In 1983, the English band The Police, who had just released the Synchronicity album, congregated more public than The Beatles. “We want to thank the Beatles for lending us their stadium,” said Sting at Shea Stadium, according to The New York Times. The band that went through the New Wave, Reggae and Post-Punk had an audience of 70,000 people, but it would be the last big concert before its separation.
Not a decade of the take -off of Gordon Matthew Sumner, Sting, had not passed. He was married to actress Frances Tomelty, taught music and football in a Catholic school in England. At night, he played in a jazz group and formed the Last Exit band. “I left my home in Newcastle with my wife and my baby. No money or projects, without contacts or telephone numbers. Actually, I only had the Copeland number. ”
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In London, with drummer Stewart Copeland along with guitarist Andy Summers, they released The first album in 1978, Outlandos D’Amour. With the successes ‘Roxanne’ (20th of his discography in the Billboard list) and ‘So Lonely’, they reached the top positions of the United Kingdom.
“I am very interested in finding myself again,” said the singer and bassist to the press in 1982. “He used to be the same type of person on stage as in private life, but now I am a kind of monster . It looks wonderful with the lights and the public, but in the kitchen it is ‘a bit too much’. I’m just trying to discover who the real self is: is this monster or someone more normal? At this time, he is a bit worn, ”he cites his statements Rolling Stone.
In those years, Sting launched his Broken Music autobiography, a book with which he reviews his humble origins in Newcastle and defines rock as an escape. “My father made a living like a milkman, my mother was a hairdresser. Those are respectable occupations, but failed to build a true family life. ” When his parents died he confessed to the Spanish producer and journalist Julián Ruiz who was depressed. “I have a beautiful family, I’m successful, I’m a millionaire … but I just turned forty years old, my father and my mother have died and I feel a miserable.”
Would you write again about your life? The musician told Rolling Stone that he would not find it so interesting to talk about success. “When I read Bob Dylan’s autobiography, his early years were fascinating, and as soon as he succeeded, he began to interest me less. The same with my friend Bruce Springsteen. I loved reading about his first years of life, I noticed many similarities with my own life, and that was very interesting. ” In addition, he believes he would no longer gather The Police. “The other members of the band were surprised, the world was surprised, and it was a very, very successful tour. So I will attribute the merit for having chosen the moment well. ”
‘Every Breath You Take’
The rupture of his marriage followed the solution of The Police. His greatest success, ‘Every Breath You Take’ of the Synchronicity album, is a recurring theme at weddings, but that is not precisely a romantic song; He reflected a moment of “light and dark” in his life. It is about “jealousy and surveillance.”
In Broken Music, Sting points out: “None of us can take pride in what happened, but happened. We fell in love, we live together, we got married and had children. That is the story of our life, ”the musician wrote about his relationship with film producer Trudie Styler. “Frances gave birth to our daughter Kate and we soon divorced ourselves. It was a season in hell for all. ”
‘Every Breath You Take’ was put 1 for eight weeks in 1983 (position 2 of his career is for ‘All for Love’ that he recorded along with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart). In 2019, in the BMI Pop Awards, they reported that the song had been reproduced 15 million times. It was the most popular in BMI. And, despite having entered YouTube in 2010, 12 years later he broke the barrier of one billion views.
Three years ago, Sting sold its catalog of songs for around 300 million dollars, the New York Times estimated, in an agreement with Universal Music Group. The sale of his compositions includes what was done with The Police and as a soloist. “It is essential for me that my career’s work has a home where he is valued and respected,” he said in a statement. “Not only to connect with fans of a lifetime in new ways, but also to present my songs to new audiences, musicians and generations.”
However, social networks terrify. “I do not believe that social networks and the political system have a positive relationship; People tend to get lost in their own narrative and only listen to what confirms their beliefs, that is very dangerous. And I’m not sure how to go against that, ”he told Rolling Stone.
Sting is divided between music and his work as an activist. Since 1989, he and his wife, Trudie Styler, presides over the Rainforest Foundation, an organization created to protect tropical jungles and indigenous communities. “We weren’t trying to save the entire planet. The Foundation was created to protect people’s human rights and, as a consequence, protect their ancestral lands, ”they said in an interview in 2016.
This year, he continues with his ‘Sting 3.0’ tour, although he had to cancel concerts in the United States for complications with his health. At the end of January, he returned to the stage at the Foreaoid charity to support the victims of fires in Los Angeles. He opened with the success of The Police, ‘Message in a Bottle’. Owner of a farm in the Italian Tuscany, a brand of wines and a fortune for music, he said he will not inherit money from his six children. “I don’t want to leave fiduciary funds that are a ballast around their necks. They have to work. All my children know it, and they rarely ask me something, which I respect and appreciate
