Sting talks upcoming tour, friendship with Billy Joel and loving Austin Butler in 'Dune'
For Sting, the rebirths are continual.
His tour history is encyclopedic, whether solo, with pairings ranging from Annie Lennox to Shaggy or backed by a symphony. There was the lute album “Songs from the Labyrinth” in 2006 and his achingly personal 2013 album “The Last Ship” and subsequent musical that's still morphing, as he explains.
His combined tenure fronting The Police and his distinguished solo career have netted 17 Grammy Awards and a quartet of Oscar nominations.
There is no doubt that even on the cusp of 73, the well-preserved Sting is as musically voracious as ever, now paring down his usual band to a trio – himself, veteran guitar partner Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas – for what he’s amusingly dubbed Sting 3.0.
Though he was hesitant about going back to a trio format given the acrimonious dissolution of The Police, Sting says he’s “loving” this latest edition, which released the single “I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart)” on Thursday.
A tour with the trio kickstarted in May overseas, with a U.S. leg of theaters commencing Sept. 17-18 in Detroit and running through Nov. 13. He’s also playing some stadium shows with buddy Billy Joel this fall.
Sting’s collaborations are always intriguing, from unlikely comrade Shaggy (“He brings something out of me. He’s Mr. Happy,” Sting says) to Dolly Parton, with whom he had the “great honor” to duet on “Every Breath You Take” for her 2023 “Rockstar” album (she’s invited Sting to Dollywood, but he hasn’t yet visited).
Chatting from his apartment studio overlooking New York’s Central Park, Sting delved into his latest musical endeavor, his affection for actor Austin Butler and why he’s “thrilled” to be doing the job he did “at 25, and people aren’t asking for their money back.”
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Question: There are plenty of hits on the setlist for this tour, but you’ve also been playing some little-heard tracks such as “Voices Inside My Head” (from The Police’s 1980 “Zenyatta Mondatta” album) and “Never Coming Home” (from Sting’s 2003 solo album, “Sacred Love”). Why do those songs work in this new live incarnation?
Answer: I hadn’t played “Voices” since it was written in the ‘80s. We just tried it out – it’s a simple riff and a vocal line – and I thought it was a good opening song. “Never Coming Home” I always loved and never managed to do a good version of it. But paradoxically, with this trio, it really works.
The new song with Dominic and Chris, “I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart),” has a very urgent feel to it and your voice is especially gruff, even Tom Waits-like. How did that song come about?
I wanted to throw something together very quickly with simple chords and that’s what I came up with. There were virtually no overdubs or thoughts about production. It was just the way a band sounds and that elemental aggressive sound is the surprise I wanted to give people this time. I think people will be surprised by my voice. But that wasn’t deliberate. I was right in the middle of finishing the last tour and I could barely speak, so that’s my natural voice when it gets fatigued.
We’re just beyond the 40th anniversary of “Synchronicity.” When you see “Every Breath You Take” pass the billion mark on Spotify and YouTube, could you ever have imagined that songs from that album would be so vital today?
When I wrote that song I knew it was a hit. We had a pretty good track record up until that point, but I knew it was a No. 1 hit. Its life beyond that, up to decades later, I could not have anticipated it.
Do you still like singing it?
Of course, I do. Everyone gets their cameras out.
And how do you feel about that?
I look at it as people like what they’re hearing. It’s visual applause. It looks pretty in the stadium, so I’m not going to object … it’s an affirmation that the song you’re doing they love.
You and Billy Joel are good friends and touring mates. What is it about him that you admire?
I’ve known Billy since 1980 and he came to see us on Long Island at the Nassau Coliseum on his own, in the dressing room. He seemed a really down-to-earth good guy and then I remember spending an evening with him at a piano and he started to play Beethoven, Gilbert and Sullivan, The Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis – he had it all at his fingertips. And I thought, you really are a true musician, you really are that guy, you really are the piano man. I have infinite respect for him.
Do you spend any time together when you’re at your stadium shows?
We share a backstage. I’m always in there borrowing something. He wanted to wear one of my suits but I said no.
One of your shiny suits?
Yep, yep. That (silver shiny) suit, it was made for me for (The Who’s film) “Quadrophenia” in 1978, tailor-made on Savile Row and it still fits me. That’s vanity for you!
Let’s detour back to your film career for a moment. As the original Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in 1984’s “Dune,” what did you think of Austin Butler’s performance in the role in “Dune 2”?
I love him. He’s such a star, a really lovely actor. I met him at the premiere and he was very sweet. I love the performance. But I have one complaint about the Harkonnens, who are my people. I think they’re far too easy to kill in the new iteration. We were tougher. They seem to fall over by blowing on them (laughs). But it’s a beautifully made film. Our version is a bit more camp. A lot of the visual tropes do come from David Lynch’s version and I think they’d be the first to admit it.
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Before you did the My Songs tour, you brought it to Las Vegas for a Caesars Palace residency. Would you do another?
Absolutely, in a New York minute. I was a little trepidatious. I wasn’t sure who the audience would be, but the one that turned up was very international, very well-dressed, chic, sophisticated and I felt very much at home on that stage. I was warned that I couldn’t stand still because it’s the biggest stage in Vegas, so I got a head mic and was just wandering around the stage. I’m still wearing that (onstage) because I love the freedom it’s given me.
It’s been a decade since your autobiographical musical, “The Last Ship,” premiered in the U.S., but you’re still working on it?
I’m doing a new version of it, which is being performed in Europe next year and we may bring it to New York and London. I’m very passionate about it because it’s such a personal story for me and the community I was brought up with. It’s constantly a work in progress, so we’ll have that next year and will carry on touring with this wonderful three-piece.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sting talks touring as a trio, Billy Joel friendship and Austin Butler
