WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.839 I want you to take a second and try to imagine 00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:07.719 the most ubiquitous, inescapable sound of the 00:00:07.719 --> 00:00:10.890 2010s and 2020s. Right, that was just... everywhere 00:00:10.890 --> 00:00:13.669 exactly and if you really think about it it's 00:00:13.669 --> 00:00:15.970 not some you know heavily produced multi -million 00:00:15.970 --> 00:00:19.129 dollar synthesizer track from a pop lab yeah 00:00:19.129 --> 00:00:21.589 not at all it's literally just a guy standing 00:00:21.589 --> 00:00:24.410 alone on a stage with a loop pedal and a slightly 00:00:24.410 --> 00:00:27.149 beaten up acoustic guitar which is honestly it's 00:00:27.149 --> 00:00:29.710 the ultimate musical paradox it really is i mean 00:00:29.710 --> 00:00:31.789 the biggest pop star in the world often sounds 00:00:31.789 --> 00:00:34.049 exactly like the guy playing for tips at your 00:00:34.049 --> 00:00:36.729 local pub down the street yeah but when you look 00:00:36.729 --> 00:00:40.280 closely at the mechanics of it That loop pedal 00:00:40.280 --> 00:00:43.179 is actually the key to everything. Oh, so? Well, 00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:45.820 he steps on a pedal to record a beat that he 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:48.700 just taps on the wood of his guitar, right? And 00:00:48.700 --> 00:00:51.020 then it loops instantly. Then he sings a harmony 00:00:51.020 --> 00:00:53.979 over it, loops that, adds a bass line, and suddenly... 00:00:53.979 --> 00:00:55.960 Suddenly one guy sounds like an entire stadium 00:00:55.960 --> 00:00:59.840 band. Exactly. It's brilliant. And that paradox... 00:00:59.719 --> 00:01:01.939 is exactly what's staring us in the face today 00:01:01.939 --> 00:01:04.260 as we jump into this deep dive. Yeah, we've got 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:06.359 some great material today. We are looking at 00:01:06.359 --> 00:01:11.239 a newly updated 2026 biographical dossier on 00:01:11.239 --> 00:01:13.879 Edward Christopher Sheeran. It's Sheeran, obviously. 00:01:14.019 --> 00:01:17.239 The man himself. And our mission here is to deconstruct 00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:19.859 the architecture of a modern megastar. Right. 00:01:20.019 --> 00:01:22.620 To figure out how it all actually happened. Exactly. 00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:27.060 How does a self -described awkward kid from Suffolk 00:01:27.390 --> 00:01:30.670 become this absolute global Titan, a guy who 00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:34.090 rubs shoulders with Beyonce by stakes in professional 00:01:34.090 --> 00:01:36.390 football clubs. And as we'll see later, which 00:01:36.390 --> 00:01:38.769 is mind blowing, is actively planning his own 00:01:38.769 --> 00:01:41.900 posthumous career. Yeah, that part is wild. And 00:01:41.900 --> 00:01:43.799 whether you're a diehard fan or just someone 00:01:43.799 --> 00:01:46.120 who occasionally taps your foot to the radio, 00:01:46.620 --> 00:01:49.180 his trajectory is genuinely a masterclass. Oh, 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:51.739 for sure. It's this incredible study in relentless 00:01:51.739 --> 00:01:54.260 hustle, strategic adaptability, and the power 00:01:54.260 --> 00:01:56.299 of controlling your own narrative in an industry 00:01:56.299 --> 00:01:58.480 that usually just chews artists up. It really 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:01.019 is. So to understand those crazy streaming records, 00:02:01.459 --> 00:02:03.040 I think we have to look at the foundation first. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:05.180 Because before you break the internet, you have 00:02:05.180 --> 00:02:08.139 to literally break a sweat on the street. Exactly. 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:11.039 The level of grind documented in this dossier 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:14.300 is just, it's hard to overstate. It really is. 00:02:14.659 --> 00:02:16.340 We start with this album called Spitting Man 00:02:16.340 --> 00:02:19.979 from 2004. Sharon is just 13 years old at this 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:23.180 point. Just a kid. Yeah. And he writes 14 songs, 00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:26.259 all of them rhyming, mostly about his first love, 00:02:26.460 --> 00:02:28.840 Claire. Right. But he doesn't just write them 00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:32.819 in a notebook. He personally burns 20 CD copies 00:02:32.819 --> 00:02:35.469 of the album himself. And the detail that always 00:02:35.469 --> 00:02:37.509 stands out to me there is that today he actually 00:02:37.509 --> 00:02:41.270 owns 19 of those 20 copies. Wait, really? He 00:02:41.270 --> 00:02:42.669 bought them back? Yeah, he bought them back just 00:02:42.669 --> 00:02:44.530 so no one else can hear them. That is amazing. 