Exclusive: Sting Talks ‘Last Ship,’ Parents’ Deaths on ‘Inside the Actors Studio’
Sting‘s new Broadway musical The Last Ship, featuring music from the latest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee‘s 2013 album of the same name, is set to open on October 26th, but before the Police singer makes his debut as a Great White Way composer, he’ll sit down with James Lipton for an interview on Inside the Actors Studio. Sting doesn’t just talk about his cinematic turns, however: In this exclusive clip from the episode, the singer discusses how his musical has allowed him to say things he wished he told his parents before their deaths.
“I feel [my father’s] presence when we’re performing this. I feel my mother’s presence,” Sting tells Lipton. “I’m honoring them. I’m honoring their life. I love them, and they’re still with me.” When Lipton asks Sting whether his parents will be there for the opening night of The Last Ship, the singer doesn’t hesitate in responding, “Definitely.” Sting’s Inside the Actors Studio will air October 23rd on Bravo, and according to Lipton, the singer performs on the episode.
“In the 21 years of Inside the Actors Studio, there has never been an episode like Sting’s,” Lipton said in a statement. “Performing numerous songs and revealing himself with unprecedented candor, irresistible charm and undisguised emotion, he has brought us a Sting that his legion of followers has never seen before. On the eve of the opening of The Last Ship, the magic begins on our stage.” Sting previously gave theatergoers a sneak peek of his upcoming musical with a performance at the Tony Awards.
Sting also elaborates on the stories behind The Last Ship, which draws upon then-Gordon Sumner’s youthful years growing up in the shipbuilding town of Wallsend in Northern England. “I was writing songs for other characters than me, other sensibilities than mine, a different viewpoint,” Sting told the New York Times last year about how The Last Ship morphed from a conventional album into a blueprint for a musical. “And so all of that pent-up stuff, all of those crafts I’d developed as a songwriter, I was suddenly free to explore without much thinking, actually. It just kind of came out as a kind of Tourette’s, a kind of projectile vomiting. It just came out, very quickly.”