Home » Music » Sting » The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same - Page 5

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same - Page 5

© Greg Camden

Considering that all Hampton had done little more than criticize Sting for (as Hampton saw it) his vapidness and trafficking in various causes as commodities—with no pro-fascist statements, nothing hateful towards people, no glee at history's atrocities, no mentions of wanting to harm Sting or his children (or anybody, for that matter)—it can be seen that Sting clearly was not in a good place during this period.

And it was only weeks later that his father also passed away, also of cancer. Sting was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, about to go onstage in front of 200,000 people at the Maracana Stadium, when he received the news. "I had to go on. I wanted to. It was a great gig, seething with Brazilian energy. The first show of that tour. It was a kind of wake. After that my reaction was very modern, I think. 'Okay, father died. It's sad, but I'm going to work, work, work through it.' Work. So I did."

However, in the end this may not have been the best choice he could have made, as he did not give himself a chance to grieve. "When his father died," Branford Marsalis later told Esquire, "you couldn't see any sign that he was under stress. He wasn't trying to pretend he wasn't dealing with it—he wasn't fucking dealing with it. Denial to the tenth degree." It was this denial which led to a problem Sting had never encountered: writer's block. "I realized I couldn't write either because I didn't have anything to say—or, more likely, I did have something to say and I was scared to face it." He would not produce another album for nearly four years.

During the hiatus in his recording, Sting was not completely out of the public eye. In 1989 Sting took his second role in a musical (his first had been in Hellfire in 1975): MacHeath in a Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera. (A song from the show, "Mack the Knife" was made famous by Bobby Darin.) Although Sting enjoyed the experience, the musical was almost universally panned.

It was also during this time that Sting became extremely active in a variety of causes. In particular there was the Rainforest Foundation, which he founded with his wife, Trudie. Many of Sting's fans were perplexed to see him at press conferences next to the fearsome figure of Kayapo Indian Chief Raoni, complete with plate-stretched lip and in full tribal attire, instead of promoting a new album or tour. It wasn't until 1991 that these fans would be satisfied.

The copyright of the article The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same - Page 5 in Sting is owned by Greg Camden. Permission to republish The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same - Page 5 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.