00:02:44.629 --> 00:02:47.949 I know, right? It just shows this innate... almost 00:02:47.949 --> 00:02:52.150 compulsive drive to create and package his work 00:02:52.150 --> 00:02:54.409 from such a young age. But the real acceleration 00:02:54.409 --> 00:02:56.229 happens a few years later, right? Like around 00:02:56.229 --> 00:02:59.449 2008. Yeah, 2008. He moves to London and just 00:02:59.449 --> 00:03:01.789 starts gigging constantly. I mean, playing literary 00:03:01.789 --> 00:03:03.750 anywhere that will have him. Right. Any open 00:03:03.750 --> 00:03:06.229 mic night. But he's also really smart about utilizing 00:03:06.229 --> 00:03:08.969 early digital platforms. Like he starts posting 00:03:08.969 --> 00:03:12.150 videos on SBTV. Which, for those who might not 00:03:12.150 --> 00:03:15.979 remember, SBTV was this vital urban music channel 00:03:15.979 --> 00:03:18.639 in the UK. Yeah, massively important. It was 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:21.219 primarily known for showcasing underground rap 00:03:21.219 --> 00:03:25.360 and grime artists. Grime being that really fast 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:28.840 -paced aggressive UK rap scene. Exactly. And 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:31.620 here comes Ed Sheeran. This acoustic folk pop 00:03:31.620 --> 00:03:34.039 guy. Right. Inserting himself into that totally 00:03:34.039 --> 00:03:36.960 different ecosystem. He even puts out an independent 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:40.099 E -Key, the NUP5 collaborations project, featuring 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:42.620 those underground grime artists. And it hits 00:03:42.620 --> 00:03:45.580 number two on iTunes with zero label backing. 00:03:45.819 --> 00:03:48.479 Nothing. Which is insane. He was bridging gaps 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:50.219 that the traditional music industry didn't even 00:03:50.219 --> 00:03:52.900 realize existed yet. And that hustle leads directly 00:03:52.900 --> 00:03:56.900 to that legendary 2011 gig at the Camden Barfly. 00:03:57.099 --> 00:04:00.099 Oh yeah, the Barfly. So the dossier notes a thousand 00:04:00.099 --> 00:04:02.599 fans show up to this tiny venue that like maybe 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:04.460 hold a couple hundred people. Most artists would 00:04:04.460 --> 00:04:06.259 just tell the bouncer, you know, sorry, we're 00:04:06.259 --> 00:04:08.680 at capacity and go play their set. But Xion doesn't 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:10.979 do that. He plays four different sets that night. 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:14.599 Four sets. He cycles the crowd through. And then 00:04:14.599 --> 00:04:18.240 he even plays a final set outside on the literal 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:21.399 street after the venue closed just to make sure 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:23.220 every single person who showed up got to see 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:26.759 him play. That is just wild dedication. Right. 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:28.620 Reading this, I kept thinking it's the musical 00:04:28.620 --> 00:04:31.040 equivalent of that classic Paul Graham advice 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:33.980 to Silicon Valley startup founders. Oh, the do 00:04:33.980 --> 00:04:36.660 things that don't scale thing. Exactly. Do things 00:04:36.660 --> 00:04:38.720 that don't scale. That is a perfect analogy. 00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:41.790 I mean... Playing four sets in a row to 100 people 00:04:41.790 --> 00:04:44.670 at a time is the literal definition of an unscalable 00:04:44.670 --> 00:04:47.069 activity. It really is. It's brute forcing the 00:04:47.069 --> 00:04:49.550 algorithm in real life. It's like the CEO hand 00:04:49.550 --> 00:04:51.310 delivering the first product to the consumer. 00:04:51.370 --> 00:04:53.850 He wasn't waiting to be discovered by some executive. 00:04:54.089 --> 00:04:55.629 Right. He was forcing himself into the public 00:04:55.629 --> 00:04:58.569 consciousness just through sheer volume of performance. 00:04:58.569 --> 00:05:01.209 Yeah, sheer willpower. OK, but let's unpack this 00:05:01.209 --> 00:05:03.730 a bit. Looking at the scale of this ambition 00:05:03.730 --> 00:05:06.850 and the dossier, part of me reads this and thinks, 00:05:07.550 --> 00:05:10.930 is this whole Boy Next Door with a guitar image. 