AceShowbiz - Ed Sheeran recently opened up about a surprising choice he made amid a lengthy copyright lawsuit that spanned nearly a decade. Speaking to a crowd of 70,000 at Accor Stadium in Sydney during the first of three shows, the British singer-songwriter revealed why he hasn’t owned a mobile phone since 2015.

The lawsuit, which accused Sheeran of copying elements of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 hit “Let’s Get It On” in his 2014 single “Thinking Out Loud,” was filed in 2015 and carried on until a New York jury ruled in Sheeran’s favor in 2023. The legal battle, which involved a staggering $100 million claim, put the singer in an unexpected position.

“In the last 10 years, if you have seen my name in the news it might be related to a lawsuit – a copyright lawsuit in 2015,” Sheeran explained to the audience. “I got sued for a song by someone else that had said I had stolen their song, and the only thing I could do in that situation, because I hadn’t done it, was take it to court and prove that I hadn’t done it.”

As part of the court proceedings, Sheeran was required to surrender all his electronic devices so that investigators could examine messages, emails, and files that might be relevant to the case. Reflecting on this, he joked, “All I’ll say is that I’m glad there’s nothing weird on them, you know.”

What’s more revealing is that Sheeran disclosed he stopped using mobile phones altogether after his 2015 Australian tour. “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,’” he shared. Since then, he has relied exclusively on email for communication.

The moment Sheeran had to power on the old phone again for the lawsuit was deeply emotional. “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,” he said. This experience brought back a flood of memories from that period of his life.

During the Sydney concert, Sheeran also performed several of his chart-topping hits such as “Castle on the Hill,” “Shape of You,” and “Perfect,” delighting fans while reflecting on the personal impact of the legal ordeal.

Despite the intense scrutiny and challenges posed by the lawsuit, Sheeran’s career endured, and the court’s final decision cleared him of the allegations. The experience, however, left a lasting impression on the artist’s relationship with technology and privacy.

This chapter of Sheeran’s life underscores the complexities artists face in protecting their creative work while navigating the demands and invasions of modern legal battles.