Are Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift this generation’s version of James Taylor and Carole King?
Rock & Roll Hall of Famers James and Carole have been good friends since the ’70s, and over the years they’ve toured together and recorded together. Back in 2017, Taylor told Rolling Stone in 2017 that Ed “is the James Taylor to my Carole King and I can’t imagine a time when he wouldn’t be.” In a new interview, Ed says he agrees with that assessment.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter for its Awards Chatter podcast, Ed reminisces about how he met Taylor. While he was opening for the band Snow Patrol in Nashville, a guy who worked with Taylor came to see him. Ed told the man that if Taylor “ever wants to write a song, I’m around.”
“And then we met,” he adds. “Obviously, we’re the opposite sex, and we’re from different countries and cultures, but I feel very, like, intertwined creatively with her.”
Ed and Taylor ended up co-writing and recorded the song “Everything Has Changed” for her album Red. Ed then opened for Taylor’s Red tour from 2013 to 2014. “We had, you know, all this time on tour together where we sort of bonded as friends and collaborators and performers,” he notes.
Ed tells the podcast, “I do really agree with the James Taylor and Carole King thing.”
“I do think that, like, you know, we have very transient lives. I’m very much settled, kids in school … and then touring,” he continues. “I do see her from time to time. And when we see [each other], you just lock back in and reconnect, and it’s like no time has passed. It’s very similar to a sibling.”
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.