Ed Sheeran Confides in Taylor Swift Because She ‘Actually Truly Understands Where I’m At’

As Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift‘s success has multiplied, so has their friendship. In a recent interview, the “Shivers” singer opened up about how he and his famous friend like to confide in one another, especially when it comes to issues pretty much only they can relate to.

“I have long, long, long conversations with Taylor about stuff just because I feel like she’s one of the only people that actually truly understands where I’m at,” Sheeran told Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe. “I had an hour-20 conversation with her yesterday and we were just — everything that was on our minds we talked about.”

“I mean that in itself is kind of therapy as well, because you’re actually talking to someone that genuinely gets it,” he continued. “That has all the things that you feel and have insecurities about and how other people treat you or how your family treat you, how your friends treat you. She’s basically in the same sphere.”

It goes without saying that Sheeran and Swift, who’ve been close friends and collaborators since 2012, have both reached a rare level of global fame only a few stars per generation ever achieve. With the multiple Grammys and No. 1 hits, there undoubtedly comes certain difficulties the average person can’t empathize with — like, for instance, being called away from your personal life to defend your music’s originality in high profile copyright lawsuits, as the “A Team” musician has experienced in recent weeks.

Sheeran also spoke with Lowe about working on his upcoming album Subtract (stylized “-“) with Swift’s Folklore collaborator Aaron Dessner on the “Anti-Hero” artist’s recommendation. “I’m always, not guarded, but I kind of would keep my distance if there would be a collaborator that she’d be working with closely just because that’s her thing,” Sheeran explained. “And I don’t want to be like, ‘Well going to do that too.”

“But she said, ‘I think it’d be really important for you as an artist to do what I did and work with Aaron because this is what it did for me,” he continued. “So that sort of opened the door to it, and I am incredibly grateful. I’m making some of the most meaningful music to me that I’ve made in a very long time.”

Listen to Ed Sheeran’s full conversation with Zane Lowe below.