Having Ed Sheeran co-write a song with you is obviously a great honour. Huge. What a treat that would be. Imagine doing that and then discussing with Sheeran about him being credited under a pseudonym. And then changing some of his lyrics because you don’t like them. Who would do that? Lewis Capaldi, that’s who.
"Every British artist who has a number one record seems to have Ed on it", Capaldi tells the BBC. "That's a testament to how good he is, but I was wary of it. My ego was going, 'I don't want people thinking Ed wrote my song’”.
"I actually mentioned that to him and he offered to take up a pseudonym”, he adds. “But at the end of the day, he did help write it, so there should be no question”.
The song they wrote together was recorded for Capaldi’s new album ‘Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent’, which is due out in May next year. Capaldi says that Sheeran successfully “brought out the softy in me”, but that he nevertheless felt that one line in the song - "She gives me more than everything, I'll give her my last name” - had to be changed.
"I was like, 'Ed, this is 2022. No one has to take anyone's second name. I'm not singing that!'”, he says. "I don't even think that Ed's own wife has got his last name”.
The line in the finished song is "I bring her coffee in the mornings, she brings me inner peace”. I guess we’ll see if the original Sheeran-penned line was the number one clincher.