2026年5月3日 / 美国东部时间上午10:12 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
记者：马克·菲利普斯 资深外籍通讯员
马克·菲利普斯是哥伦比亚广播公司新闻资深外籍通讯员，自1993年起常驻伦敦分社。他报道了过去35年来所有重大国际事件，包括中东、非洲和欧洲的冲突。
[阅读完整简历]
如今，斯汀回到家乡时，这里已经不是他50多年前离开的样子了。坐落于英格兰东北角的纽卡斯尔市，如今展现出一片宁静的景象，现代建筑横跨在平静的水面之上。但几个世纪以来，纽卡斯尔一直是一个艰苦嘈杂的工业重镇，它以造船业闻名。
而斯汀，一个工人阶级家庭出身的男孩，曾听过一段他不愿听的父亲教诲：“他会说，‘孩子，出海去吧，看看世界，做出一番成就。’当然，我让他失望了！”
斯汀最终成为了他那一代人中最成功的词曲作者和流行歌手之一，从20世纪70年代的警察乐队起步，此后历经多次阵容调整。他的热门歌曲——《你的每一次呼吸》《罗克珊》《瓶中信》《她做的每件小事都充满魔力》《金色 fields》《心之形》——的流媒体播放量已达数十亿次。
当被问及是否会统计所获奖项和专辑销量时，斯汀回答：“答案是，足够了。我已经获得了远超所需的成功和认可。我其实不再需要更多了。这固然美好，但并不是我特别在意的东西。我不认为自己是名人，我也不想这么想。我更愿意把自己看作一个有故事要讲述的职业音乐人”——一个关于他家乡的故事。
“我当时只是想要比眼前这条道路更广阔的人生，”他说，“直到很久以后我才意识到，我的成长环境其实是一份馈赠。”
何以见得？“因为每天清晨醒来时，眼前都是这些意义深远的景象：一艘巨型船舶横跨街道；成群结队的工人步行上班；船只被建造、下水驶入河流，驶向大海。对于一名艺术家来说，这些画面极具冲击力。我想要致敬我的出身，因为他们赋予了我身份认同感和职业道德。所以我想要回报这份馈赠。”
斯汀的音乐剧（他已经筹备了十多年）名为《最后一艘船》，讲述了纽卡斯尔造船厂的衰落。如今他正带着这部作品开启巡演，这次的亮点在于新增的明星阵容——斯汀本人，以及他的好友、“浮夸”先生本人夏奇。
这位雷鬼明星告诉我们，他从未参与过像《最后一艘船》这样规模的项目：“还没到这个级别过，”他说，“我现在还坐在这儿琢磨，我到底掺和进来干什么了？”
为什么选择夏奇？两人此前的合作就收获了成功：2019年，他和斯汀凭借专辑《44/876》获得格莱美最佳雷鬼专辑奖。
“我立刻就知道夏奇是这个角色的完美人选，”斯汀说，“他极具幽默感，充满活力，同时也是一名天生的演员。”
“他比我还了解我自己！”夏奇说道，“我当时说，‘我真的不行啊’，他却说，‘不，你可以的’。后来我真的做到了，然后我才发现，他说得没错！这真让人不好意思承认。”
这部剧已经在欧洲和澳大利亚的剧院售罄，接下来将在纽约大都会歌剧院上演。2014年，《最后一艘船》的早期版本曾在百老汇上演。此次巡演的剧本经过了修订。
当被问及为何这个项目对他意义如此重大，以至于他执着追求了十多年时，斯汀回答：“我很执着。如果我相信某件事，我就会坚持到底。而且我完全不把商业成功与卓越或品质混为一谈。我认为这部剧，尽管背景设定在20世纪80年代，对当下的人们仍有话要说。我们所有人都面临着工作被人工智能取代的风险。所有人。”
当被问及是否希望人们将他作为戏剧作曲家“认真对待”，而非仅仅从他的流行歌手生涯来评判时，他说：“我非常感激我的流行音乐生涯，那是我人生中某个特定阶段的产物，当时我处于特定的年纪、有着特定的形象，创作了特定类型的音乐。但那不能成为我的全部人生。我不想只被定义为25岁时的那个自己。我现在已经74岁了。”
斯汀本名戈登·萨默塞特，他的艺名源于他曾经穿过的黄黑条纹上衣，有人说那让他看起来像一只黄蜂。此后他的职业生涯一直备受关注，包括他最热门的单曲《你的每一次呼吸》的真正含义。
[警察乐队 – 《你的每一次呼吸》（官方MV），由ThePoliceVEVO上传至YouTube]
“有些人把这首歌解读为一首非常浪漫的情歌，或是关于跟踪狂的歌——那种偏执的注视，‘我会注视着你’，”斯汀说，“我不会反驳听众对这首歌的个人解读。我认为这会让歌曲更丰富，赋予它力量。它两者都是。”
“有些人结婚的时候就用了这首歌，那就祝他们幸福吧！”
斯汀的人生包罗万象。如今，他的人生关乎归家——至少在精神层面如此，就像他带着我们的镜头来到纽卡斯尔的一家酒吧时所说的那样：“他们带我回家，拍摄一些本土风情，而你们就是这里的风情，”他对人群说，“所以请尽情展现你们的本色吧！”
如果说有“本土男孩功成名就”的故事，那莫过于此。这里的每个人似乎都会唱《瓶中信》的歌词。
我们问斯汀是否曾想过休假。“给我解释一下休假是什么概念，”他这样回应。
但他为何仍在坚持？“因为我热爱工作，”他回答，“我可以退休吗？我不确定我能不能做到。我还没练就那种能坐下来无所事事的本事。或许我会害怕那样的生活。我还没做好准备。但只要我的身体还能胜任这份工作，我就会继续下去。希望有一天我能客观地告诉自己，好了，你已经做得够多了。去农场养老吧。”
他能做到吗？“我不确定！”他笑着说。
网络独家内容：观看斯汀的加长专访（视频） https://www.cbsnews.com/video/extended-interview-sting/
加长专访：斯汀 18:42
更多信息：
- 《最后一艘船》（官方网站）
- 斯汀《最后一艘船》纽约大都会歌剧院演出（6月9日至14日）
- 斯汀（官方网站）
本文由米凯拉·布法诺制作。编辑：卡罗尔·罗斯
Sting embarks on “The Last Ship”
May 3, 2026 / 10:12 AM EDT / CBS News
By
Mark Phillips Senior Foreign Correspondent
Mark Phillips is the CBS News senior foreign correspondent and has been based in the London Bureau since 1993. He has covered every major international story of the past 35 years, including conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
Read Full Bio
When Sting comes back to his hometown these days, it’s not to the same place he left more than five decades ago. The city of Newcastle, tucked up in the northeast corner of England, now presents a tranquil vista where modern architecture spans calm waters. But for centuries, Newcastle was a hard-scrabble, noisy, industrial powerhouse. It built ships.
