Rabat – On February 14, during the concert “Loop Tour” in Sydney, Ed Sheeran revealed a personal story that surprised many fans: he has not owned a mobile phone since 2015. 

The reason why he stopped carrying a mobile phone was the $100 million (MAD 914 million) copyright lawsuit, filed in 2015, which alleged that his song “Thinking Out Loud” copied elements of “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye. 

As part of the legal process, Sheeran had to hand over his electronic devices so investigators could check messages and files. 

While on stage, the artist joked that he was glad there was “nothing weird” on the machine. 

After eight years, the jury assigned to his lawsuit decided that Sheeran had not copied the song in 2023. 

It was during this period that Sheeran stopped using a mobile phone. 

Referring to Australia, Sheeran stated, “I did a tour down here 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’.” 

“I moved to email and I’ve used email since then.” 

After these years, when the lawsuit allowed him to turn the phone back on, mixed feelings welled up in his heart. 

“It proper like spun me out. I was like frozen in time,” Sheeran added. 

“I opened it again for this lawsuit and I switched it on to go through the emails and text messages and that sort of stuff 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,” he emphasized. 

He also found messages from friends who have since passed away and from family members he had not spoken to in years. 

For Sheeran, stepping away from his phone may have started as a simple decision. However, this experience, being forced to hand over his devices in court unexpectedly led to one of his most personal songs inspiring a new song titled “Old Phone” from his 2025 album “Play”, which he performed for this concert. 

Sheeran said that whenever something negative happens in his life, he turns it into music. Writing songs helps him understand both the difficult and happy moments. 

“I find whenever anything negative happens in my life, I write a song about it and it somehow makes sense of that bad thing that’s happened,” the artist told his fans. 

“And it also works with something good that happens in my life – I write a song about it. I find when the bad days happen, good songs come from it.”