Rock band The Police were an impactful musical presence, forming in the 1970s and having their greatest success in the 1980s. With songs such as Roxanne, Message in a Bottle, and Every Breath You Take, the band ruled the charts and were considered an enormous part of the ‘second British invasion.’
Rolling Stone said in 1983 that The Police was “the first British New Wave act to break through in America on a grand scale, and possibly the biggest band in the world.”
Here’s the scoop on what Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland are up to now, plus why they broke up in the first place.
The Police broke up in the mid-1980s
The prevalent narrative surrounding the band’s breakup is that everything started out well when they first began in 1977. Once it was apparent that Sting was the band’s hitmaker, churning out one great song after another, a power shift took place.
In his 2015 documentary, Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police, Summers stated that the band’s “fragile democracy has become a dictatorship, and Sting’s agenda, although veiled, is obvious. He does not want to be in a band.” By 1984, the band was history. They reunited in 2007 for a one-year tour that grossed over $360 million in revenues. After that, they went their separate ways once again.
Stewart Copeland has been scoring films
After leaving The Police, Copeland worked on the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish in 1983 and has continued in that line of work. The 67-year-old has scored over sixty movies and television shows, in addition to writing orchestral works.
He also wrote a 1989 opera, Holy Blood and the Crescent Moon. Laying off the drums after The Police broke up, he took them up again in 2000. At that point, he joined musical band Oysterhead with Phish’s Trey Anastasio and Primus’ Les Claypool.
CelebrityNetWorth.com states that Copeland has a net worth of $80 million.
Andy Summers has been writing scores and books
Once The Police were done, Summers tried out film scoring, most significantly for the 1980s films Down and Out in Beverly Hills and Weekend at Bernie’s. He has also written books, including his memoir One Train Later in 2006 and the photography collection I’ll Be Watching You a year later.
He opened up to The A.V. Club in 2012 about a song, Omegaman, that he’d written that Sting wouldn’t record. “Omegaman was a really strong piece. A&M wanted to put it out. … But Sting, who was feeling his power at the time, was freaked out. He didn’t want it out. He refused. He got very upset, but A&M didn’t want to upset him for all the typical reasons, so it didn’t get put out.”
Summers has a net worth of $100 million according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Sting is still a musical force
The former English teacher continues to make music, with a string of hits. He’s universally considered one of his generation’s greatest musical artists and won his 18th Grammy Award recently for Best Reggae Album in collaboration with Shaggy.
The 68-year-old has sold over 100 million records and is also a Kennedy Center honoree.
Sting’s net worth is $400 million, says Celebrity Net Worth.
Read more: 1980s Musicians You Probably Didn’t Know Were Still Making Music
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