't write songs under the influence. I can't perform under the influence. So, the more I worked, the less [that happened]," he continued. "I've worked my whole life to get to where I am, and you can't lose that over something that you do in your spare time."

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Back in 2015, Sheeran said he wanted a year off to, "get rid of my iPhone, get rid of internet, get a Nokia 3310 and just go off into the wilderness somewhere for a bit. Even if it's just a month without contact with other people."

He was recently forced to postpone the Asian leg of his world tour after breaking both arms and a rib in a bicycle accident, after being warned pushing himself to perform could destroy his ability to play the guitar.