The following interview with Sting & Shaggy appeared in a September 2023 issue of FORBES magazine...

Q&A: Sting And Shaggy On Their Friendship, Festival And More...

Musicians Sting and Shaggy - one a veteran of the British new wave scene with the Police who became a solo icon and the other a Jamaican reggae superstar the world over - know you are surprised by their very close-knit friendship. For them, that is part of the fun.

One of their shared bonds is their love of surprise, both in music and in life. Another is their joy of music discovery and continued quest for learning. They are bringing that to their first co-curated music festival, "One Fine Day," in Philadelphia September 9.

The headliners will be joined that day by a variety of artists, including Thundercat, Philadelphia's own G. Love And Special Sauce, Tank & The Bangas and more. Sage Bava and I spoke with Sting and Shaggy over a very fun Zoom call about the festival, their friendship, wine-inspired ideas, messing up each other's songs and much more.

Steve Baltin: I used to live in Philly, so I'm going to start with a very obvious question, even though I hate to usually start with the obvious. Why Philly?

Shaggy: Well, why Philly there, Earl? [laughter]

Sting: Well, I think both of us, Shaggy and myself, have very strong support there. Whenever we play there separately, we always sell out. So it just seemed a good bet that we could do it in Philly successfully. It's also a great music town.

Baltin: There are so many great, legendary artists to come out of Philly. If you guys were to do one song from a Philly artist to cover as your all-star finale, what is it and why?

Sting: Oh, that's a tough question. Okay. Hall and Oates. "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)." I like that song.

Shaggy: That would be a good one though. I could do probably something from The Roots, or one of my favorite was an Erykah Badu record, "Things Fall Apart." Yeah, that's one of my favorite joints [laughter].

Baltin: What are you looking for in the artists that you bring together?

Shaggy: I think Sting and I have very eclectic tastes within music. I'm speaking for him here also. And correct me if I'm wrong there, Earl, we don't listen to music in or put music into a box, and categories. I think music basically, you listen to it based on mood and a vibe that you have. And we listen to every style of music, different artists. And I think there's so many artists that you know that have really cool music, but might not be your mainstream type of an artist. And they come from so many different cultures. If you look at the lineup that we did, you got people like Kes, which is Soca. It's a huge Soca artist from within that Caribbean, Calypso, Soca realm. And you have somebody like a Koffee, which is a new version of dance hall. Her style of music is just so positive and she brings that whole energy. I think Giordana [Angi], is it Italian or she's French, Sting?

Sting: Italian-French. Both.

Shaggy: You did a record with her, right?

Sting: I did. She's lovely.

Shaggy: Yeah. And so, it's really kind of putting these artists all in one arena and Sting and I will just go back and forth from stage to stage and introduce them and be a part of it and do songs with them and all of that. So it's really, really cool.

Baltin: I still get such a thrill out of music discovery. And for you guys doing an event like this, where you get to bring new artists on, or younger artists, how much does that invigorate both of you?

Sting: We take our role as curators very seriously. And as Shaggy said, we'll be on stage most of the time introducing these acts and then grooving on them when they're playing. And I just love the eclecticism. I think it was important that we have a Philadelphia act, G. Love & Special Sauce, a great band from Philly. And we have a band from Mexico, Italy, it is a city of brotherly love. And we are an integrated group here. And that's the message we want to give out.

Sage Bava: In your process now as curators, the tool of improvisation is integral in so many different ways. And now as collaborators in curating a festival, I'm curious how that's lighted some facets of your relationship perhaps that you didn't see before or has that just continued?

Sting: For me, the most important element in any music is the element of surprise.

Shaggy: Surprise.

Sting: Did you say that or I said that?

Shaggy: We said that.

Sting: If I hear four bars of music, I want to be surprised by the fifth bar. Otherwise I'll stop listening. So the music we choose to play, the music we choose to listen to, the music we choose to curate, is about surprise. I want people to walk away going, "Wow, that was surprising." Otherwise it's not worth it. So when Shaggy and I got together, that was a surprise to both of us. It was a surprise to the world. People said, "Sting and Shaggy, what the hell is that?" But it was a pleasant surprise 'cause it worked. And so it, we still have a beautiful friendship and this is just a further extension of that surprising combination [laughter]. And long may it continue.

