Ed Sheeran Serenades Courteney Cox with New ‘Autumn Variations’ Song Inspired by ‘Friends’

ByQuyen Anne

Jan 26, 2024

“Do I get paid?” Cox asked the pop star while he sang her the song

ed sheeran and courteney cox
Courteney Cox and Ed Sheeran. PHOTO: ED SHEERAN/TWITTER

The previews of Ed Sheeran’s forthcoming album Autumn Variations just keep on coming.

On Thursday, the “Bad Habits” singer posted a video to his social channels where he not only shared a part of a new Friends-inspired song from Autumn Variations but serenaded his pal Courteney Cox while doing it.

“Courteney, Courteney, Courteney. I wrote this song inspired by Friends, the show that you were on,” Sheeran explained in the video featuring Cox on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Sheeran then began to play a snippet of the track, “American Town,” on his acoustic guitar.

“We’re a long way from home/ Haven’t seen you in so long/ But it all came back in one moment/ And the year started cold/ But I didn’t notice at all/ When we found there’s a room we’re both in,” he crooned, as Cox grinned through his performance.

It was the pre-chorus, however, where Sheeran made a deliberate nod to the hit ’90s sitcom, which aired from 1994 until 2004.

“We ate Chinese food in small white boxes/ Live the life we saw in Friends/ Your room it barely fits the mattress/ Wake up, leave for work again/ The wind it seems to blow right through us / Down jackets are the trend,” Sheeran sang before transitioning to a line about an “English girl in an American town” and an elevator that doesn’t reach the fifth floor.

After the “Perfect” musician wrapped his mini-concert, Cox asked: “Wait, that was really about the show Friends?”

Sheeran clarified and said the track was “inspired” by the series, “Cuz you eat Chinese food in small white boxes.”

Cox told her friend she loved it, but also joked that she would receive royalties.

“Do I get paid?” she quipped.

Sheeran and Cox have been friends for over 10 years, as he introduced her to her boyfriend Johnny McDaid in 2013. “I’ve never seen either of them happier. It’s great to see people you love in love,” Sheeran told The Sun of the couple in 2014.

British singer Ed Sheeran arrives for the premiere of the Disney+ music docu-series "Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All" at The Times Center in New York City on May 2, 2023.
Ed Sheeran in New York City in May 2023. ANGELA WEISS/AFP VIA GETTY

On Tuesday, Sheeran revealed in an Instagram post that he secretly recorded a live version of his forthcoming album Autumn Variations by doing “surprise pop up gigs” in fans’ homes with an undisclosed release date.

The singer-songwriter originally announced he would be releasing his next album Autumn Variations — due Sept. 29 — in a video on Instagram last month.

“Hello everyone. The sun is shining but autumn is coming. I have an album I’ve made called Autumn Variations. This is a record that I was sort of making at the same time as Subtract. It’s what me and Aaron [Dessner] went in originally to make,” he said in the video.

Sheeran added: “Elgar (a composer) has this thing called the Enigma Variation where he did 14 songs about 14 friends so I wanted to make 14 songs about 14 friends and base it on autumn.”

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