00:05:11.350 --> 00:05:13.829 Just a brilliantly disguised marketing gimmick. 00:05:14.139 --> 00:05:17.180 Like, for a fiercely ambitious workaholic. Well, 00:05:17.420 --> 00:05:19.519 it's tempting to view it that way now, right? 00:05:19.620 --> 00:05:21.439 From the vantage point of him being a billionaire. 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:23.779 Yeah, exactly. But if you look at the context 00:05:23.779 --> 00:05:27.060 of the late 2000s music industry, that Troubadour 00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:30.000 image wasn't an act. It was a pure necessity. 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:32.620 Because he was broke. Yeah, he didn't have the 00:05:32.620 --> 00:05:35.240 financial backing for massive pop productions 00:05:35.240 --> 00:05:38.220 or backup dancers. But what started as a financial 00:05:38.220 --> 00:05:41.540 necessity... actually became his ultimate superpower. 00:05:41.579 --> 00:05:44.920 How so? By standing on stage alone, he brought 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:48.240 pop music back down to earth. He proved that 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:51.860 radical authenticity and true approachability 00:05:51.860 --> 00:05:54.779 could actually compete head -to -head with manufactured 00:05:54.779 --> 00:05:57.199 pop groups. It's the ultimate minimum viable 00:05:57.199 --> 00:05:59.500 product. Just him, the guitar, and the songs. 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:02.040 Exactly. But playing Street Corners only gets 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:04.639 you noticed. To scale that to global ubiquity, 00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:07.449 you need a formula. Quite literally, a mathematical 00:06:07.449 --> 00:06:10.110 formula in his case. Right, the math era. From 00:06:10.110 --> 00:06:13.290 2011 to 2023, his main albums are all titled 00:06:13.290 --> 00:06:16.829 with math symbols. Plus, multiply, divide, equals, 00:06:17.009 --> 00:06:18.889 and subtract. And the numbers generated by this 00:06:18.889 --> 00:06:21.110 formula are just staggering. Let's isolate divide 00:06:21.110 --> 00:06:25.259 in 2017, for example. He released two lead singles, 00:06:25.579 --> 00:06:28.399 Shape of You and Castle on the Hill at the exact 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:31.160 same time. They debuted at number one and number 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:33.800 two in multiple countries. Which is unheard of. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:37.040 He completely broke day one Spotify streaming 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:42.120 records, 13 million streams in 24 hours. Wow. 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:45.399 He became the first artist ever to have two songs 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:48.370 debut in the US top 10 in the same week. And 00:06:48.370 --> 00:06:50.810 he's fueling the rest of the pop ecosystem at 00:06:50.810 --> 00:06:53.310 the same time as a ghostwriter, which the dossier 00:06:53.310 --> 00:06:55.310 highlights. Oh, yeah. People forget that part. 00:06:55.389 --> 00:06:59.250 He wrote Love Yourself for Justin Bieber. And 00:06:59.250 --> 00:07:01.490 apparently, Sharon was just going to scrap that 00:07:01.490 --> 00:07:03.870 song from his own album before Bieber took it 00:07:03.870 --> 00:07:05.949 and turned it into a massive global hit. Yeah, 00:07:05.949 --> 00:07:07.930 he was just going to toss it. And he's writing 00:07:07.930 --> 00:07:10.290 tracks for One Direction, too. So he's operating 00:07:10.290 --> 00:07:12.449 the machinery of pop from both the stage and 00:07:12.449 --> 00:07:14.430 the shadows. Which actually brings up a really 00:07:14.430 --> 00:07:16.720 crucial point about his songwriting. Critics 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:19.680 often describe Sheeran's music as being expertly 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:22.759 vague. Okay, wait. Expertly vague. That sounds 00:07:22.759 --> 00:07:26.420 like an insult. Don't we usually praise songwriters 00:07:26.420 --> 00:07:28.939 for highly specific poetic lyrics? We do for 00:07:28.939 --> 00:07:32.040 folk artists, sure. But Sheeran was writing global 00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:35.189 anthems. Think of his music as the open source 00:07:35.189 --> 00:07:37.730 code for modern pop. Open source code? Yeah. 00:07:37.889 --> 00:07:40.990 When he writes a song like Perfect or Photograph, 00:07:41.410 --> 00:07:44.569 he intentionally strips away highly specific 00:07:44.569 --> 00:07:48.470 slang, specific dates, or overly complex narratives. 