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Sting music biography continued...

risks. Born Gordon Sumner on February 10, 1951 in Newcastle, England, Sting was nicknamed for the black and yellow striped sweater he would wear while performing. A classically trained pianist, Sting's mother encouraged him to pursue a career in music and, while playing the jazz guitar on stage, he was spotted by drummer Stewart Copeland and persuaded to try rock. Joined by guitarist Andy Summers, the trio formed The Police,in 1977. The band, with Sting on vocals and bass, became globally popular in the early 1980s, playing a style of rock that was influenced by jazz, reggae, and punk music. Between 1978 and 1983, they released five chart-topping albums and won six Grammy Awards. Police songs like "Roxanne," "Message in a Bottle" and "Don't Stand So Close To Me" where hugely popular and the band's 1983 album Synchronicity was #1 in the UK and the US and went Platinum eight times in the US.
After reaching the pinnacle with The Police, Sting embarked on a solo career that proved equally successful. His first album, the jazz-influenced 'Dream of the Blue Turtles', went platinum. 1991's 'Soul Cages', dealing with the loss of his parents (who both died of cancer within a few months of each other), and 1993's 'Ten Summoner's Tales', revealed a maturity in his song writing not previously seen, and both albums won Grammy Awards. Sting reached a pinnacle of success in 1994, when he c o-performed the chart-topping song "All For Love" from the film The Three Musketeers. The song stayed at the top of the U.S. charts for five weeks and went Platinum; it is to date Sting's only song from his post-Police career to top the U.S. charts. Sting continued to record and perform throughout the early 2000s, and in 2002 was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2007, he announced that the Police would reunite and go on a reunion tour that turned out to be one of the hottest tickets around. Whether he's part of a group, or out on his own, Sting truly stands as one of music's towering figures.