ED SHEERAN is sitting in his dressing room in Melbourne Cricket Ground. In the background, Tom Jones can be heard soundchecking.

"We're singing the Prince song, Kiss, together," says Sheeran, "but we've already rehearsed that."

The night before, Sheeran and his new pal Tom – who performed together in Australia last week – went out for a few glasses of wine, and the 74-year-old regaled 23-year-old Sheeran with stories of appearing in The Simpsons and hanging out with Elvis Presley in Las Vegas.

This is the world in which Sheeran now lives, where rather than him seeking out the biggest names in music, they request an audience with him.

Elton John asked to perform with Sheeran at the Grammy Awards in 2013, and Paul McCartney, after a concert, earlier this year, marking the 50th anniversary of The Beatles landing in America, invited him to his trailer for a margarita.

"I wasn't expecting that one. I was with my parents and ready to go home for the night, and the next minute, that happened," he says, like it was no big deal.

He counts Taylor Swift and Harry Styles among his closest showbiz friends, and while recording his second album X last year, Friends star Courteney Cox let him stay in her Malibu home.

Sheeran had been performing in LA when Spin City and Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, and his actor wife Christa Miller, asked if their daughter could have her photo taken with him after the show. "The next night, I was having dinner in Malibu and Bill and Christa were in the same restaurant. They came over to thank me for being nice to their daughter and then invited me to a house party. I thought, 'Why not?' It turned out to be Courteney's house party. It was miles from anywhere, and I'd sent my driver home so I had to stay over, and that's when we became friends," the singer explains.

The Hebden Bridge-born performer is a long way from Framlingham, the Suffolk village where he grew up, but spend any amount of time with Sheeran and it's not hard to understand why so many A-listers want to hang out with him; he's impeccably mannered for a start, and down to earth in a way most multi-million-selling artists just aren't. Unassuming isn't the word.

He admits he's changed a bit, though, since his first album was released and worldwide fame followed. He's a bit more paranoid, and wary around new people, he says, but he's generally much happier with his lot than he was three years ago.

"I was quite well-known among people my age, from the mix-tapes and YouTube videos that were doing the rounds, so I would get stopped and asked for photos and things," he says. "That still happens, although four years ago, I was broke, so there wasn't the upside. Now I'm financially comfortable, and I've made my family financially comfortable, I can see the rewards."

Other musicians seek him out too, including Pharrell Williams and producer Rick Rubin, who both went to Sheeran offering their services on a collaboration. The track with Williams, Sing, resulted in a No 1 single, while Rubin produced two tracks on X.

Of Sing, he says it was the first time he's tried to write a song without a deep, emotional meaning.

He says if the aftermath of his debut album, called +, taught him anything, it was that his songs were being used as emotional crutches by his fans.

"I'd get people talking to me saying they'd listened to my record on their own in their bedroom, while eating ice cream and crying, or that they'd listened to my record after they'd broken up with a partner, so it was a very melancholic album. I learned I need to give people some fun here and there. I am not a hugely depressed person, I like to have fun and the melancholy doesn't reflect who I am. Sometimes, it's just good to sing about stuff that's pointless."

So far, X is the fastest-selling album in the UK this year, having sold 180,000 copies during its first week, beating Coldplay's Ghost Stories, which had previously held the record, by around 15,000 copies.

"Yeah, but," counters Sheeran, "that Coldplay album is the only one they've not really promoted, so they could still beat me if they wanted."

After his sold-out visit to Tyneside, he's off around the world again, due to finish up next August, when he plans to take a break and write some more songs.

"This is the first tour I've ever done where I set off on one date and know when I'm going to finish. All my other tours have started, and then 30-date tours in other countries keep getting added as we go along," says Sheeran. "This time, it's structured, and if there's one thing I've been lacking for the past few years, it's structure."

He plays the MetroRadio Arena, Newcastle, on Saturday, October 25. edsheeran.com/live n Ed Sheeran: A Visual Journey by Ed Sheeran & Phillip Butah (Cassell Illustrated, £18.99. Available next Thursday)