00:07:48.529 --> 00:07:51.430 Right. He leaves the emotional architecture completely 00:07:51.430 --> 00:07:53.610 intact, like the universal feeling of falling 00:07:53.610 --> 00:07:55.930 in love or the sensory detail of dancing in the 00:07:55.930 --> 00:07:59.290 dark, but he hollows out the specifics. Ah, I 00:07:59.290 --> 00:08:01.610 see. So the listener can just easily insert their 00:08:01.610 --> 00:08:04.620 own life into the song. Precisely. By making 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:07.079 it open source, the song is no longer about Ed 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:09.300 Sheeran's life. It's a vessel for your life. 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:11.120 That makes total sense. That's why his songs 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:13.500 can seamlessly soundtrack a first dance at a 00:08:13.500 --> 00:08:15.660 wedding, a long road trip, or even a funeral 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:18.279 procession. You project your own memories onto 00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:20.860 his chords. Wow, that is brilliant. But you know, 00:08:20.980 --> 00:08:22.779 even the most successful formulas eventually 00:08:22.779 --> 00:08:24.720 break down, or at least they require new inputs. 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:28.980 And in 2023, the dossier shows this massive tonal 00:08:28.980 --> 00:08:31.970 shift with the album Subtract. This wasn't driven 00:08:31.970 --> 00:08:34.210 by chart ambitions at all. It was driven by a 00:08:34.210 --> 00:08:36.370 profound personal crisis. Yeah, a really dark 00:08:36.370 --> 00:08:39.370 period for him. His wife, Cherry Seaborne, was 00:08:39.370 --> 00:08:41.269 diagnosed with a tumor during her pregnancy. 00:08:41.850 --> 00:08:44.309 And around the same time, he lost his very close 00:08:44.309 --> 00:08:46.929 friend, Jamal Edwards. Jamal Edwards being the 00:08:46.929 --> 00:08:49.769 founder of SBTV who helped launch his early career. 00:08:50.029 --> 00:08:52.649 Right, exactly. So Subtract was born out of fear 00:08:52.649 --> 00:08:55.669 and depression. It acted as a complete departure 00:08:55.669 --> 00:08:58.269 from those upbeat pop anthems. It was a stark 00:08:58.269 --> 00:09:00.629 reminder that underneath the open source pop 00:09:00.629 --> 00:09:03.509 machine, there is a real human being processing 00:09:03.509 --> 00:09:06.990 genuine trauma. Yeah. And it also marked the 00:09:06.990 --> 00:09:09.429 beginning of Sheeran actively changing his inputs. 00:09:09.649 --> 00:09:11.429 Just when the industry thought they had him figured 00:09:11.429 --> 00:09:13.710 out as, you know, the ultimate acoustic soft 00:09:13.710 --> 00:09:16.470 pop calculator, he started really defying that 00:09:16.470 --> 00:09:19.029 vanilla label. The influences listed in the dossier 00:09:19.029 --> 00:09:21.379 here are wild, like... Did you know his first 00:09:21.379 --> 00:09:23.659 inspiration to pick up a guitar wasn't a folk 00:09:23.659 --> 00:09:26.480 singer? What was it? He was seeing Eric Clapton 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:30.960 play Lila at the 2002 Queen's Golden Jubilee. 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:34.019 And even more surprising, he used Eminem's The 00:09:34.019 --> 00:09:37.299 Marshall Mathers LP to cure a childhood stutter. 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:41.080 He just obsessively rapped along to Eminem until 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:43.620 the stutter completely faded. That's incredible. 00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:46.279 And his musical appetite is actually far more 00:09:46.279 --> 00:09:48.460 aggressive than his output suggests. What do 00:09:48.460 --> 00:09:51.360 you mean? Well, he has this documented lifelong 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:54.480 love for heavy metal. He grew up reading Karang 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:57.759 magazine. And in 2022, he actually collaborated 00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:00.200 with the pop metal band Bring Me the Horizon. 00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:02.340 Wait, really? Bring to the horizon and it gets 00:10:02.340 --> 00:10:04.480 crazier. He also confirmed he was working on 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:06.559 a collaboration with the Suffolk Extreme metal 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:09.779 band Cradle of Filth. Cradle of Filth, yes. Just 00:10:09.779 --> 00:10:12.279 let that sink in for a second. The guy who wrote 00:10:12.279 --> 00:10:15.139 Thinking Out Loud. is in the studio with a band 00:10:15.139 --> 00:10:18.440 famous for symphonic black metal. It's hilarious. 