Sting a concerned citizen of the world
Sting wears his heart on his sleeve in music and activism, making him an easy target, writes Dave Bannister
During a career spanning more than three decades, Sting has achieved more than most musicians could dream of. However, he's always found himself at the wrong end of media attention. For all his early street-cred as The Police's frontman, his undoubted musical ability, celebrity friends and the many popular causes he's adopted, the singer has long been a whipping boy for the press. Only Phil Collins seems to have taken more bullets than this blond Geordie.
When Sting appeared in front of millions of television viewers a couple of years back for the BBC's flagship current affairs show Newsnight, he was flayed by host Jeremy Paxman for jetting between his seven luxury homes while at the same time calling for action to be taken over global warming. While admitting he had an outsized carbon footprint, Sting said he had made a mistake to appear at what he termed an "ambush". The surprise for many, however, was that he hadn't realised the public flogging that lay in store.
From the cold war days when he sang about Russians loving their children, to his love of yoga and those marathon tantric sex sessions, Sting has been picked on for being pious, weird or even hypocritical.
It all seems slightly unfair - so how did he get this reputation?
"Because I'm very earnest by nature. If you ask me a serious question, I'll probably give you a serious answer," says Sting, who will perform in Hong Kong on December 2. "But there's a tendency for people to think that's all there is to me. I'm also quite hopeful and fun-loving on the other side."
However, the real answer has much to do with the fact that people generally don't like actors and pop stars sticking their nose into human rights or politics, whether it's Bono or John Lennon. Sting, however, has never shied away from the issues he cares about, and the barbs don't appear to put him off. Recently he lent his support to Pussy Riot, the Russian band who were locked up for daring to criticise the nation's strongman leader, Vladimir Putin.