Shaggy: I think we're just allergic to boredom, him and I. And we look for things to excite us and in some cases, I would think certainly for me, it might be a little bit selfish because I do it to really please myself. I always say, when I make a record, I never sit down and analyze any or cultivate any particular record for any particular audience. I really do it for me. Because, you could take, for instance, "It Wasn't Me" or "Mr. Bombastic," I'm gonna live with that song a lot more than you are. 'Cause I'm gonna have to play it every single day, when I tour and everything. So I'd like to do something I like. And hopefully, I do it a bit selfishly that I like it, and then hope that it really connects with an audience. And because my finger is on the pulse of culture for the most part, it normally connects. And I've had a good success rate but it's really done just kind of selfishly to my own taste. And I think what we do here is we're picking these artists, but it really boils down to us sitting down and doing them based on just our vibe and our taste and what we like, and hope that everybody would connect with it.

Sting: I'm driven more by curiosity than anything else. I'm curious about the future of music where it's headed, how it reflects society, and how society can maybe be changed by music somehow. I think it's a slow process, but music can alter people's perception. It's politics information. So I think music has a place there. So I'm curious and I'm curious to see how this "One Fine Day" thing works. I'm gonna be watching very carefully with the hope that we'll have another fine day following

Bava: Well, I'd love to ask you that question. I know it's a big one, but the future of music, what do Sting and Shaggy think about that?

Sting: Yeah, If we knew that, it wouldn't be a surprise. But I think we need to take part in it. Even though Shaggy and I are well established in our careers, we still feel we have something to offer. And if we don't have anything to offer, we should just shut up. There's so much noise in the world I don't want to add to it. I want to add something that's cogent, that's coherent and useful and I know Shaggy feels the same.

Shaggy: Yeah, I'm on the same page with you there. But also what I love is that sense of joy. I've toured this thing and I've done tours by myself and there's one thing we do have in common is there are smiles that are on people's faces when we're doing these things, when we're performing these tracks and touring. And it's that joy that you bring and that's what we want to bring. There's a strong message there, but there also has to be that energy, that joy.

Sting: What happens on stage is that I will start a song, one of my songs, and then suddenly Shaggy at any given moment will walk on and mess it up. And I have to improvise. I have to figure out how I'm gonna deal with this spontaneous bomb that just landed [laughter].

Shaggy: Just so you know, it's vice versa 'cause he does the same on mine [laughter]. And that's the element of surprise.

Sting: Just helping out. Come on.

Baltin: Sting, when we were talking about music in the future and how it can change the world. For each of you, what was the one song that most makes you feel like you can change the world?

Sting: I don't think we can change the world overnight with a song. I think you can plant a seed in people's heads. You're playing to an audience of people. Some of those people will be in the political class one day. They'll have power. If you plant a seed in their minds young about human rights or about the climate. Or for example, you know the film Oppenheimer? The director [Christopher Nolan] cites, the first time he heard the name Oppenheimer was in one of my songs, "Russians "So he's saying, "Okay, when I was 15 years old I heard Sting's song. It made me curious about what this is. And I found out about the history of the atomic bomb." And then you know made a big movie many years later. Probably get an Oscar. And I'll take some credit for that [laughter].

Shaggy: Mine isn't that deep. It's "It Wasn't Me." It'd probably just have really young boys saying "Well, I might need condoms." That's it [laughter].

Sting: They do.

Baltin: For each of you as a fan is there that song that uplifts you or, Sting, was there a first song for you that had the same impact that your song "Russians" had on Christopher Nolan?

Sting: I'd probably cite the entire [Bob] Dylan catalog from the '60s as being influential in my particular life. The idea of freedom, and change, and being anti-war, something that was very important to me still.

