Ed Sheeran Stopped Using Mobile Phone in 2015 After Copyright Lawsuit, Writes Song About Experience

Ed Sheeran has revealed he has not owned or regularly used a mobile phone since 2015, a decision he says stemmed from a lengthy copyright lawsuit over alleged similarities between “Thinking Out Loud” and Marvin Gaye's “Let's Get It On.” The legal battle, which began in 2017 and concluded in 2023 with Sheeran's acquittal, required him to hand over electronic devices and review years of messages as part of the court process.

During a Loop Tour stop in Sydney, Sheeran reflected on the turning point. 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 got sued for a song by someone else who said I'd 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."

He explained that, during a tour of Australia in 2015, when his devices were requested as evidence, he chose to stop using his phone altogether and switch to email. He quipped: “All I'll say is that I'm glad there's nothing weird on them, you know."

Sheeran said revisiting old messages for the case unsettled him and reinforced his decision to live without a mobile phone. He described powering up the device again only because the court required it. He continued: “I opened it again for this lawsuit, and it was like going through a time machine right back to 2015 and even to 2007, when I first started texting on that number. It proper spun me out. I was frozen in time."

The ordeal inspired a new song, “Old Phone,” which he performed in a stadium setting and later included on his album Play. Sheeran said, “I find whenever anything negative happens, I write a song about it, and it somehow makes sense of that bad thing. And it also works with something good that happens.. I write a song about it. Any song you hear of mine is basically like two-minute extremities. Either I feel a lot of this, or I feel a lot of this. I find when the bad days happen, good songs come from it."