Ed Sheeran On 'Howard Stern': Rihanna Almost Sang “Love Yourself” As “F**k Yourself” (AUDIO)

(Howard Stern Show)

Ed Sheeran revealed on Tuesday's "Howard Stern Show" that the hit song "Love Yourself," which he wrote for Justin Bieber, was originally titled "F**k Yourself" and intended for Rihanna. Listen to audio from the interview below!

The singer explained on Stern's SiriusXM radio show that when he first penned the track, "The lyrics were meant to be, 'If you like the way you look that much, well baby you should go and f**k yourself.'" Sheeran further noted that Rihanna came to mind while he was writing the explicit version of the song, adding, "Hearing Rihanna, kind of like coming in with a bit of that swag… Rihanna could get away with saying, 'You should go and f**k yourself.' I was like, 'If anyone was going to finish this song, it should be her.'"

Sheeran had a change of heart, however, after discovering that Bieber had matured as an artist. "His songs were sounding more and more grown up, and I was like, 'He probably could finish this and really make this special,'" the musician told Stern. "It kind of came at a zeitgeist time in his career where he had fallen out of grace with the public and he had this comeback song that was quite grown up… So I was like, 'This could actually work.'" Listen to a highlight from Sheeran's "Howard Stern Show" interview below!