Sting Born: The Police Frontman Changes Pop Music

Gordon Sumner left his job as a schoolteacher in Newcastle, England to co-found The Police, a band that fused punk energy with reggae rhythms and produced some of the most distinctive pop songs of the early 1980s. He earned the nickname "Sting" from a yellow-and-black striped sweater he wore while playing bass at a local jazz club. The name stuck permanently. Born in Wallsend, Northumberland on October 2, 1951, he grew up in a working-class shipbuilding town and trained as a teacher at Warwick University. He taught English and music at St. Paul's First School in Cramlington before the pull of music became impossible to resist. The Police, formed in 1977 with guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland, released five albums in six years. Their sound was instantly recognizable: Summers's chorused guitar, Copeland's syncopated drumming, and Sting's tenor vocals over reggae-influenced bass lines. "Roxanne," "Every Breath You Take," "Message in a Bottle," and "Don't Stand So Close to Me" were all top-ten hits. "Every Breath You Take" became one of the most played songs in radio history, frequently misinterpreted as a love song despite being explicitly about obsessive surveillance. The band sold over 75 million records but imploded under the weight of its members' egos, particularly the creative tension between Sting, who wrote virtually all the songs, and Copeland, who resented his diminishing role. They broke up in 1986. Sting's solo career expanded into jazz, classical, and world music, beginning with The Dream of the Blue Turtles in 1985. He worked with musicians from Africa, Latin America, and India. His albums Ten Summoner's Tales and Brand New Day were global hits. He has sold over 100 million records across his career with The Police and solo. He has been a prominent activist for human rights and environmental causes, particularly Amazonian rainforest preservation, since the late 1980s. He won 17 Grammy Awards. His career proved that artistic restlessness could sustain commercial relevance for decades rather than destroying it.