Being Sting.

It’s a Tough Job but somebody’s got to do it.

By Gary Geyer

Sting was born in 1951. Before he was Sting he was Gordon Sumner. His father was a milkman and his mother a hairdresser. When “Gordie” was eight he was up at 4 AM delivering pints of milk with his father.

Sting described his parents as being reserved and uncommunicative. Mealtime conversation was limited to “Pass the salt.” Love, he says, was “guessed at rather than expressed.”

Goodbye Gordon, hello Sting

Sting left home when he was 19 and became a teacher. He was given the name ‘Sting’ because of the bee-like quality of a black and yellow sweater he used to wear when he played in jazz bands at nights and weekends.

“My father never could call me Sting — he never quite understood what I became. He had aspirations for me that I never realized — he wanted me to work in a bank.”

Writing as therapy

Sting claims that writing his book, “Broken Music: a Memoir,” was very therapeutic for him because it gave him a chance to go back over everything and write it down. Sting said that he found that writing about his life at the age of 50 enabled him to be grateful for his parents, love them and tell their story proudly. “I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I was younger – I needed to be a certain age and have the perspective and life wisdom that it brings,” he said.

“I’m still in touch with my parents in a psychological way. In situations where something wonderful happens to you, they are still there as part of my consciousness. It makes my current life seem even more extraordinary.”

Personal songs

Many of Sting’s own biggest hits have been songs written at periods of emotional turmoil – the break-up of his first marriage, the death of both his parents within a year of each other. He has spoken in the past about his need to channel emotion – “Disguise it as pop music,” he has said. “Melancholy is not a bad thing.”

Advice to young musicians

“I tell them you probably won’t make it,” he says. “But that the spiritual journey you go through to become a musician is a soul-nourishing job. The chances of becoming rich and famous are slim, but that’s not important. What’s important is doing the job and working at it for your own sake.”

Speaking of pop music…

As a father he says (somewhat ironically), that he is suspicious of the role of pop music in today’s culture. “Pop is basically about sex. It sells sex to children who have no ability to understand it.”

Speaking of sex… what about all that talk about Tantric sex?

Despite the rumors, Sting claims that he and his wife Trudie do not engage in sessions of Tantric sex. He says that he doesn’t even know what the phrase means and that the story came about as a result of being misquoted at a party.

Hallucinogenic drugs

He does, however admit to taking hallucinogenic drugs. Sting was offered an herbal tea to put him into a spiritual trance while campaigning for the protection of the Brazilian rainforest and living with the Brazilian Indians.
“It’s a substance they’ve used for thousands of years,” he says. “You drink a cup of this horrible liquid. The first time I took it I had an hour of mortal terror and then a good hour crying for everything in my life – relationships I’d had with my parents, my family, my wives, my girlfriends and my children. That’s when I first decided to write about my life.”

Success, wealth and housing (X7)

Sting is one of the world’s most successful musicians but won’t discuss either his success or how rich he is. He does not mind people knowing that he owns seven homes – two in London, one in Los Angeles and one in New York; Then, there’s a 20-room 600 acre estate in Tuscany, his family’s main 60 acre residence in Wiltshire and a house in the Lake District (England).

He says that he uses all of his houses and that it is important for him to have them. He explains it this way: “I spent a quarter of a century living out of a suitcase traveling through hotels on tour. It’s far nicer if you can go back to your own home instead with a few books that are yours, some art on the walls that you bought and sit on your own furniture.”

No sign of a mid-life crisis

Although Sting is 54 years old, he says he doesn’t believe he is at the so called middle-aged ‘mid-life crisis’ stage just yet. He says, “I feel like I’m as curious as I was when I was 14.” He adds, “I’ve got as much energy.”

Living normal

He was quoted as saying, “I want to live as normally as possible and I demand my right to walk around in a normal way, without protection or bodyguards. I go out and get the newspapers in the morning, I walk the dogs and I demand respect from people on the street. Not as Sting, but as a guy who’s got the same right to be there as anyone else in the community. I’m a citizen, if you like, and I have citizen’s rights.”

Being 57

Sting is extremely fit from many of hours of yoga each week. He probably looks better now than he ever has. He has some grey streaks in his short (and thinning) hair but that’s the only sign of his age.

Now, an apparently perfect life

Life now for Sting is apparently perfect – he combines being a rock super-star with being a multimillionaire super-dad to six children. He seems to be enjoying what has been called, one of the happiest marriages in show business.

(God knows where he finds his melancholy these days.)

“I am happier in my skin than when I was 22.” I’m not just saying that,

I really am.”