Sting’s Hardest Challenge In His Career Revealed

Sting revealed his one wish about his music career.

We know for a fact that songwriting is synonymous with storytelling. Writers either narrate a story after a particular incident inspires them or imagine how they would feel in a hypothetical situation. And in songwriting, there are different methods artists use to transform their inspirations into songs.

The process of doing that requires competence and it may not be that easy for everyone. In a 2016 interview, Sting revealed that he had predicaments in doing so. Although he has released fifteen albums and become an icon in the rock scene, the whole songwriting thing gave him a lot of anxiety.

As an artist who has been writing hundreds of music for five decades, he still finds writing the most challenging aspect of being a musician. When he was asked whether his songs just come to him, he responded:

“That’s not the way it works for me.

“I wish I could just walk in the garden, and a song would occur to me. Sometimes a fragment of a song can just come to me while making breakfast. Just a fragment. But really the business of songwriting is building from these fragments, and that just takes getting down to work at 9:00 in the morning and tinkering.”

Sting added:

“Using that fragment with that fragment, and trying to join them together, either lyrically or harmonically or chromatically, trying to add things up to make something of substance. It’s not. I never see the whole thing. I wish. That takes genius, but no, I have to work hard. Songwriting is the hardest intellectual pursuit in my life. It’s the hardest thing, the most painful thing, the thing I avoid like the plague. I’d rather be on tour. I’d rather be a sportsman. I’d rather be a gardener.”

Although songwriting could’ve possibly given him too much anxiety, considering the success of “Every Breath You Take,” “Englishman in New York,” “Roxanne,” and several other hits, he seems to be doing a good job.