“Taylor Swift Reveals Ed Sheeran Song as Major Inspiration, Leading to Friendship and Collaboration Plans”

Taylor Swift revealed that one Ed Sheeran song was a big inspiration to her as an artist. It also made her want to collaborate with the “Thinking Out Loud” singer for her album, Red. The song Swift liked so much wasn’t much of a hit in the United States. However, it was massive elsewhere.

During a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Swift named some of the songs that made her want to become an artist or inspired her in some way. Most of the songs she chose were from the 20th century, showing that she likes to keep her music in the now. The tunes included Bon Iver’s “Blood Bank,” Dashboard Confessional’s “Hands Down,” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Backseat Freestyle.” She also revealed her love of Sheeran’s folk/soft-rock single “Lego House.”

“I was so intrigued by this song that I reached out to Ed to write for my album Red,” she explained. “I loved the cadence of the pre-chorus, ‘And it’s dark in a cold December, but I got you to keep me waa-arm.’ We wrote in a Phoenix hotel room, ate In-N-Out burgers and essentially became a permanent fixture in each other’s lives.” Notably, Swift and Sheeran have collaborated on songs like “Everything Has Changed,” “End Game,” and “The Joker and the Queen.”

Sheerna’s choice to use a Lego house as a metaphor is characteristically oddball. In his songs, he’s name-dropped everything from Shrek, Rihanna’s “We Found Love,” Aretha Franklin, and painting by numbers. In a 2011 Interview Magazine article, the “Photograph” singer explained why he makes these lyrical choices.

“I think it’s good to remember that everything has been done before,” he explained. “The public has heard the stereotypical love songs a million times and they’ve heard the stereotypical life-or-death songs millions of times.

“It’s good to mix it up a little bit,” Sheeran continued. “That’s why the different subject matters and love songs on the album are a bit odd and have some rapping things in it and popular culture references. I just wanted to kind of make it a little bit different.” Sheeran classifies his genre as acoustic soul, which is a rare style indeed, and said that he likes to experiment musically.

Folk music wasn’t a huge commercial force in the United States when Sheeran released “Lego House,” so the song wasn’t that popular there. The tune peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100, staying on the chart for 16 weeks. It appeared on Sheeran’s album +. That album climbed to No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 243 weeks.

“Lego House” performed far better in Sheeran’s native United Kingdom. The Official Charts Company reports the ballad reached No. 5 there and spent a total of 47 weeks on the chart. Meanwhile, + reached No. 1 for three weeks, spending 444 weeks on the chart altogether. Sheeran’s musical formula seems to be working very well with the U.K. public!

“Lego House” wasn’t Sheeran’s biggest hit in the U.S. That probably doesn’t matter because it helped him become friends with Swift.