--- title: Ed Sheeran Sings Ain't No Sunshine on Late Show: Video description: He paid tribute to Bill Withers on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' canonical: https://time.com/4057896/ed-sheeran-aint-no-sunshine-colbert/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-01T17:00:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:46:56.447Z og:title: Watch Ed Sheeran's Soulful Cover of 'Ain't No Sunshine' og:description: He paid tribute to Bill Withers on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' og:url: https://time.com/4057896/ed-sheeran-aint-no-sunshine-colbert/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Ed Sheeran's Soulful Cover of 'Ain't No Sunshine' twitter:description: He paid tribute to Bill Withers on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Ed Sheeran's Soulful Cover of 'Ain't No Sunshine' by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Oct 1, 2015 5:00 PM CUT by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Oct 1, 2015 5:00 PM CUT Ed Sheeran’s cover game has been strong lately. On Saturday, he [performed](http://time.com/4051900/ed-sheeran-beyonce-drunk-in-love-2/ "undefined") “Drunk in Love” alongside Queen Beyoncé herself, and on Wednesday, he took on the Bill Withers classic “Ain’t No Sunshine.” The British singer-songwriter appeared on _The Late Show with Stephen Colbert_ to honor Withers ahead of his Carnegie Hall tribute concert Thursday night. (Sheeran is one of the many musicians who [will perform](http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2015/10/1/0800/PM/Celebrating-the-Music-of-Bill-Withers/ "undefined") during that show.) With the help of _The Late Show_ band and a comfortable-looking flannel shirt, Sheeran delivers a solid and soulful performance. ### A Photographic History of Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift Being BFFs  Ed Sheeran poses with Taylor Swift backstage before his sold-out show at Madison Square Garden Arena on November 1, 2013 in New York City. Anna Webber—Getty Images  Taylor Swift was joined on stage by Ed Sheeran as she kicked off the European leg of her blockbuster The RED Tour with the first of five sold-out shows at London's O2 Arena, playing to a capacity crowd of more than 15,500 fans, on February 1, 2014 in London, England. Gareth Cattermole—TAS/Getty Images  Taylor Swift joins Ed Sheeran on stage at his sold-out show at Madison Square Garden Arena on November 1, 2013 in New York City. Anna Webber—Getty Images  Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift attend the 56th GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on January 26, 2014 in Los Angeles, Ca. Kevin Mazur—WireImage/Getty Images  Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran attend the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted on March 2, 2014 in West Hollywood, Ca. Kevin Mazur—WireImage/Getty Images  Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran perform onstage at the first of 13 North American stadium dates on The RED Tour at Ford Field in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 48,000 fans on May 4, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan. Christopher Polk—TAS/Getty Images  Singers Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran perform together at Z100's Jingle Ball 2012 at Madison Square Garden on Friday Dec. 7, 2012 in New York City. Evan Agostini—Invision/AP  Ed Sheeran made a special surprise appearance onstage during the finale of the North American portion of Taylor Swift's RED tour. The show played to a crowd of more than 14,000 fans on the final night of three sold-out hometown shows at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on September 21, 2013. Larry Busacca—TAS/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4057896/ed-sheeran-aint-no-sunshine-colbert/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4057896/ed-sheeran-aint-no-sunshine-colbert/"},"headline":"Watch Ed Sheeran's Soulful Cover of 'Ain't No Sunshine'","datePublished":"2015-10-01T17:00:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:46:56.447Z","description":"He paid tribute to Bill Withers on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'","url":"https://time.com/4057896/ed-sheeran-aint-no-sunshine-colbert/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4057896/ed-sheeran-aint-no-sunshine-colbert/","name":"Watch Ed Sheeran's Soulful Cover of 'Ain't No Sunshine'"}}]}] ```