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The Stay With Me singer, 25, was

Interviewed by Elton John for the October, 2017 issue of Attitude magazine, Smith has said watching Ed Sheeran over the past year has been “incredible” but added it has made him “hungry” for his own success.

Smith released his first new music in two years, a single titled Too Good At Goodbyes, on September 8.

“I sang on Eric Clapton’s album,” Sheeran confirms to PEOPLE. “He’s the reason I started playing guitar. It’s one thing having him on mine, but being his, that’s an honor that you can’t ever pinpoint on how great that is. That was really cool.”

Online speculation ran rampant that Sheeran and Clapton, 71, worked together since the Cream veteran released his latest solo album last May. And Sheeran previously remained coy about their joint creative endeavors.

“I did something for his record, and I was credited as ‘Angelo Mysterioso,’ and he did something for my record and was credited as ‘Angelo Mysterioso,'” Sheeran told Beats 1’s Zane Lowe earlier this year. Indeed, “Angelo Mysterioso” appears as a guest on Clapton’s “I Will Be There” — which he has performed live with Sheeran — as well as in the credits on Sheeran’s new song “Dive.” (George Harrison previously collaborated with Clapton under the same pseudonym before he died in 2001.)

As for how Sheeran and Clapton got to know each other?

“Lots of emailing, and then going for dinner,” Sheeran says. “It wasn’t an instant thing. Usually, collaborations are like, ‘Let’s work together!’ But we emailed for a while, then I went round to his, he came around to mine, then I went round to his, and he came round to mine, and it was about two years of being friends — and then we just started making music.”