Sting.Photo: Eric Ryan Anderson
“That’s like asking me which of my kids I prefer!” the star tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I think they’re all my children and they’re all one song, really. And when I perform, I’m singing the story of my life through these sort of touchstones.”
The Police (1979).Fin Costello/Redferns
Sting, 71, will be honored for his songwriting both as a solo artist and as a member of The Police on May 18, when he’s recognized as a fellow of The Ivors Academy, a prestigious music writers' association in his native England.
“If you ask me my profession, I would say I’m a songwriter, so to receive this honor is very special,” says the star, whose real name is Gordon Sumner. “I get people coming up to me saying, ‘Oh, I got married to your song,’ or ‘We buried Uncle Charlie to your song’ or ‘I fell out of love to this…’ People mark their lives with the songs of their era, as do I.”
Ivors Award.Joseph Okpako/WireImage
“Roxanne”
The Police’s breakthrough hit came about thanks to an unlikely pairing of inspirations: prostitutes and the 1897 Edmond Rostand playCyrano de Bergerac. Sting says he and his bandmates were playing to “half-empty clubs” in Europe while on tour with Wayne County & the Electric Chairs in the late 1970s, and as a result had to settle for some less-than-desirable lodging, as it was all they could afford.
Cyrano de Bergerac.Times/Universal Images Group/getty
Meanwhile, as this was happening, Sting says he also took note of a poster on the wall advertisingCyrano, the main character of which is deeply in love with a woman named Roxanne.
“Those two conflicting ideas — of this beautiful name and this very, very elegant, courtly romance, and what was going on in the hotel — just lit a torch under me,” he says. “I went to my room, picked up the guitar and imagined this woman into life.”
The track went on to appear on The Police’s debut studio album,Outlandos d’Amour,in 1978, and the rocker says that to this day, he remains “very grateful for this imaginary creature,” Roxanne.
“All This Time”
“Songwriting is my self-therapy, having to deal with issues that aren’t comfortable — mortality being one of them,” he says. “I think a song is an empathy machine where people can resonate with the emotion you are expressing, or you can step into someone else’s shoes and sing about their life or see the world through their eyes.”
“Every Breath You Take”
“I would sit at his desk at night and try and write songs,” he says. “I think if the song has any power at all, it’s ambivalent. It could be sinister or it could be quite warm and sweet and nice, and people have both of those interpretations. And I would never contradict anyone who has a different interpretation of any of my songs because in many ways, that enriches the song.”
“I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying”
Sting says he often leans on the songwriting trick of writing “songs that sound happy, but, actually, they’re kind of the opposite,” and likes to look for paradoxes in his lyrics, like this 1996 track that featured on his albumMercury Falling.
“I like to enter situations as a songwriter and find a three-dimensional puzzle in there,” he says. “‘I love you and you love me,’ that’s a closed loop. There’s no way inside. It’s boring. Whereas, ‘I love you, but you love somebody else,’ or, ‘I love you, but I shouldn’t’ — that’s interesting. And I think it’s a very, very good subject for a song.”
“De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da”
If the song’s lyrics have always sounded a bit gibberish, well, that’s exactly what Sting was going for.
“I got a lot of flak for that song, like, ‘How could Sting be writing this nonsense?'” he says of the song, which is featured on the 1980 Police albumZenyatta Mondatta. “All of these songs, like ‘Da Doo Ron Ron,’ ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy,’ they’re nonsense songs. I was asking in the song why these are powerful, why these have a valency. But of course, the disingenuous among the critics said, ‘This is just rubbish.’ That was the point!”
“Let Your Soul Be YourPilot”
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me”
Before he was a rocker notching Top 10 hits like “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” Sting was a teacher. His experiences in the classroom inspired this 1980 hit for The Police, which tells the story of a young female student and her relationship with an older male educator.
“It’s certainly not biographical, but people having relationships with teachers, it definitely happens,” he says. “And in the song’s defense, nothing happens. It’s just the danger of, something happens and the teacher is aware of it, which is why he’s saying, ‘Don’t stand so close to me.'”
He continues: “Again, you could interpret it many, many different ways, but I still think it’s an interesting subject for a song and a sophisticated take on it. But in the current climate, I don’t sing that live. People with a sort of puerile sensibility will say, ‘Oh it’s about you.’ And of course it’s not, but it’s an interesting situation.”
“All Four Seasons”
Sting wrote this sweet tune for his child Eliot, whom he calls “very quixotic.”
“That’s a love song,” he says of the track, which appeared onMercury Falling.
Eliot has followed in their father’s footsteps, and is also a musician, as is older brother Joe. They have released three studio albums, including one as I Blame Coco and one as Vaal.
“Fields of Gold”
The barley fields surrounding his home in the English countryside moved Sting to write this ballad, which appears on his 1993 albumTen Summoner’s Tales.
Sting with wife Trudie Styler and his kids.Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic
“At harvest time, it looks like a sea of gold is waving in the wind. So one day, I looked out there and I thought, ‘You know, there’s a song here somewhere,'” he says. “I always think about Trudie and the kids when they were younger when I sing that song. It’s a lovely memory for me. Often when I sing it live, a couple will get up and dance to it, and I really like that.”
“I Hung My Head”
Hank Williams.GAB Archive/Redferns
“The storytelling in those songs really had a profound effect on me, so I would try and write songs in that genre,” Sting says. “But with me, it’s a question of authenticity. I’m from the North of England, I’m not from El Paso or somewhere romantic like that. But nonetheless, I like the storytelling aspect of country music. I like the sort of biblical sweep of the landscape. So when somebody like Johnny Cash covers one of my songs, I feel vindicated somewhat.”
For more on Sting, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
source: people.com
