Why does this have to happen so much? Great bands spend years together making fantastic albums and putting on great shows, but then they get older and bicker and sue. The Police are just the latest of many of these tales.
Guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland are suing frontman and bassist Sting for a massive amount of money over what Summers and Copeland say are lost royalties. Various reports say that for years the trio has been trying to reach an out-of-court settlement, but that time has passed.
The group formed in 1977 and originally had a sound that was certainly rock but often influenced by reggae. That changed over the years, and by 1983, when the band's best-selling album, Synchronicity, was released, the reggae feel was gone.
The Police are suing each other in a tale as old as time
The songs were still terrific, however, and no band sounded exactly like the Police, though trying to pinpoint exactly why is difficult. They weren't loud or prog; they simply were.
But there should be no mistake that while Summers and Copeland were talented, the band was led by Sting, the main songwriter and face of the group. He wrote such seminal tracks as "Every Breath You Take." That song alone reportedly fetches Sting nearly $745,000 a year in royalties.
The exact details of the lawsuit brought by Summers and Copeland are few, though the royalties from the band's best-known songs do not appear to be a part of it. Whatever the real math is, Summers and Copeland want Sting to cough up "millions" in back royalties.
Synchronicity sold 15 million units, but each of the band's five albums reached the top 10 in the UK. Their final three reached the top 5 in the US. Three singles from the final album, "Every Breath You Take," "King of Pain," and "Wrapped Around Your Finger," were top 10 hits in the US.
The band did reform in 2007 for a run of shows, but no new music. That run ended in 2008 and there has seemingly been no attempt to do any shows since. The new lawsuit seems to imply there won't be shows in the future either.