Ed Sheeran has long had affection for Wheatus’ 2000 single “Teenage Dirtbag.” The quirky folk-rock anthem has stuck with him since before he became an international star.
Despite being a fan for most of his life, Sheeran, now 34, had never sung it live — until Saturday night (July 5) in Hamburg, Germany. At that show, he surprised the audience by bringing out Wheatus frontman Brendan B. Brown to join him onstage for a performance of the band’s iconic track.
“I’ve got a cool surprise for you, it’s really quite cool, but bear with me,” Sheeran said to the crowd, sharing that he used to play the song in a high school band. That group briefly reunited in April for a friend’s wedding, which led to a rediscovery of the song. “When we were playing, we played a song we used to play when we were 12. And I said, ‘F–king hell, isn’t this a great song?,’” he recalled. “I wanna play this live.” He then brought his two friends and Brown onstage with him.
“He’s flown over especially from New York just for this, and it’s gonna be f–king awesome,” Sheeran told the crowd about Brown’s appearance. “This is one of my favorite songs of all time.”
Sheeran later shared the moment on Instagram, repeating the story: “Used to play ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ with my high school band when I was 12. We reformed after 22 years to play our mates wedding in April, but we had so much fun I asked them to come rock it with me at a stadium.” A video post featured the band’s energetic performance.
“I cheekily asked Brendan from @wheatusofficial to come over and rock it with us, and being the ledge that he is, he did. One of my fav moments ever on stage, thank you Brendan. What a night,” Sheeran added, with images showing him alongside his longtime friends as they performed the track, singing the memorable line “‘Cause I’m just a teenage dirtbag, baby.”
The clip also showed Sheeran and Brown rehearsing in an empty Volksparkstadion, then performing to a full audience, with Sheeran energetically playing electric guitar next to Brown. Brown commented on the video: “BEST DAY EVER!!!! [heart emoji].”
Sheeran’s Mathematics tour resumes on Friday (July 11) with three shows at Portman Road in Ipswich, U.K.
Check out footage of the “Teenage Dirtbag” summit below.
singing teenage dirtbag with 60.000 other people at a ed sheeran concert was not on my bingocard pic.twitter.com/YhDrcGQ59J
— fabian (@fabi_5640) July 5, 2025
