Stewart Copeland Says He and Sting ‘Get Along Just Fine’ Despite Royalty Lawsuit

The Police drummer is on a spoken word tour and says the band's legal dispute is a matter for ‘bean counters' in London.

Stewart Copeland is making the rounds on a spoken word tour of North America, and the Police drummer is drawing a clear line between the band's ongoing royalty lawsuit in the U.K. High Court and his personal relationship with Sting. Despite Copeland and Andy Summers suing Sting last year over an estimated $2 million in unpaid royalties, Copeland says the two former bandmates still talk regularly and remain on good terms.

Copeland Separates the Legal Fight From the Friendship

Copeland is characteristically breezy about the lawsuit. ‘We're not (in court). The bean counters are, somewhere over in London,' he told Billboard. ‘For me it's, “Lemme know how it works out…”‘

He says his conversations with Sting cover everyday ground: kids, Instagram memes, and general small talk. ‘I'm happy that we get along just fine, and we know way. It's not because of satanic impulses or any of the human infirmities of jealousy, greed, pride, whatever,' Copeland said. ‘It's because we had a spell where our music universes overlapped and we created some incredible stuff.'

The key condition, in Copeland's telling, is keeping music out of the equation. ‘We get along great as long as we're not trying to make music together,' he said.

The Royalty Dispute and ‘Every Breath You Take'

Copeland and Summers filed suit against Sting in England last year, claiming they are owed $2 million under songwriting agreements that date back to the Police's formation in 1977. Court records indicate Sting has paid his former bandmates $870,000, but Copeland and Summers are still pursuing the remainder of the claim.

Summers has been particularly vocal about one specific grievance: he believes he deserves a songwriting credit on ‘Every Breath You Take,' the Grammy Award-winning 1983 smash that became one of the most commercially successful songs in rock history. The case is now before the U.K.'s High Court.

The dispute over ‘Every Breath You Take' carries particular weight given the song's stature. It topped charts worldwide, anchored the eight-times platinum album Synchronicity, and has generated substantial royalty income for decades. Songwriting credit on a catalog of that magnitude represents serious money, which helps explain why the case has escalated to the High Court rather than settling quietly.

A Band History Built on Tension and Achievement

The Police operated from 1977 to 1984, releasing five studio albums. Synchronicity, their 1983 closer, has been inducted into both the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. The trio reunited briefly for three concerts on Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope tour in 1986 and again for their 2003 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

Their most substantial reunion came during the 2007-2008 global tour, which Copeland says required professional intervention to pull off. ‘We had professionals come along and straighten us out; I guess their day job was probably, like marriage counseling,' he recalled. ‘It worked so well after our session the business suits said, “Hey guys, let's put another six months on the tour!” “Sure!”‘

Copeland described the experience as a mixture of extremes. ‘It was actually a lot of fun, a lot of misery and a lot of fun at the same time. But after two years of it, we were all ready to get back to our central mission.'

Copeland's Post-Police Career and the ‘Fully Retired' Paradox

That central mission has kept all three members busy across different creative lanes. For Copeland, it has meant opera and classical composition, film and video game scoring, filmmaking, and writing. He is the subject of a new documentary simply titled Copeland, which premieres June 19 at the Raindance Film Festival in London.

He is also writing another opera, which he describes as ‘kind of under wraps until it will be revealed to the world,' and is expanding his Police Deranged for Orchestra touring repertoire beyond Police material. ‘Instead of just the Police it will be the entire world f***ed up,' he said.

Despite that packed schedule, Copeland describes himself as ‘fully retired' from music. It is a characteristically Copeland-esque framing: a man with a documentary premiering, an opera in progress, and an orchestra tour on the road who considers himself done with the business of music.

What we know

• Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers sued Sting in England last year, claiming $2 million in unpaid royalties under songwriting agreements dating to 1977.
• Court records indicate Sting has paid his former bandmates $870,000, but Copeland and Summers are still seeking the remainder of the claim.
• The case has reached the U.K.'s High Court.
• Andy Summers has been particularly outspoken about believing he deserves a songwriting credit on ‘Every Breath You Take.'
• A documentary titled Copeland premieres June 19 at the Raindance Film Festival in London.
• The Police's 1983 album Synchronicity is eight-times platinum and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.
• Copeland is currently on a spoken word tour of North America.
• The Police's 2007-2008 reunion tour involved professional counseling sessions to manage band dynamics.

The take

The Police have always been a band defined as much by internal friction as by musical chemistry. Copeland and Sting famously clashed throughout the band's original run, and the 2007-2008 reunion tour, for all its commercial success, was widely reported as a grueling exercise in managed conflict. The fact that they required what Copeland likens to marriage counseling just to finish the tour is consistent with everything fans and observers have long understood about that dynamic.

The royalty dispute over ‘Every Breath You Take' is worth watching closely. Songwriting credit battles over legacy catalog are increasingly common as streaming has given decades-old compositions a second commercial life. The song remains one of the most-played tracks in radio history and generates substantial ongoing income. Summers' argument that his guitar contribution warrants a co-write is not unusual in the broader context of classic rock disputes; similar arguments have surfaced around Led Zeppelin's ‘Stairway to Heaven' and other foundational catalog titles.

Copeland's ‘fully retired' framing is also telling. For musicians of his generation who built careers outside the traditional album-and-tour cycle, retirement is less a stopping point than a rebranding. His pivot toward orchestral arrangements, opera, and film scoring mirrors moves made by other classic rock figures who found the rock industry's commercial machinery less hospitable as they aged, while their compositional ambitions only expanded.

Why it matters

For classic rock fans, the Police represent one of the genre's most combustible and productive creative partnerships. The ongoing royalty dispute is a reminder that even the most celebrated catalogs carry unresolved business beneath the surface. More broadly, the ‘Every Breath You Take' credit argument touches on a long-standing tension in rock songwriting: the gap between who holds the legal copyright and who contributed meaningfully to a song's identity. How the U.K. High Court rules could set a precedent with implications well beyond the Police.

What's next

The royalty case continues in the U.K.'s High Court, with no resolution date confirmed in available reporting. Copeland's documentary premieres June 19 at the Raindance Film Festival in London. He is also expanding his Police Deranged for Orchestra tour to include material from beyond the Police catalog, and a new opera is in development, though details remain undisclosed.

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