Stewart Copeland Spills Secrets and Regrets in Unfiltered New Interview

Stewart Copeland, legendary drummer of The Police, isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

From Grammy wins to composing for opera and ballet, writing books, and scoring films, he’s done it all. Now, he’s bringing his stories to life on stage with the second leg of his spoken-word tour, Have I Said Too Much?

Copeland says:

“Every night is different. I could talk for five hours instead of just a couple, so it’s inevitable that no two shows will be alike. Regarding The Police alone, there are twenty anecdotes I could tell. So, we have a lady MC, Lisa Thomson, to keep me on track—because one question from the audience is all it takes to get me going for half an hour.”

“Freegob” and a Semi-Authorized Bio

When asked if the tour’s name reflects his tendency to talk a lot, he jokes:

“How dare you? No, I’m kidding—you don’t even need to rent me; I’m a freegob.”

The tour shares its name with a book about him, which he calls “a biography of sorts.” He explains:

“It’s a biography with all sorts of insight that comes from its scurrilous author [Johnny Morgan], a guy who pretends to be an old friend of mine from within the clouds of hashish that enveloped him at the time. In that sense, it’s semi-authorized.”

As for whether the book is accurate: “Yeah. Pretty much,” he utters.

Before The Police: Prog Rock and Sliding Doors

The book mentions his days in Curved Air, calling them “a mid-level prog band.” Copeland laughs it off, saying:

“Did he call us that? I didn’t notice. That’s completely unfair. I will have the book recalled and pulped. No, we were not a stadium act—more of a Polytechnic or City Hall act—but Curved Air burned down the house every night. Sonja gets up there on stage, and shit’s gonna happen.”

One major turning point in his life was the moment he tracked down Sting’s number:

“I didn’t know that Phil wasn’t home, and it wasn’t part of some plan. I just rang again to yell at him: ‘Give me the number, asshole!’ If that hadn’t happened? I’d have gone on to become a dentist or something. Maybe a tour manager.”

Luckily, Phil’s partner gave it to him.

The Police: From Nothing to Everything

In the early days, Copeland and Sting were struggling. He reminisces:

“We didn’t have Message in a Bottle or Roxanne—just the crap songs I’d written, things like Clown’s Revenge. At that point, we had nothing. We were a fake punk band with no prospects. It was that day with Mike that reminded Sting of his purpose on this planet—which wasn’t listening to a bunch of blarney from an American guy, but to make music.”

Will The Police Ever Reunite?

The big question: could they ever get back together? He says:

“Those odds are slim. We are enjoying life—and each other—too much away from being in a band together. Why jeopardize it by going back into that place where we shout and scream at each other all the time? I understand now why we did that—because we had band therapy—and I know it’s because the three of us were put on this planet to make different kinds of music.”

Still, Copeland says they’d get along just fine if they happened to be in the same place—though maybe in different corners.

“Oh yeah. The three of us would end up in one corner right away. Or maybe I’d go over into Sting’s corner and gripe for a while about Andy, then head into Andy’s corner and gripe to him about Sting. Because you know damned well that before I got there, their heads were together having a good ol’ gripe about me.”