ED SHEERAN SAYS HE RELEASED THINKING OUT LOUD FOR A FRIEND

   In a new interview with The Mirror, Sheeran revealed that the only reason the platinum-selling single ever made it on to his 2014 album, x, was because he was trying to help out a friend in need.

Sheeran said his pal, Amy Wadge, who collaborated with him on the song years prior, asked him to add it to his LP because she was having money issues.

“[Wadge] was going through financial troubles about a year ago,” Sheeran said. “She drove to my house — my album was nearly done — and she asked if I could put a song from when I was 17 on the deluxe album, so she could get a little bit of money and pay the mortgage and bills and stuff.”

   Wadge is credited on Sheeran’s album as a co-writer of the track. To date, “Thinking Out Loud” has been streamed more than half a billion times on Spotify and has gone three times platinum in the UK. The love ballad is Sheeran’s best-selling song in the United States, with 4,300,000 copies sold as of July 2015. With publishing royalties rolling in for the rest of her life, Wadge, a mother of two, will hopefully never have to worry about missed mortgage payments again.