Shaggy: For me it was a lot of the early Reggae, like "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?" [and the line] "Natty dreadlocks," by Black Uhuru. Because in Jamaica there was a lot of discrimination against the Rastafarians. A lot of my uncles at the time were Rastafarians and faced a lot of discrimination in those early days. We're talking like in the '70s and even early part of the '80s. I thought that was a very strong message coming from them. Songs like Dennis Brown, "Revolution," was also one of those records that really connected, because at that point you stand for something or you fall for anything. One of the most brilliant songs for me that really connects also is "War" by Bob Marley, which is a speech of Haile Selassie actually translated into melodies. Those songs are very inspirational songs to me and really connect.

Sting: "Get Up Stand Up" [Bob Marley].

Bava: Beyond the music and the food, what were the core important message or vibe that you put your heads together and said, this is what this is about?

Sting: I just think it's a given what the vibe is. Shaggy and I, we're great friends. We love each other, and what comes out of that relationship is what you hear. We want people to join us with that camaraderie, that feeling of brotherhood, sisterhood as well. But, we're one big happy family. That's the intention.

Shaggy: Yeah, if you've ever been to a Sting and Shaggy show and seen us perform together, and we did it throughout a tour, you feel that togetherness. And yeah, we're from two different worlds, but we're not so far different as you might think. And like Sting said, on paper it might look really weird, but when you're there, it's like, "Boom." And that should transcend in that joy that we bring to people. And, I think that's what it really all about.

Baltin: Talk about the joy you have in this friendship and being able to do this stuff together.

Sting: It's cutting the workload in half for a start, but also making that 50 percent more valuable because you have to be on your feet to cope with something completely different. It's actually putting ourselves out of our comfort zone, both of us. And that always has benefits. So it's always worth taking a risk. But the actual physical work is halved. It's so much fun. I miss you, Shaggy. When I'm on my own, I really do.

Shaggy: Likewise. When we reunited the other day, think about that stage. When we were in St. Lucia, that night we were just doing whatever the hell we wanted, and the crowd just ate it up. I remember ending that show and kept saying to myself, "Wow, this is just magic every single time." We didn't rehearse very much. We just kind of put it together, but it worked like a charm. And that just come with just camaraderie and a genuine friendship. I always say, Sting is the brother I didn't know I needed. And he's brought so much to me within my confidence and I've always been a fan of his music. But to think that he was a fan of me and what I've done, really adds to me and what I do and my creativity. I think we both cherish it, and we're always excited to do something together. And probably we sit down over a glass of wine or some gin and tonic or something like that, and then there's this crazy idea come up. So it works.

Baltin: Do you get different ideas from the wine and from the gin and tonic, and which one creates the better ideas?

Sting: My wine is full of ideas.

Shaggy: I knew that was coming. We only get the ideas when we are drinking Sting wine. Just FYI.

Sting: That's not true. We came up with the idea of Shaggy singing [Frank] Sinatra drinking Red Stripe in Norway.

Bava: You must have the most amazing stories. I would love to hear, probably wine may have been involved, one of your favorite stories of a song being messed up, when you perform together by the other.

Sting: Well, it happens just about every song, but then you re-adjust. Someone's on the end of the boat and the boat rocks that way. You have to go the other way. It's navigation. And that's so exciting. And again, it's all about surprise. He's a very spontaneous freestyler. It's something I envy in him, because my work is very kind of meticulous and planned, and he can just walk out there and just freestyle and improvise. I envy that. but it's fantastic to have that as part of my show too now. So it does stimulate me to perform differently. And so you never really know what's gonna happen. I should be nervous, but I'm not.

Shaggy: It's like reading a room. I don't know if you guys are familiar with sound systems in Jamaica, where they would have what is known as selectors, and what you guys would call a DJ here to play a record. And if a DJ's gonna play a record, he's playing a record based on that crowd, and he's reading that crowd, and kind of adjusting as you go along to what that audience is. And I think what is so cool is that we'll put a set list and do it, but there are things that we're doing in between these songs that really tailor to that audience that night. And, we'll come off there and say, "Wow, that was great." And we'll both just play off each other and come with something that really connects. And it just always does.

(c) Forbes by Steve Baltin