Los Angeles, February 16 – Ed Sheeran has revealed the reason he stopped using his mobile phone, and how this decision inspired one of his songs. The Grammy-winning singer also revealed that he now sends emails instead of text messages.
During his recent Loop Tour stop at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, the 34-year-old singer spoke to fans about the fallout from his 2015 Marvin Gaye copyright lawsuit, which ended in his favour as the court ruled that he had not copied "Let's Get It On," stating that the legal battle changed the way he communicates forever.
He told the audience: "In the last 10 years, if you've seen my name in the news, it might be related to a lawsuit. I was sued by someone else for a song, who claimed that I had stolen their song, and the only thing I could do, because I hadn't done it, was take it to court and prove that I hadn't done it."
As part of the process, Sheeran was required to hand over his electronic devices so investigators could review messages and files, according to femalefirst.co.uk.
He quipped: "All I'll say is that I'm glad there's nothing weird on them, you know."
Sheeran revealed that he hasn't owned a mobile phone since the lawsuit was filed, saying that he originally turned it off during his 2015 Australian tour and never turned it back on.
He recalled: "I remember at the end of that tour thinking, 'I don't want to use a mobile phone again.' I switched to email and I've been using email since then."
When the device was later requested as evidence, turning it on felt like stepping into a time capsule.
He continued: "I turned it on again for this lawsuit, and it was like going back in time to 2015, and even to 2007, when I first started texting on that number. It was really overwhelming. I felt like I was frozen in time."
This experience ultimately inspired "Old Phone," a track from his upcoming 2025 album Play, which Sheeran performed live for the stadium audience.
He explained that turning difficult moments into music has always been his way of processing life.
Sheeran said: "I find that whenever anything negative happens, I write a song about it, and it somehow makes sense of that bad thing. And it also helps me to process something good that happens. I write a song about it. Any song you hear of mine is basically like two-minute therapy. Either I feel a lot of this, or I feel a lot of this. I find that when the bad days happen, good songs come out of it."