00:10:18.679 --> 00:10:21.279 A genre known for blast beats, shriek vocals, 00:10:21.779 --> 00:10:24.340 and dark gothic theatrics. And this evolution 00:10:24.340 --> 00:10:26.960 only accelerates from there. If we look at his 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:30.960 2025 album, Play, we see a distinct, deliberate 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:33.690 global pivot. Yeah, tell me about play. So the 00:10:33.690 --> 00:10:36.250 lead single Azizam, which he wrote for his wife, 00:10:36.529 --> 00:10:39.409 has heavy Persian musical influences. And another 00:10:39.409 --> 00:10:41.990 track, Sapphire, features a collaboration with 00:10:41.990 --> 00:10:44.970 the massive Indian playback singer Rijit Singh, 00:10:45.450 --> 00:10:48.269 and it carries distinct Punjabi undertones. OK, 00:10:48.429 --> 00:10:51.350 hold on. Looking at this timeline and the scale 00:10:51.350 --> 00:10:54.519 of his ambition, I have to wonder. Is he a musical 00:10:54.519 --> 00:10:57.659 chameleon genuinely exploring his eclectic tastes, 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:01.000 or is he just data mining global Spotify regions? 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:03.559 That's the big question. Like, is this just a 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:06.139 strategic collection of genres to maintain his 00:11:06.139 --> 00:11:08.299 spot as the number three most followed artist 00:11:08.299 --> 00:11:10.440 on the platform? Honestly, if we connect this 00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:12.779 to the broader reality of the streaming era, 00:11:13.419 --> 00:11:16.559 it's likely a synthesis of both. Okay. True longevity 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:20.379 in 2025 and 2026 requires global fluency. The 00:11:20.379 --> 00:11:22.679 platforms are completely borderless now. Right. 00:11:22.700 --> 00:11:24.759 You're competing with everyone everywhere. Exactly. 00:11:25.039 --> 00:11:27.139 And Sheeran is acutely aware that you can't just 00:11:27.139 --> 00:11:29.620 remain an English folk pop singer forever and 00:11:29.620 --> 00:11:32.120 expect to hold the global number one spot. You 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:34.299 have to reflect the globalized nature of how 00:11:34.299 --> 00:11:37.059 music is actually consumed. Those art and commerce 00:11:37.059 --> 00:11:39.419 together. Yeah. It stems from genuine artistic 00:11:39.419 --> 00:11:42.179 curiosity. Absolutely. But it is deployed with 00:11:42.179 --> 00:11:44.730 brilliant brand management. But when you build 00:11:44.730 --> 00:11:47.370 a catalog that massive and you pull from that 00:11:47.370 --> 00:11:49.889 many cultural influences, you aren't just building 00:11:49.889 --> 00:11:52.149 an audience. You're building a giant target on 00:11:52.149 --> 00:11:55.129 your back. Oh, massively. The price of that ubiquity 00:11:55.129 --> 00:11:58.820 has been incredibly steep for him legally. The 00:11:58.820 --> 00:12:01.899 plagiarism lawsuits have genuinely been a defining 00:12:01.899 --> 00:12:05.179 and frankly exhaustive feature of his later career. 00:12:05.639 --> 00:12:08.279 It started heavily in 2017 when he settled out 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:11.340 of court over claims that his song, Photograph, 00:12:11.659 --> 00:12:14.580 copied a track by a former X Factor winner. And 00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:17.639 the dossier notes he deeply regrets that settlement. 00:12:18.059 --> 00:12:21.000 He said it made him feel dirty and that he actually 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:23.440 stopped playing the song live for ages because 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:25.860 of it. He regrets it because settling a copyright 00:12:25.860 --> 00:12:28.629 claim, even if it's just to make a new go away, 00:12:28.870 --> 00:12:31.629 it puts blood in the water. Oh, I see. It's signaled 00:12:31.629 --> 00:12:33.710 to copyright trolls that Ed Sheeran will pay 00:12:33.710 --> 00:12:36.950 out. And that opened the floodgates for a decade 00:12:36.950 --> 00:12:39.169 of litigation. Right. So he was sued over Shape 00:12:39.169 --> 00:12:41.470 of You, which went to trial, and he won in 2022. 