LifeMinute Podcast: Entertainment
Jul 27, 2026 · 1 hr · 12 segments
The legendary drummer joins Joann Butler to discuss his years with Sting and Andy Summers in The Police, the unique drumming style that helped define their sound, the experiences that shaped his…
Stewart CopelandGuest
Joann ButlerHost
Tell us, for those who don't know what it was like growing up, your dad was in the CIA.
His job was to sustain a system of despots, dictators, and bleep heads, and to keep the oil flowing to us rather than to the evil empire of the Soviet Union.
So after Lebanon, I was shipped off to England, boarding school in England, staving off an English accent the whole time because I'm murking gosh darn it.
career prospects but the music kept dragging me back and I just kept finding myself there was like roading for the band or term managing or whatever and eventually I found myself in the band couldn't help it
And it actually arose because in Beirut, in the American Community School there, ACS, our high school, the band, the Black Knights, needed a drummer.
And up to that point did you really like self-taught or did you have training? Oh,
He was actually a professional jazz player I've still got his trumpet, you know, and I'm the youngest of four So when the first three went by and he was trying to put musical instruments into their hands and none of it stuck But I came along the last one finally I just I grabbed all those instruments, quickly broke them, and ended up banging on anything that didn't dodge.
Tell us, for those who don't know what it was like growing up, your dad was in the CIA.
His job was to sustain a system of despots, dictators, and bleep heads, and to keep the oil flowing to us rather than to the evil empire of the Soviet Union.
So after Lebanon, I was shipped off to England, boarding school in England, staving off an English accent the whole time because I'm murking gosh darn it.
career prospects but the music kept dragging me back and I just kept finding myself there was like roading for the band or term managing or whatever and eventually I found myself in the band couldn't help it
And it actually arose because in Beirut, in the American Community School there, ACS, our high school, the band, the Black Knights, needed a drummer.
And up to that point did you really like self-taught or did you have training? Oh,
He was actually a professional jazz player I've still got his trumpet, you know, and I'm the youngest of four So when the first three went by and he was trying to put musical instruments into their hands and none of it stuck But I came along the last one finally I just I grabbed all those instruments, quickly broke them, and ended up banging on anything that didn't dodge.
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