Ed Sheeran reveals $100 million lawsuit inspired one deeply personal song

Ed Sheeran revealed his decade-old copyright lawsuit forever changed his relationship…with his mobile phone.

On Friday, February 14, the Perfect hitmaker kicked off the Sydney leg of his Loop Tour and took a pause during the set to talk about how the legal proceedings inspired one of his most personal songs.

While addressing fans at Accor Stadium, the Grammy winner reflected on the $100 million lawsuit accusing his song Thinking Out Loud of copying Marvin Gaye’s Let's Get It On.

Although he was cleared in 2023, the legal process required him to hand over his old phone.

“I did a tour down here [in Australia] for Multiply in 2015 and I remember at the end of that tour, I switched that phone off and going, ‘I do not want to use a mobile phone again,’” the Shape of You chart-topper recalled. “I moved to email and I’ve used email since then.”

When he turned the device back on years later, it felt like a “time machine,” resurfacing emotional memories including messages from friends who had passed away.

“I opened it again for this lawsuit,” Taylor Swift's longtime pal continued. “and it was like going through a time machine to right back to 2015, but not only back to 2015 but to 2007, when I started texting on this number.”

“It proper like spun me out. I was like frozen in time,” he added, noting that he found old conversations with friends who had since died and with family members he had not spoken to in years.

That deeply personal moment inspired Sheeran's 2025 song Old Phone from the album Play.