00:12:41.889 --> 00:12:44.490 Thankfully. And then came the absolute titan 00:12:44.490 --> 00:12:46.669 of copyright lawsuits overthinking out loud. 00:12:47.049 --> 00:12:49.070 He was accused of copying the grooving chords 00:12:49.070 --> 00:12:52.070 of Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On. That was a 00:12:52.070 --> 00:12:54.529 huge deal. That went to a massive trial in New 00:12:54.529 --> 00:12:58.450 York in 2023. He won that case with a unanimous 00:12:58.450 --> 00:13:01.090 jury verdict. And the legal battle finally ended 00:13:01.090 --> 00:13:03.909 for good in 2025 when the U .S. Supreme Court 00:13:03.909 --> 00:13:06.289 officially declined to hear an appeal. Those 00:13:06.289 --> 00:13:08.750 victories are monumental, not just for Sharon, 00:13:08.850 --> 00:13:11.929 but for the entire music industry. During those 00:13:11.929 --> 00:13:14.590 trials, his legal team successfully argued what 00:13:14.590 --> 00:13:17.370 they called the building blocks defense. How 00:13:17.370 --> 00:13:19.409 exactly does that work in a courtroom setting? 00:13:19.690 --> 00:13:22.049 Well, they had to demonstrate to a jury that 00:13:22.049 --> 00:13:24.690 basic chord progressions, like a standard 1 -4 00:13:24.690 --> 00:13:27.549 -5 progression, they are the foundational alphabet 00:13:27.549 --> 00:13:30.570 of music. Right. They belong to humanity, not 00:13:30.570 --> 00:13:34.009 to one specific songwriter's estate. By refusing 00:13:34.009 --> 00:13:36.490 to settle shape of you and thinking out loud, 00:13:36.909 --> 00:13:39.190 he took on immense personal stress to defend 00:13:39.190 --> 00:13:41.610 the basic alphabet of pop music. Which effectively 00:13:41.610 --> 00:13:45.190 saved future, less wealthy songwriters from endless 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:47.340 Bankrupting litigation. Exactly. He took the 00:13:47.340 --> 00:13:49.580 hit for everyone else. The psychological pressure 00:13:49.580 --> 00:13:51.960 of sitting in a courtroom, having your fundamental 00:13:51.960 --> 00:13:54.279 creativity dissected like that, it must be insane. 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:57.080 I can't even imagine. But surviving those battles 00:13:57.080 --> 00:13:59.700 seems to have given him an absolute iron grip 00:13:59.700 --> 00:14:02.559 on his narrative moving forward. The dossier 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:05.039 details his play era media control strategy. 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:07.320 He's already announced his next sequence of albums. 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:10.539 Right. Pause, fast forward, rewind and stop. 00:14:10.899 --> 00:14:14.139 Yes, but. The element that absolutely blew my 00:14:14.139 --> 00:14:19.120 mind is the project called Eject. Ah, Eject, 00:14:19.159 --> 00:14:22.320 the posthumous album. Yes. He has been recording 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:25.200 an album called Eject since he was 18 years old. 00:14:25.220 --> 00:14:28.320 18. It is specifically, meticulously designed 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:31.240 to be released only after his death. He's continually 00:14:31.240 --> 00:14:33.539 adding songs to it throughout his life, and his 00:14:33.539 --> 00:14:35.899 wife, Cherry, has been designated to select the 00:14:35.899 --> 00:14:38.230 final track list once he's gone. It's the ultimate 00:14:38.230 --> 00:14:40.710 control freak move, isn't it? It really is. I 00:14:40.710 --> 00:14:42.570 mean, who does that? Well, it is the ultimate 00:14:42.570 --> 00:14:45.029 exertion of control, but it makes perfect sense 00:14:45.029 --> 00:14:47.649 when you look at what he survived. How so? Having 00:14:47.649 --> 00:14:49.830 fought so hard in federal courts just for the 00:14:49.830 --> 00:14:52.210 right to exist in the musical landscape, he is 00:14:52.210 --> 00:14:54.909 now ensuring total absolute control over his 00:14:54.909 --> 00:14:58.429 legacy. He refuses to leave behind a vault of 00:14:58.429 --> 00:15:01.149 unfinished fragmented demos for a record label 00:15:01.149 --> 00:15:04.970 to exploit and remix after he dies. He is actively 00:15:04.970 --> 00:15:08.110 producing his own final statement. That is fascinating. 00:15:08.549 --> 00:15:11.289 But here's the massive disconnect for me. How 00:15:11.289 --> 00:15:14.429 does a guy who is actively planning a posthumous 00:15:14.429 --> 00:15:18.269 global release, a guy who hangs out with royalty 00:15:18.269 --> 00:15:21.730 and tech billionaires, stay tethered to reality? 