Ed Sheeran joined Jimmy Fallon for the latest “Subway Busking” bit on Tuesday night’s (April 8) Tonight Show. As usual, there were costumes involved in a vain attempt to throw commuters off the scent. In this case, the pair went with an emo theme, with both men wearing all-black outfits and slouchy grey beanies accented by oversized black shades and a variety of fake facial piercings.
“Hey everybody, we’re Frat Poison,” Fallon told the gathered strap-hangers waiting on a train in the 50th St. station below Rockefeller Center in a low voice as Sheeran began strumming his acoustic guitar while busting out an unplugged version of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club.” While Fallon held a lyric print-out to make sure he got the words right, the growing crowd of fans needed no such cheat sheets, eagerly joining in to sing “God, what have you done/ You’re a pink pony girl/ And you dance at the club.”
By the time the chorus rolled around, the commuters were in full voice, shouting along (and filming the whole thing for posterity), as Fallon banged on a tambourine. Then, as if anyone was fooled, the talk show host pulled off his hat, wig and snap-on nose and lip piercings and Sheeran pulled of his wig to reveal his signature carrot top to shouts of joy.
The singer then busted into his latest single, “Azizam,” cueing up a rhythm on his trusty loop rig, crooning the world beat song while Fallon worked the tambourine and danced around excitedly.
On his Instagram, Sheeran shared a carousel of snaps from the performance (as well as a bunch of silly selfies from his long promo week), captioning the first one “genuinely had a MySpace photo like this when I was 14.” In another full look at his bondage pants and beanie outfit, Sheeran joked, “what band name am I lead singer of? Jimmy called us Frat Poison,” followed by a close-up of his clip-on lip ring (“fake lip piercing but might just do it yolo”).
Check out Sheeran and Fallon busking below.
