Sting, real name Gordon Sumner, is one of the most famous musicians ever, but some of his fans are only just learning how the Police frontman landed his stage name
People are only just realising how Sting got his stage name.
The rock legend, 73, was forced to cancel a string of gigs and an appearance at the Bass Magazine Awards earlier this year due to illness. The Police frontman is one of the most successful artists of all time, and apparently quite the weapon in the bedroom.
Fans have been finding out the sinister meaning behind his hit Every Breath You Take, which one might assume is just a simple love song. Now, it seems like people are finally learning how Gordon Sumner landed the stage name of Sting.
Fans have come up with various theories. One social media user asked: “Is Sting called Sting because he was in The Police and it’s just a pun on police sting? I had this thought the other day I’ve blown my own mind. As if the answer to this little mystery has been right there in plain sight all along.”
Apparently, even Gordon’s wife Trudy calls him Sting. In an interview with Time in 2011, he revealed: “[My wife] Trudy calls me Sting. I was never called Gordon. You could shout Gordon in the street and I would just move out of your way. My children call me Dad.”
The origins of his nickname dates back to his days with The Police – and it’s to do with his fashion sense. He once told the Daily Star: “He [a bandmate] made me sing a song which was awful.
“So, in protest I began to wear a black and yellow top. He started to call me Sting as a joke. I’m grateful for it now as when you have to sign something, it’s short!”.
In 2016, he told CBS Sunday Morning: “I used to play in a traditional jazz group when I was 16 with much older guy. I used to wear these yellow and black sweaters. And they thought I looked like a wasp.
Luckily, he leaned into the joke. He continued: “They joked, they called me Sting and they thought it was hilarious – they kept calling me Sting and that became my name.”
Sting has bagged 17 Grammys and sold over 100million records worldwide. He was lead singer and bassist for The Police from their inception in 1977 until they broke up in 1986, and he would go on to forge an incredibly successful solo career.
One fan commented on Reddit: “I had always hoped it was because of the Hobbit.” Another said: “The story back in the mid 80s was that he had a black and yellow striped sweater that someone said made him look like a bee, hence the name ‘Sting’.”
A third shared: “Before forming The Police in 1977, in the early part of that decade he was in a group called the Phoenix Jazzmen (like the rising fictional bird, not the city). He had a habit of wearing a yellow and black jacket most of the time. The black stripes went left to right on the jacket.
“One of his band mates said he resembled a wasp insect and the joking obviously led to them nicknaming him Sting. Gordon could take a joke, looks like, and kept it. Yes, it did kind of come in handy, being in a group called The Police. Pretty gutsy thing to name your band, knowing what a great sense of humour law enforcement sometimes has.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
