Stewart Copeland: Why He Wanted to ‘Choke the Life Out Of’ Sting
It’s well known that The Police often had it out, especially toward the end of their run in the ’80s. Stewart Copeland touches on just some of those issues in a new interview.
Speaking with The New York Post, the legendary drummer said of working with Sting, “At first, it was collaboration. It became more and more compromise for him — and it got tougher and tougher for him to make those compromises.”
Copeland added, “The times when I came the closest to homicide, the times when it became absolutely critical that I choke the life out of this man, were when he would come over to me and tell me something about the hi-hat.”
Random things devolving into full-blown fights were kind of the norm for The Police. Copeland recalled in the same interview that before the band’s August 1983 show at Shea Stadium, he cracked one of Sting’s ribs shortly after soundcheck. How did that happen? Sting grabbed a copy of the New York Times Copeland was reading. Copeland then grabbed it back, and then this exchange turned into a fight.
Potential Legal Issues Around ‘Every Breath You Take’
Earlier this month, The Police made some interesting headlines regarding their hit song “Every Breath You Take.” Former Police guitarist Andy Summers alluded to a pending lawsuit in a new interview appearance on The Jeremy White Show. Summers famously wrote the iconic riff that acts as the hook to the song. However, Sting is the only songwriter listed on the track.
Summers referred to his lack of a songwriting credit as “a very contentious [topic] that is very much alive at the moment.” He was then asked if there was going to be some sort of lawsuit to get listed as a songwriter on the track. Summers replied, “Watch the press. Let’s see what happens in the next year.”
In November 2021, Summers told Ultimate Classic Rock that neither he nor Copeland — who also wrote his drum parts but isn’t listed as a songwriter — have received royalties for “Every Breath You Take.” While the song was popular upon its release in 1983, it had a massive resurgence in 1997 when it was sampled on Puff Daddy’s “I’ll Be Missing You.”
Interestingly, Puff Daddy never asked permission to sample “Every Breath You Take,” and the whole dispute ended up in court. As a result, Sting now receives 100 percent of the royalties from the song. This is due to him being the only songwriter listed on the track. This is also despite the fact that Summers and Copeland each came up with their guitar and drum tracks, respectively. Of course, only Summers’ guitar track and nothing from Sting or Copeland are actually heard on “I’ll Be Missing You.”
