{"id":326924,"date":"2025-12-05T11:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T11:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326924\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T11:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T11:32:12","slug":"ed-sheeran-shares-inside-story-on-writing-f1-original-song-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326924\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran shares inside story on writing ‘F1’ original song ‘Drive’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed Sheeran<\/a> is a massive Formula 1 fan. So massive that he once braved a hot lap with George Russell, who earned his fifth Grand Prix victory in October. The verdict? \u201cIt was terrifying,\u201d says the English hitmaker.\n<\/p>\n

That rush, however, no doubt informed \u201cDrive,\u201d the revved-up rocker he contributed to the F1 soundtrack, a Grammy nominee for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.\n<\/p>\n

Co-written by Sheeran and producers Blake Slatkin and John Mayer<\/a>, the song plays over the film\u2019s final scene and end credits as Brad Pitt<\/a>‘s Sonny Hayes is zooming across the screen.\n<\/p>\n

The three were able to preview footage from the film and were immediately galvanized, says Slatkin, a Grammy winner who also collaborated with Sheeran on his 2025 album Play. \u201cWe just got that adrenaline hit you get when you’re watching it,\u201d he tells Entertainment Weekly.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a viewer, it almost felt like you were in the cast,” says Sheeran, “and I think that\u2019s a really difficult thing to achieve in film.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The film opens with Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u201cWhole Lotta Love,\u201d which served as the musical reference for the closing, the singer explains. \u201cThey wanted guitar-based with lots of riffs and high-energy vocals,\u201d he says of notes from director Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. \u201cI made a list of some of the phrases used throughout the film so I could work them into the song.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Mayer supplied the mighty riff that propels the tune. \u201cJohn picked up a guitar with some distortion on it, and that was literally the first thing he played,\u201d says Slatkin. \u201cFrom there it became about building the melody around it,\u201d says Sheeran.\n<\/p>\n

The trio recruited an all-star team to record the song, including Dave Grohl and Rami Jaffee of Foo Fighters on drums and keys, respectively, and legendary bassist Pino Palladino (The Who, Nine Inch Nails). \u201cWe got to make the dream band,\u201d says Slatkin.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone had seen the scene we were writing for,\u201d says Sheeran of the souped-up energy in the studio. \u201cIt was old school \u2014 we recorded it all live, which is always exciting, especially when you’re making music with musicians of this caliber. I mean, Dave is part of two of the biggest bands of all time, so he\u2019s a musical legend, and obviously, Pino, Rami and John are all exceptional. As a songwriter, it\u2019s an honor to work with musicians of this level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad Pitt in ‘F1’.<\/p>\n

Apple Original Films<\/p>\n

Kosinski was floored by how quickly the trio pulled it together. \u201cEd asked me to send him some phrases or bits of dialogue that represented the film to give him something to work with and literally two days later, he sent back the demo of that song,\u201d the director recalls. The finished track \u201cended up being the perfect coda to this whole journey that Sonny has been on. The level of talent to pull that off is unbelievable. They knocked it out of the park.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Check out more from EW’s\u00a0The Awardist<\/a>,\u00a0featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our\u00a0podcast\u00a0diving into all the highlights from the year’s best in TV, movies, and more.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI love movies, so being involved in this has been wonderful,\u201d says Sheeran. And as a big racing fan, \u201cDrive\u201d has paid a surprising dividend. \u201cIt\u2019s a podium song now, so that\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran is a massive Formula 1 fan. So massive that he once braved a hot lap with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-326924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}