Sting.Photo: Richard E. Aaron/Redferns
With hits like “Every Breath You Take” and “Roxanne” under his belt, it’s no wonder thatSting’s songs are karaoke staples.
But when the rocker, 71, takes the mic for some karaoke sessions of his own, it’s not his own catalog he turns to.
For the latter tune, Sting even adds some extra flair: “I love that song. I wear a feather boa and everything, it’s fantastic. For that song — beforeHarry Stylesdid it!”
Styles, of course, is a known fan of wearing feather boas while performing, and even added one to his look when he took the stage at the 2021Grammy Awards.
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Harry Styles.Kevin Winter/Getty
For Sting, though, the stage and a karaoke room are the only places he’ll show off his famous pipes: “You think I sing in the car? No. I sing on stage. I don’t even sing in the shower. I’ve got to save my voice. If I was to sing a song in the car… let’s see. It would be something really banal, like ‘Old MacDonald’.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is set to become a Fellow of the Ivors Academy, a prestigious music writers' association in his native England, in a ceremony in London on Thursday.
“If you ask me my profession, I would say I’m a songwriter, so to receive this honor is very special,” says the star, whose real name is Gordon Sumner. “I get people coming up to me saying, ‘Oh, I got married to your song,’ or ‘We buried Uncle Charlie to your song’ or ‘I fell out of love to this…’ People mark their lives with the songs of their era, as do I.”
Sting.Eric Ryan Anderson
He released his 15th studio albumThe Bridgein 2021, and will appear on Dolly Parton’supcoming rock albumRockstar, where they’ll team up for a new version of “Every Breath You Take.”
“I would sit at his desk at night and try and write songs,” he says. “I think if the song has any power at all, it’s ambivalent. It could be sinister or it could be quite warm and sweet and nice, and people have both of those interpretations. And I would never contradict anyone who has a different interpretation of any of my songs because in many ways, that enriches the song.”
For more on Sting, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
source: people.com
