Ed Sheeran talks about 2012 photo with the late Queen Elizabeth II

Ed Sheeran opened up about meeting with the late Queen Elizabeth II during his appearance on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week.

The photo was from Sheeran's performance at the Queen's Jubilee in 2012 after the crooner had seen success with his song, The A Team, detailed PEOPLE.

The Shape of You singer recalled that when he was introduced to the late monarch, who passed away on September 8, she initially didn’t much of a reaction.

“This is a fun picture because she was smiling when she met me. That was really, really early stages of my career. I had released, like, one hit single, and I was playing her Jubilee,” Sheeran said about the 2012 photo. “But I was next to a really famous comedian who like, cracked a joke while she was shaking my hand. So, I've got this picture of her delighted to see me.”

As Sheeran told Colbert, it was her previous Golden Jubilee in 2002 that inspired him to become a performing musician. When he was just 11, Sheeran saw a performance of Eric Clapton at the event on television and knew he wanted to emulate him.

"Eric Clapton comes on and does the first opening bit of 'Layla.' I'm like, 'What is that?' " Sheeran recalled. "And he finishes the song, and I knew in that instant, I was like, 'I want to be that. I want to have a guitar, and I want to sing on stage.' And 10 years later, I'm playing the same thing, and I just played the one 10 years on from that as well."