Sting says Diddy didn’t spoil “every breath you take” despite being arrested

Sting isn’t worried about the legacy of “Every Breath You Take,” even if it’s somehow forever linked to Sean “Diddy” Combs.

In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times On Monday (November 11), the Police frontman was asked about his feelings about his band’s iconic 1983 hit – which the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder sampled in his own “I’ll Be Missing You.” has – now that Combs is on trial, would be asked about numerous allegations of sexual abuse, extortion and more.

“No,” Sting began. “I mean, I don’t know what happened [with Diddy]. For me it doesn’t hurt the song at all. It’s still my song.”

The original “Every Breath You Take” spent eight weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 the year it was released and remains The Police’s only No. 1 hit on the chart. Fourteen years later, Diddy released “I’ll Be Missing You” as a tribute to the late Notorious BIG featuring Faith Evans and 112, with an interpolation of Sting’s classic; it spent 11 weeks at No. 1.

Diddy was arrested on September 16 on charges of abuse, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery. He was subsequently immediately taken into custody and denied bail several times while awaiting trial on May 5, 2025. The latest update in his case came on Friday (November 8) when a judge rejected his “unprecedented” and “unwarranted” request to issue a gag order against his alleged victims and their lawyers, saying they made “inflammatory out-of-court statements “with the aim of assassinating Mr. Combs’ character in the press.”

“The court has a constitutional duty to ensure that Combs receives a fair trial,” the judge wrote. “But this essential … requirement must be balanced with the protections afforded by the First Amendment to those who claim to be victims of Combs.”

Meanwhile, Sting has toured again as part of a trio with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, a line-up similar to his three-piece lineup featuring The Police’s Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, as well as the We’ll Be Together Singer is not unlike is aware of the irony. “I never left the police force,” he said in an interview with police Just. “I’m not sure what I did. I just made a record – like the others – and I enjoyed it more than being in a band.

“And here I am again,” he continued of his return to form. “My whole mode is surprise. I don’t want people to be completely sure what I’m going to do next. For me that is the essence of music. And nobody expected a trio at that point.”