Authorities in India didn’t want Ed Sheeran thinking out loud — or at least singing out loud.

The English singer-songwriter was stopped by police from performing on the street in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru on Sunday, with officers saying he didn’t have the necessary authorization to do so.

Videos circulating online show Sheeran, dressed in a white T-shirt and green cargo shorts, playing guitar and singing his hit song “Shape of You” when a policeman motions for him to stop, and then unplugs his microphone, much to the crowd’s disappointment.

Sheeran can later be heard telling the crowd, “We have permission to be here, but this policeman is shutting it down. See you later!” Per the BBC, he later said in a since-expired Instagram Story, “We had permission to busk, by the way. Hence, us playing in that exact spot was planned out before. It wasn’t just us randomly turning up. All good though. See you at the show tonight.”

Authorities told the local news agency ANI that Sheeran’s team’s request to busk on the road was rejected to avoid increased traffic in the area. “A member among the event organisers came to meet me to seek permission for the Streetside performance at Church Street. I refused to give permission because Church Street gets very crowded. That is the reason he was asked to vacate the place,” Shekar T Tekkannanavar, police deputy commissioner for central Bengaluru, told the outlet.

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The British pop star is quite popular in India, where he is busy performing a series of concerts as part of his worldwide Mathematics tour, including two shows in Bengaluru at the NICE Grounds. According to the BBC, Sheeran surprised fans at those shows by singing two songs in the Telugu language with singer Shilpa Rao. Next up, he is set to perform shows in Shillong and Delhi. He also played in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune earlier this year.

According to reports, Sheeran is a longtime fan of performing on the street — or busking — having started his career doing so in addition to playing at smaller, more local venues before hitting it big. And, as demonstrated by this recent encounter, he still enjoys street performing from time to time, despite being a four-time Grammy-winning, internationally successful artist.