00:15:22.370 --> 00:15:24.450 Like how do you not float away into the stratosphere 00:15:24.450 --> 00:15:27.149 of your own ego at that point? By remaining stubbornly, 00:15:27.149 --> 00:15:29.769 almost aggressively local, he anchors himself 00:15:29.769 --> 00:15:31.990 to the mundane. Let's look at that grounding 00:15:31.990 --> 00:15:34.590 because the dossier has some great details. He 00:15:34.590 --> 00:15:37.090 bought and renovated a massive farm estate right 00:15:37.090 --> 00:15:39.399 in his hometown of Framlingham, Suffolk. Which 00:15:39.399 --> 00:15:41.740 the UK press affectionately dubbed Sheeranville. 00:15:42.019 --> 00:15:44.340 Yes, Sheeranville. And his charity work isn't 00:15:44.340 --> 00:15:46.679 just writing checks at fancy celebrity galas. 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:49.740 It's hyper local. He regularly donates his actual 00:15:49.740 --> 00:15:52.720 clothing to local Suffolk charity shops. Like 00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:55.039 literally his own clothes. Yeah. Someone actually 00:15:55.039 --> 00:15:57.279 bought the tartan shirt he wore in his Bridget 00:15:57.279 --> 00:15:59.940 Jones's baby movie cameo from a local thrift 00:15:59.940 --> 00:16:02.809 store. That's amazing. And during the COVID -19 00:16:02.809 --> 00:16:05.590 pandemic, he donated over a million pounds to 00:16:05.590 --> 00:16:08.309 local charities in Suffolk. Wow. He even opened 00:16:08.309 --> 00:16:10.549 a breakfast club at his restaurant in Notting 00:16:10.549 --> 00:16:12.789 Hill to provide hot meals for people struggling 00:16:12.789 --> 00:16:16.090 in the community. And we absolutely have to talk 00:16:16.090 --> 00:16:18.870 about his obsession with Ipswich Town Football 00:16:18.870 --> 00:16:21.029 Club. Oh, of course. He doesn't just casually 00:16:21.029 --> 00:16:24.230 support them. He sponsors their kids. The club 00:16:24.230 --> 00:16:27.500 actually gave him an official squad number. Number 00:16:27.500 --> 00:16:30.960 17 a literal squad number and in 2024 He went 00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:34.419 a step further and acquired a 1 .4 percent minority 00:16:34.419 --> 00:16:37.100 ownership stake in the club. He's all in he really 00:16:37.100 --> 00:16:40.029 is oh and the ketchup We can't forget the ketchup. 00:16:40.269 --> 00:16:42.929 The Heinz tattoo. Yes. The dossier highlights 00:16:42.929 --> 00:16:45.149 that he loves Heinz ketchup so much he has the 00:16:45.149 --> 00:16:47.570 label tattooed on his arm, carries a bottle on 00:16:47.570 --> 00:16:50.350 tour everywhere he goes, and successfully pitched 00:16:50.350 --> 00:16:52.409 his own commercial to the company. Which resulted 00:16:52.409 --> 00:16:55.169 in the limited edition Edge Up. Edge Up, exactly. 00:16:55.289 --> 00:16:58.850 It is a fascinating psychological grounding mechanism. 00:16:59.250 --> 00:17:01.950 You have a billionaire who insists on the working 00:17:01.950 --> 00:17:05.099 class signifiers of his youth. But why is that 00:17:05.099 --> 00:17:08.099 so crucial psychologically? Because if you let 00:17:08.099 --> 00:17:10.720 go of Suffolk, you know, if you only hang out 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:12.980 on super yachts and in VIP lounges, you lose 00:17:12.980 --> 00:17:15.339 touch with the mundane realities of everyday 00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:18.019 life. Right. And if you lose that, you lose the 00:17:18.019 --> 00:17:20.400 ability to write that open source pop music we 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:22.680 talked about earlier. You can't write a universally 00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:25.039 relatable song about falling in love at a dive 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:27.599 bar if you haven't been in one in a decade. That 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:30.119 is such a great point. Remaining a local pub 00:17:30.119 --> 00:17:32.259 bloke who wants to watch Ipswich Town and eat 00:17:32.259 --> 00:17:34.980 ketchup? It actively protects his songwriting 00:17:34.980 --> 00:17:39.079 core. It really does. And looking objectively 00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:41.759 at the dossier, and we should pause here to make 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:43.859 something explicitly clear to you listening, 00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:47.400 we're just reporting his public stances as documented 00:17:47.400 --> 00:17:49.680 in the dossier. We aren't taking any side or 00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:52.079 endorsing these views. Absolutely. Strict neutrality. 00:17:52.140 --> 00:17:54.839 Exactly. But it's fascinating to see how he deploys 00:17:54.839 --> 00:17:59.140 this massive global platform when he does choose 00:17:59.140 --> 00:18:02.240 to engage. with the wider political world. Yeah, 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:04.700 the records show he has used his reach for very 00:18:04.700 --> 00:18:07.119 specific political endorsements over the years. 