Although Sting has nothing but love for his Police bandmates — Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland — nearly 15 years after the band's massive reunion tour, he wishes it had proved more inspiring. During a chat with Reader's Digest, Sting expalined, “At the time I labelled the tour an exercise in nostalgia. That was simply how I felt and is still how I feel today. I think it’s okay to be honest about your feelings and that was the way it went for me. That’s not a slight on the people I was with or the way things panned out, it’s just how I saw it by the end, and let’s be honest, that’s not how I wanted to remember it. If I thought that would be the emotion I’d be leaving with, I wouldn’t have done it in the first place.”
Although Police fans were hoping the live reunion would lead to the band hitting the studo together for a long-awaited sixth studio album — Sting quickly resumed his solo career without missing a beat: “I think there is a freedom in being a solo artist. It’s not a power thing, at all, it’s just about producing exactly the brand and style of music that feels right for you. Music, in every form, is a collaborative process, but never more so than in a band, where you have to consider other people almost more than you do yourself. To have total career freedom is, for me, the ultimate thrill of being a solo artist.”
Sting, who just released his Duets album, went on to say, “It’s great fun to have a hit record, it really is, but it’s not why I make records and it never has been, to be honest. It’s easy to get swept along in the excitement of the charts — a lot more so in the '80s than it is today — but the truth is I make records out of love and curiosity, even if it’s always nice to have something on the radio.”
We asked Sting — who's performs Police songs at all his solo shows — if there's still a chance for the legendary trio to once again do it just one more time: “I don't know. It's something I'm very proud of, but I'm about sure there'd be a reason to open it again, except for nostalgia reasons — and I think we did that. I think we did that very successfully, y'know, the timing was perfect, everybody was very happy to see us and, y'know, if we'd done it a year previous or, y'know, a year behind — then it was just perfect.”