From his home in Malibu, California Sting joins The Current to talk about his first residency in Vegas, his new record "The Bridge," and the memories that were stirred up from his role in the 1984 version of Dune when he saw the 2021 adaptation.

Interview Transcription

Edited for clarity and length.

JILL RILEY: I am really excited to be joined by my next guest, singer, songwriter, activist, actor, Police member: Sting. Hi Sting, how are you?

STING: Good morning. I'm very happy to be talking to you.

Well, this is great. You're in Vegas right now, aren't you?

Oh, I'm actually in Malibu, looking at a very cold Pacific Ocean, gray. But I'm happy, I have a little home here. So I go back to Vegas tomorrow to resume my residency, which is going really well, and I'm having a great time.

That's cool that you can go home in between, and I know this Las Vegas residency, it's been a long time coming. I remember reading something about it, maybe pre-pandemic, and here it is. You got to launch it, so yeah, Sting—Caesars Palace, the Coliseum—how's it going so far? I know you're early into the residency. But how's it going so far?

We have two down and another six to go, and I have to say that first two have been so enjoyable. I wondered why I ever had any doubts that I would enjoy it. But it's been fantastic, so I'm looking forward to getting back on the horse tomorrow.

The idea and concept behind the show—what was your vision for this whole thing? I know that you're really running through the hits and favorites for your fans. But what was your vision? Because I know that there's really kind of a visual element to this whole thing, too.

It was a matter of vision. I've toured Vegas many times, just stop in for one night in the arena or another Casino. But I've never had my own room before where I can create an entire different visual world for each song, and we have the technology, the projection technology to change the scenery in a split second. And that's a very exciting thing to do. So having that opportunity. It's an exciting one. It's not something I normally do, you know? People know me for music, good lights, but the visual thing I've kind of left to other people, so this is a bit of a novelty for me, but I'm enjoying the hell out of it. And I get to wear this bright yellow suit!

It's Vegas, you gotta think about the costumes.

It's Vegas! And the rhinestone underwear. It's all there.

So Las Vegas residency, that's what you've got going on. I know that you've been able to kind of take this opportunity to work in some new music as well, as you've got a new record on the way November 19, called "The Bridge". This is, what I understand, is what you were up to during the pandemic. So if you could, tell me about "The Bridge," and how the songs really got started?

I was in the middle of touring my play "The Last Ship," and we were in San Francisco, and it was running fantastically well and then the mayor wisely shut the whole city down because of the pandemic. So I had to go home with my cast, sit in England in my home there, and decided I would have to work otherwise I'd go completely nuts. So luckily, I have a studio in my house and 10 in the morning, I would clock on to work, work through 'til dinner. And at the end of the year, I had a record—which kind of surprised me. It's not a record about the pandemic at all. But it certainly had an effect, in that the record was kind of made remotely. The drummer could have been in Los Angeles while I was in Italy, and the guitar player was in Paris. So we did it remotely. The trick was to try and make it a warm record, an intimate record. We did that really by having a long term rapport with all of these musicians. I've worked with them for decades. So they know what I want, and I know what they want. And so, without very much being said, we made an intimate record, even though we're 1000s of miles apart often.

Well, I've heard two of the songs so far from the record, "Rushing Water" and "If It's Love" and you know, "If It's Love"—I wouldn't have known that this song was made during a time of lockdown and a time of anxiety—just to have an upbeat song about something maybe as infectious as a virus, but something like love, and that's great.

Well, I'm not the first songwriter to quite falling in love with the sickness. It's not an original idea at all. But I wanted to write something whimsical and and also make people smile. I think one of the reasons I'm whistling, and this is the first time I've ever whistled on record, is that when people whistle they just naturally smile, there's something there. I think we all need a bit of a smile at the moment, there's a lot of anxiety in the world, you know, the pandemic is very worrying. So I think sometimes music can give you that sense of relief, and sense of release.

Speaking of bringing a smile to people's faces, I've been seeing a lot about this show "Only Murders in the Building," which is on Hulu. I love Martin Short and Steve Martin, and I know that you played a role on that show. What was your role? Because you were really playing yourself, but playing kind of a different version of yourself.

Oh, let's say an exaggerated version of myself.

Okay.

I think my ego was kind of inflated. [laughs] But, they wrote they wrote a gag in the original script, and they said, would I mind at all? I said, absolutely not. And so they invited me along, and a lot of it's improvised. A lot of that show is just whatever turns up on a day, but I've worked with them before, on Saturday Night Live on a number of occasions, so that was easy. I met the lovely Selena Gomez, who is a fantastic actress. People are enjoying it. It's funny, and I'm just happy to be in it.

Yeah, again, giving people a reason to smile. And I think after the long and storied career that you've had, and continue to have, it's kind of fun to be see someone like you poke a little fun at themselves a little bit. Something like that is very relatable to people.

Oh, good.

Speaking of your acting roles—the new Dune is like all the rage right now, right? And you played the role of Feyd-Rautha in the 1984 David Lynch adaptation. Have people been asking you more about Dune as Dune is the big movie right now?

I went to see it the other night, and I was very impressed. I think David has done a fantastic job, and it's wonderful—so I'm recommending it. It brought back a lot of memories from 1984. Me wearing a rubber suit in Mexico City in like 110 degrees. I lost a lot of weight. I was very skinny, but we had fun as the Harkkonnens. Not nice people, but we had fun.

Right, and my understanding is that character is supposed to come back. That's kind of the speculation, is that if we're following the story that that character would come back. Did you kind of have any ideas of who do you think would be good to play that? If it's not you, who would it be?

I think it'd be someone incredibly handsome. Charismatic, intellectual. Well, there's plenty of those people. [laughs] I could play his dad.

Again, good luck with all these shows in Vegas. Excellent to meet you, and I know that you've got so many people that just love you here in the Twin Cities. Great memories of when you came to the Electric Fetus Record Store and did an in-store, people just like absolutely loved that.

That's one of my favorite record stores in America, it's fantastic.

Yeah, it's a gem of the Twin Cities and we're lucky to have it. Take care sting.

God bless. Bye bye.