Songfacts®:

• This somber ballad was written by Ed Sheeran with his friend Amy Wadge, who is best known for co-penning "Thinking Out Loud." The pair have collaborated on a number of songs together, and Sheeran titled his 2010 EP Songs I Wrote with Amy after they wrote nine songs in two days.
  
  Sheeran and Wadge met up again in February 2011, around the time he'd been signed to Atlantic, and this song is one of the fruits from that session.
• The song was written about a friend of Amy Wadge's with cancer.
  
  It's all right to cry
  Even my dad does sometimes
  So don't wipe your eyes
  Tears remind you you're alive
  It's all right to die
  'Cause that's the only thing you haven't tried
  Just for tonight hold on
  
  Sheeran is asking the dying person to hold on to life - even though they have already given up. At the same time he acknowledges that it is okay to die when it is the end to a well lived life.
• Ed Sheeran debuted "Even My Dad Does Sometimes" live at his x anniversary show at the Barclays Center in New York on May 22, 2024.