Ed Sheeran easily sold out two shows at Dublin’s Croke Park in July, and the British hit machine couldn’t have been nicer or more humble according to one of Ireland’s musical icons.

Christy Moore has long been a favorite of Sheeran, who has lots of family in Ireland and spent summers there with his Irish grandparents. Sheeran – who introduced Courteney Cox to her Irish fiancé, Johnny McDaid of Snow Patrol – asked Moore to take the Croke Park stage with him, but the folk star declined.

Though he was “very tempted,” Moore told RTE interviewer Marian Finucane, “There’s a certain kind of a gig that I have to put out an energy I’m not comfortable putting out. I prefer smaller gigs.”

Sheeran, 24, took no offense at all, and even spent time at Moore’s home before his Saturday show where he “drank tea and sang songs.”

"He left the house at 5 p.m. to go into Croke Park and sing in front of 80,000 people as calm as. He's a lovely, lovely young man,” Moore enthused.

Moore attended one of the shows and said Sheeran hung out backstage with his parents and assorted other Irish relatives until five minutes before showtime.