Stewart Copeland Recalls 'Screaming Matches' Amid Police Reunion

Nearly 20 years since the Police reunited for a massive worldwide tour, Stewart Copeland still remembers turmoil behind the scenes.

The trio’s 2007-08 reunion was hailed as a massive success, and the numbers certainly back it up. The trek included more than 150 concerts, spread across 27 countries. It earned approximately $362 million, ranking among the most profitable tours in history. Despite these impressive achievements, Copeland can still look back on the tour with a critical eye.

“We weren't as good a band because we had grown apart,” the drummer explained during a recent appearance on Billy Corgan’s podcast, The Magnificent Others. “We weren't in the pocket. We weren't codependent, but the songs were still great. And the atmosphere of those audiences was still great.”

“I think we're all really glad we did it,” Copeland continued, “even though we had screaming matches.”

Yes, even after more than two decades apart, the Police bandmates found themselves embroiled in backstage arguments during the reunion tour. As Copeland recalled, the same issues that contributed to the band’s original breakup cropped up once again – namely, that he and Sting were on two totally different wavelengths.

“We’re on this planet as musicians for a different purpose,” Copeland noted, expressing a better understanding of his frontman’s perspective than he held in the past. “We’re not on the same mission.”

Therapy Helped Keep the Police Reunion Afloat

In an effort to keep things civil, Copeland and Sting went to group therapy during the Police reunion tour.

“We went and we sat there cross-legged and with incense playing and, new age music, massage music playing and putting our hands on each other's hearts and gazing [into each other’s eyes],” he recalled. “And it worked! My god, you’re not an a—hole after all. I thought it was because you’re an a—hole.”

Copeland was sure to clarify that things weren’t magically better after he and Sting went to therapy, but the experience helped the musicians understand each other to a point that they were able to better handle their innate differences.

“Fortunately both of us have a very shallow reservoir of bile,” he remarked. “Neither of us can sustain a tantrum for longer than 20 minutes… after 20 minutes, we're hugging.”

These days, the rockers are all on friendly terms. Copeland is on a spoken word tour titled "Have I Said Too Much?," where he regales audiences with stories, pictures and videos from his years in the Police. They musicians continually insisted that they’ll never reunite again, explaining that they work better as friends than bandmates.