Sting isn’t worried about the legacy of “Every Breath You Take,” even if it’s forever tied to Sean “Diddy” Combs in some way.
in new interview Los Angeles Times In an article published on Monday (November 11), the Police frontman was asked about his reaction to the band’s iconic 1983 hit now that Combs faces trial, which the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder What do you think of the song (which was sampled on his own “I’ll Be Missing You”)? for multiple charges of sexual abuse, extortion, and more.
“No,” Sting began. “I mean, I don’t know what happened [with Diddy]. But to me that doesn’t taint the song at all. This is still my song.
The original “Every Breath You Take” spent eight weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the year it was released and remains The Police’s only No. 1 single on the chart. Fourteen years later, Diddy released “I’ll Be Missing You,” a tribute to the late Notorious B.I.G. alongside Faith Evans and 112, which featured Sting classics; it stayed at number one for 11 weeks. .
Didi was arrested on September 16 on charges of abuse, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery. He was immediately detained and repeatedly denied bail while awaiting trial on May 5, 2025. The case took place on Friday (November 8), with a judge rejecting his “unprecedented” and “baseless” request to issue a gag order against his alleged victims and their lawyers for publishing “Incendiary, extrajudicial rhetoric designed to assassinate Mr. Coombs’ character in the media.”
“The court has a clear constitutional obligation to ensure that Coombs receives a fair trial,” the judge wrote. “But this basic … requirement must be balanced against the First Amendment protections afforded to those who claim to be victims of Coombs. ”
Meanwhile, Sting once again toured as a trio with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Mass, an arrangement that matched his collaboration with Police bandmates Andy Summers and Stuart Copeland, as well as ” We’ll Be Together” singer’s three-piece lineup is no different. Realize the irony. “I never left the police department,” he said in a police interview. era. “I’m not sure what I did. I just made a record – like everyone else did – and enjoyed it more than I did in the band.
“Here I go again,” he continued of his recovery. “My whole approach is to be surprised. I don’t expect people to be completely confident about what I’m going to do next. To me that’s the nature of music. No one expected a trio at this point.
