Sting Tells Howard Stern the Story Behind How He Got His Enduring Nickname

While appearing on the Howard Stern Show in 2016, an amused Gordon Sumner explained how he became known as Sting. He said that when he was 18, he wore black and yellow to a gig when another guy named Gordon in his band jokingly called him Sting. The name was so enduring that even his own mother referred to him as Sting.

They thought it was funny. They kept calling it to me and then they’d call my mother up and say “Is Sting there?” for a gig and then she ended up calling me Sting.

He shared the story behind the song “Roxanne”, who turns out not to be a real person after all.

We were in Paris with the early version of The Police and we were staying in this very, very cheap hotel in a very seedy part of town and in the street were all these belles de nuit (ladies of the night) and I’d never been exposed to that…I couldn’t afford one, so I just conjured one up.

He also talked about bumping into the piano while recording the song in the studio.

The piano was right behind me. I thought that the lid was down….and I played a chord with my arse and then I start laughing. …We never thought it would be a hit, so we just put it on.

Sting also talked about why he left The Police.