Ed Sheeran: Bigger, bolder and topping the marque

Brit pop superstar Ed Sheeran is sure that he met Taylor Swift for the first time in Arizona in 2012 when he was on the road with fellow Brits Snow Patrol.

We can’t confirm it — the tour stopped in Phoenix — but Sheeran seemed pretty convinced when we caught up with him in Belgium by phone last week.

“That was where I met Taylor. ...I was on tour with Snow Patrol and she stayed at the hotel and we wrote a song in the hotel,” he recalled.

In the two years since, Sheeran has gone from little-known singer to international superstar.

“It’s been an interesting journey,” he said, calling hours after a whirlwind travel day that started off in a remote wooden cabin on a Greek island with his girlfriend and ended with a helicopter ride to Belgium. “I’m glad it’s worked out this way. It’s been quite a gradual thing from my perspective, but I guess from some other people’s perspectives not so gradual.”

Sheeran this month kicked off his first American arena tour, which stops at Glendale’s Jobing.com Arena on Sunday.

For those lucky enough to have squeezed into his sold-out Rialto Theatre show in February 2013, the arena show will be a bigger, bolder performance. But “essentially it’s me with a guitar,” he said.

The show promotes his latest album “x” (Multiply), which has already achieved gold record status (500,000-plus sales) since it was released in late June. The album’s title reflects where he is in his career, which the 23-year-old from Framingham, England, has been carving out on an international scale since the release of his breakout EP “Loose Change” in 2010.

That recording included the single, “The A Team,” which Sheeran put on his debut album “+” (Plus). He released the song as his first international single; It was a big hit in Europe and peaked at No. 16 in the United States before being nominated in 2012 for a Song of the Year Grammy Award.

And while some might see his trajectory as fast and furious, Sheeran sees it as deliberately paced. He has pursued his music career since leaving his parents’ home when he was 17.

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His arena tour returns to many of the venues he opened for American country superstar Swift, during her “The Red Tour” last year.

“I’m actually very excited. It’s been over a year since I toured the States,” he said.

Touring for him — even with the hassles of international travel — is far more relaxing than being off the road, he said.

“I am only playing shows, whereas usually when you’re promoting an album you’ll be working 5 or 6 a.m. until 12 o’clock at night and up the next day,” he explained. “This is just two hours a day. It’s actually very relaxing.”

His album comes three years after his multi-platinum international debut “+” and included production by iconic American record producer Rick Rubin (Mick Jagger, Johnny Cash, Linkin Park, Metallica and a list of dozens of other superstars). 

“I wrote over three years and recorded over three years. Rick came in at the end,” Sheeran recalled. “He came at a point where I was not very interested in the album anymore and a bit kind of sick of it and he made it all about the music again. He is kind of a Zen master and he just kind of did his thing.”

The album’s name is a nod to its mission, to multiply everything, make it all bigger, from the fan base to the production to the music.

“Everything had a domino effect, one after another: Releasing the album in England and that being successful and then being able to release an album in Europe and having that be successful,” he said. “And then doing it in Australia and then coming over to America.”

His words of advice for budding artists:

“With anything in life, just make sure you don’t have a Plan B for it and the only option is to succeed,” he said. “Make it uncomfortable for yourself and eventually you will do it.”