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:10.240 For instance, he publicly endorsed the Labour 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:13.599 Party in the UK, backing Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:16.940 and Keir Starmer in the 2024 general election. 00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:20.500 He also strongly opposed Brexit. signing an open 00:18:20.500 --> 00:18:23.200 letter to the Prime Minister warning of the economic 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:25.400 damage it would do to the UK music industry's 00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:27.640 touring capabilities. Right. And over in the 00:18:27.640 --> 00:18:30.740 US, he used his platform to urge Congress to 00:18:30.740 --> 00:18:33.900 pass the Equality Act, aiming to expand civil 00:18:33.900 --> 00:18:36.779 rights for LGBTQ individuals. And let's not forget, 00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:39.920 in 2022, he performed at the concert for Ukraine 00:18:39.920 --> 00:18:42.519 to raise funds during the Russian invasion. It 00:18:42.519 --> 00:18:44.839 really highlights how he balances being that 00:18:44.839 --> 00:18:48.299 local Suffolk guy with the massive responsibilities 00:18:48.299 --> 00:18:50.930 of a global citizen. For sure. He protects his 00:18:50.930 --> 00:18:53.289 local roots fiercely, but he isn't afraid to 00:18:53.289 --> 00:18:55.210 leverage his ubiquity to try and move the needle 00:18:55.210 --> 00:18:57.789 on real -world issues. It's just an incredible 00:18:57.789 --> 00:18:59.349 evolution. Let's bring all of this together. 00:18:59.609 --> 00:19:01.730 We started with a 13 -year -old kid in his bedroom 00:19:01.730 --> 00:19:04.849 burning 20 CDs of acoustic rhymes about a girl 00:19:04.849 --> 00:19:07.700 named Claire. Just a kid with a guitar. And we've 00:19:07.700 --> 00:19:09.720 followed that kid through relentless street hustling 00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:12.740 in London to breaking the actual math of global 00:19:12.740 --> 00:19:15.339 streaming records to sitting in the Supreme Court 00:19:15.339 --> 00:19:17.880 defending the foundational chords of pop music. 00:19:18.119 --> 00:19:19.940 All while keeping a bottle of Heinz ketchup in 00:19:19.940 --> 00:19:22.960 his bag. Exactly. Yeah. It truly is a testament 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:25.779 to the power of relentless output and controlling 00:19:25.779 --> 00:19:28.500 your own narrative. It really is. And, you know, 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:30.440 building on that revelation about his posthumous 00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:32.140 album, I want to leave you with a final thought 00:19:32.140 --> 00:19:35.470 to ponder. Oh, I like this. Go for it. Ed Sheeran 00:19:35.470 --> 00:19:38.950 is meticulously curating Eject for release after 00:19:38.950 --> 00:19:41.589 he dies. And we live in an era right now where 00:19:41.589 --> 00:19:44.630 artificial intelligence can effortlessly generate 00:19:44.630 --> 00:19:48.130 new music from dead artists, essentially forcing 00:19:48.130 --> 00:19:51.170 them to be productive forever. Oh, wow. So what 00:19:51.170 --> 00:19:53.349 does it actually mean for an artist to curate 00:19:53.349 --> 00:19:55.769 their own ghosts? That's a deep question. Right. 00:19:56.089 --> 00:19:59.069 Is Eject the ultimate act of artistic purity 00:19:59.069 --> 00:20:02.440 -like? a final, uncorrupted gift to his fans? 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:06.119 Or is it a megastar's final, desperate attempt 00:20:06.119 --> 00:20:08.960 to control a future that is inherently uncontrollable? 00:20:09.259 --> 00:20:11.980 That is an incredible question to chew on. Seriously, 00:20:12.460 --> 00:20:14.539 think about what it means to curate your own 00:20:14.539 --> 00:20:17.950 ghost in the age of AI. It changes how you look 00:20:17.950 --> 00:20:20.529 at his whole career. It really does. Well, thank 00:20:20.529 --> 00:20:22.450 you so much for joining us on this deep dive. 00:20:22.890 --> 00:20:24.490 Whether you're playing for a thousand people 00:20:24.490 --> 00:20:27.690 in a tiny pub or meticulously plotting an album 00:20:27.690 --> 00:20:30.210 you won't live to see released, at the end of 00:20:30.210 --> 00:20:31.789 the day, we're all just trying to lay down a 00:20:31.789 --> 00:20:34.089 rhythm, hit the loop pedal, and hope the song 00:20:34.089 --> 00:20:36.230 echoes long after we step off the stage.