diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/1358-ec2_metadata_facts.yml b/changelogs/fragments/1358-ec2_metadata_facts.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..12e4a946e6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/1358-ec2_metadata_facts.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+bugfixes:
+- ec2_metadata_facts - fix ``AttributeError`` when running the ec2_metadata_facts module on Python 2 managed nodes
+  (https://github.com/ansible-collections/amazon.aws/issues/1358).
diff --git a/plugins/modules/ec2_metadata_facts.py b/plugins/modules/ec2_metadata_facts.py
index 015e02a5f88..158e7515fbb 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/ec2_metadata_facts.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/ec2_metadata_facts.py
@@ -445,6 +445,14 @@
 
 socket.setdefaulttimeout(5)
 
+# The ec2_metadata_facts module is a special case, while we generally dropped support for Python < 3.6
+# this module doesn't depend on the SDK and still has valid use cases for folks working with older
+# OSes.
+try:
+    json_decode_error = json.JSONDecodeError
+except AttributeError:
+    json_decode_error = ValueError
+
 
 class Ec2Metadata:
     ec2_metadata_token_uri = 'http://169.254.169.254/latest/api/token'
@@ -543,7 +551,7 @@ def fetch(self, uri, recurse=True):
                         self._data['%s' % (new_uri)] = content
                         for (key, value) in json_dict.items():
                             self._data['%s:%s' % (new_uri, key.lower())] = value
-                    except (json.JSONDecodeError, AttributeError):
+                    except (json_decode_error, AttributeError):
                         self._data['%s' % (new_uri)] = content  # not a stringified JSON string
 
     def fix_invalid_varnames(self, data):
diff --git a/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/playbooks/setup.yml b/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/playbooks/setup.yml
index 933543789c7..9e4ac3822e2 100644
--- a/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/playbooks/setup.yml
+++ b/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/playbooks/setup.yml
@@ -19,6 +19,13 @@
     subnet_cidr: '10.{{ 256 | random(seed=vpc_seed) }}.32.0/24'
 
   tasks:
+  - set_fact:
+      # As lookup plugins don't have access to module_defaults
+      connection_args:
+        region: "{{ aws_region }}"
+        aws_access_key: "{{ aws_access_key }}"
+        aws_secret_key: "{{ aws_secret_key }}"
+        aws_session_token: "{{ security_token | default(omit) }}"
 
   - include_role:
       name: '../setup_sshkey'
@@ -126,13 +133,39 @@
       tags:
         snake_case_key: a_snake_case_value
         camelCaseKey: aCamelCaseValue
-      wait: True
     register: ec2_instance
     vars:
       ansible_python_interpreter: "{{ botocore_virtualenv_interpreter }}"
 
+  - set_fact:
+      ec2_ami_id_py2: "{{ lookup('aws_ssm', '/aws/service/ami-amazon-linux-latest/amzn-ami-hvm-x86_64-gp2', **connection_args) }}"
+      ec2_ami_ssh_user_py2: "ec2-user"
+
+  - name: Create an instance to test with using Python 2
+    ec2_instance:
+      state: running
+      name: "{{ resource_prefix }}-ec2-metadata-facts-py2"
+      image_id: "{{ ec2_ami_id_py2 }}"
+      vpc_subnet_id: "{{ vpc_subnet_id }}"
+      security_group: "{{ vpc_sg_id }}"
+      instance_type: t2.micro
+      key_name: "{{ ec2_key_name }}"
+      network:
+        assign_public_ip: true
+        delete_on_termination: true
+      metadata_options:
+          instance_metadata_tags: enabled
+      tags:
+        snake_case_key: a_snake_case_value
+        camelCaseKey: aCamelCaseValue
+      wait: True
+    register: ec2_instance_py2
+    vars:
+      ansible_python_interpreter: "{{ botocore_virtualenv_interpreter }}"
+
   - set_fact:
       ec2_instance_id: "{{ ec2_instance.instances[0].instance_id }}"
+      ec2_instance_id_py2: "{{ ec2_instance_py2.instances[0].instance_id }}"
 
   - name: Create inventory file
     template:
@@ -143,3 +176,8 @@
       port: 22
       host: '{{ ec2_instance.instances[0].public_ip_address }}'
       timeout: 1200
+
+  - wait_for:
+      port: 22
+      host: '{{ ec2_instance_py2.instances[0].public_ip_address }}'
+      timeout: 1200
diff --git a/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/playbooks/teardown.yml b/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/playbooks/teardown.yml
index 395d1859ced..4a579b70fc6 100644
--- a/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/playbooks/teardown.yml
+++ b/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/playbooks/teardown.yml
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
       state: absent
       instance_ids:
         - "{{ ec2_instance_id }}"
+        - "{{ ec2_instance_id_py2 }}"
       wait: True
     ignore_errors: true
     retries: 5
diff --git a/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/templates/inventory.j2 b/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/templates/inventory.j2
index 089189b82d5..86ec992876f 100644
--- a/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/templates/inventory.j2
+++ b/tests/integration/targets/ec2_metadata_facts/templates/inventory.j2
@@ -1,11 +1,25 @@
-[testhost]
+[testhost_py3]
 "{{ ec2_instance.instances[0].public_ip_address }}"
 
+[testhost_py2]
+"{{ ec2_instance_py2.instances[0].public_ip_address }}"
+
+[testhost:children]
+testhost_py3
+testhost_py2
+
 [testhost:vars]
-ansible_user={{ ec2_ami_ssh_user }}
 ansible_ssh_private_key_file="{{ sshkey }}"
 ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/env python
 
+[testhost_py3:vars]
+ansible_user="{{ ec2_ami_ssh_user }}"
+image_id="{{ ec2_ami_id }}"
+
+[testhost_py2:vars]
+ansible_user="{{ ec2_ami_ssh_user_py2 }}"
+image_id="{{ ec2_ami_id_py2 }}"
+
 [all:vars]
 # Template vars that will need to be used in used in tests and teardown
 vpc_id="{{ vpc_id }}"
@@ -16,5 +30,5 @@ vpc_igw="{{ vpc_igw_id }}"
 vpc_route_table_id="{{ vpc_route_table_id }}"
 ec2_key_name="{{ ec2_key_name }}"
 availability_zone="{{ availability_zone }}"
-image_id="{{ ec2_ami_id }}"
 ec2_instance_id="{{ ec2_instance_id }}"
+ec2_instance_id_py2="{{ ec2_instance_id_py2 }}"