Ed Sheeran was devastated when his mentor and friend, the Australian music impresario Michael Gudinski, died on March 2, 2021. During this heartfelt tribute to his late father figure, the English singer wishes there were visiting hours in heaven. Then he could update him on the progress of his daughter, Lara, and get his advice on being a dad.
Sheeran jetted to Australia so he could perform at Gudinski's state memorial concert on March 24, 2021. The singer was forced to quarantine for two weeks in order to attend the funeral, and in that time he finished the moving song near the Hawkesbury River, which flows northwest of Sydney. He sang this song at the service, introducing it by saying: "In lockdown, I was able to have a guitar for quarantine. I always find the best way to process stuff is to write songs - be it good news, bad news, or whatever, and, yeah – here's a song I finished last week."
During the memorial service, Ed Sheeran sang another a couple of songs with one of Michael's close friends, Kylie Minogue. After hanging out with another of the late impresario's buddies, Australian singer-songwriter Jimmy Barnes, Sheeran recruited Minogue and Barnes to provide backing vocals for the studio recording of "Visiting Hours." He explained on the Australian radio show Ash London LIVE that he asked the pair knowing they were the most important people in Gudinski's life musically. "I got back to England, I recorded it and sent it off to them and they're on it," he said. Sheeran added that Michael Gudinski used to ask him to send him songs for Jimmy Barnes. "I used to send him loads," he said. "He always wanted me to sing with Kylie and I ended up getting to sing with her."
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