Music Ed Sheeran explains why he gave Sam Smith a 6-foot marble penis statue: 'I need to one-up this' "I said, ‘What would you like?’ And Sam said, ‘One the size of me.'" By Emlyn Travis Emlyn Travis Emlyn Travis is a news writer at Entertainment Weekly with over five years of experience covering the latest in entertainment. A proud Kingston University alum, Emlyn has written about music, fandom, film, television, and awards for multiple outlets including MTV News, Teen Vogue, Bustle, BuzzFeed, Paper Magazine, Dazed, and NME. She joined EW in August 2022. EW's editorial guidelines Published on October 14, 2022 12:24PM EDT Ed Sheeran is in love with the shape of lewd. The "Shivers" singer, who is currently on his Mathematics world tour, explained why he recently gave Sam Smith a 6-foot-tall, "two-ton" penis statue on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Thursday night. But first, he insisted on providing a bit of context. "Elton John has been involved in my career from the get-go, and he buys me weird gifts," Sheeran told host Stephen Colbert. "Just, like, odd gifts, like sexual sort of objects." According to Sheeran, one of John's favorite presents he's ever received was the pair of "diamond-encrusted [bleep] rings" that Eminem gave him and husband David Furnish for their wedding. So, when it came time to find the perfect present for John's 74th birthday last year, Sheeran set out to "one-up" Eminem's gift by getting him a "massive marble penis" statue. "I got this huge, flopping, droopy thing," Sheeran joked. "I got a few different iterations — there was a big, erect, vein-y one." The musician soon found out, however, that no good gag gift ever goes unpunished. "I gave it to him for his birthday and Elton was over the moon about it. And then it got out in the press that I had done it," he said. "And I would be doing interviews and people would be like, 'Well, can I have one?'" Ed Sheeran opened up about why he gave Sam Smith a 6-foot-2 penis statue. Dave J Hogan/Getty Images That includes Smith. "Sam was recording at a studio up the road and Sam saw one of them and said, 'Can I have one?' And I said, 'What would you like?'" Sheeran recalled. "And Sam said, 'One the size of me. One that's 6-foot-2.' So there we go. That's it." Smith, however, revealed that they had no idea Sheeran would actually get someone to make the sky-high sculpture for them. "It's actually wild, I thought it was a joke," the "Stay With Me" singer said on The Kelly Clarkson Show. "It's a 6-foot-2 marble penis. It's two tons, and I'm gonna have to get it craned into my house." As for what they're going to do with it? "Well, I want to turn it into a fountain," Smith told Clarkson. "Which I think will be hard to do." Watch Sheeran discuss his new phallic hobby — and, hey, meeting Queen Elizabeth II! — in the clip above. Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more. Related content: Ed Sheeran pranks Courteney Cox by hiding, um, leather sex masks around her house Jimmy Fallon and Ed Sheeran gave each other funny dares to perform during their Tonight Show interview Ed Sheeran is headed back to court over an accusation that he copied a Marvin Gaye hit