And Sting, a boy from a working-class family, was given some fatherly advice he didn’t want to hear: “He’d say, ‘Son, go to sea. See the world, make something of yourself.’ Of course, I disappointed him!”
Sting with correspondent Mark Phillips in Newcastle. CBS News
All Sting did was become one of the most successful songwriters and pop performers of his generation, starting with his 1970s band The Police, and through many variations since. His most popular songs – “Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne,” “Message In A Bottle,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Fields of Gold,” “Shape of My Heart” – have streamed in the billions.
Asked if he keeps score of awards won and albums sold, Sting replied, “The answer is, enough. I have had more than enough success and affirmation. I don’t actually need any more. It’s lovely, but it’s not something I particularly think about. I don’t think of myself as a celebrity. I don’t like to. I like to think of myself as a working musician with a story to tell” – a story about his hometown.
“I just wanted a bigger life than the one I was being offered,” he said, “and it was only later that I realized that where I’d been brought up was actually a gift.”
How so? “Because of these very profound symbols to wake up to every morning: A gigantic ship hanging over the street; an army of men walking to work; the ship being built, launched into the river, out to sea. Those are very powerful images for an artist. I wanted to honor where I came from, because what they gave me was a sense of identity, a work ethic. So, I wanted to repay that.”
Sting’s musical (which he’s been working on for more than a decade) is called “The Last Ship,” and it recounts the demise of Newcastle’s shipyards. Now he’s taking it on tour, with the advantage of added star power – namely, Sting, and his good friend, Mr. “Bombastic” himself, Shaggy.
Sting starring in his musical, “The Last Ship,” about a community’s loss of its shipyard, a key part of its identity and economy. “The Last Ship”
The reggae star told us he’s never done anything quite as bombastic as “The Last Ship”: “Not quite on this scale,” he said. “I’m still sitting here and I’m saying, what have I gotten myself into?”
Why Shaggy? Working together has paid off before, when he and Sting won a Grammy for best reggae album in 2019, for “44/876.”
Shaggy and Sting. CBS News
“I immediately knew Shaggy was the perfect man for the job,” said Sting. “He has a great sense of mischief, a great sense of joy, but he’s also a natural actor.”
“He knows me better than me!” Shaggy said. “I was like, ‘I can’t really,’ and he was like, ‘No, you can do that.’ And then I’m doing it and I was like, I hate admitting that he was right!”
The show has already played to sold-out halls in Europe and Australia, and is set for a run at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. An earlier incarnation of “The Last Ship” played on Broadway in 2014. The show has had its book revised.
Asked why the project has meant to much to him, that he has stubbornly pursued it for more than a decade, Sting replied, “I’m tenacious. If I believe in something, I will stick at it. And I do not conflate commercial success with excellence or quality at all. I think this play, even though it’s set in the 1980s, has something to say to people now. All of us are in danger of losing our work to AI. All of us. “
Asked if he wants to be taken “seriously” as a theatre composer, as distinct from his pop career, he said, “I’m very grateful for the pop career, and it was a certain time in my life when I was of a certain age and looked a certain way and made a certain kind of music. But it can’t be my entire life. I don’t want to be just defined from how I was at the age of 25. I’m 74 now.”
Sting, born Gordon Sumner, was given his stage name because of the striped yellow-and-black top he used to wear that someone said made him look like a wasp. And there’s been plenty of buzz about his career ever since, including about the real meaning of his biggest hit, “Every Breath You Take.”
The Police – Every Breath You Take (Official Music Video) by ThePoliceVEVO on YouTube
“Some people interpret that song as being a very romantic love song, or it’s about a stalker – this obsessive watching, I’ll be watching you,” said Sting. “I don’t contradict people in their individual interpretation of the song. I think it enriches the song. I think gives it its power. It’s about both things.
“Some people get married to that, so God bless them!”
Sting’s life has been about many things. Now it’s about coming home – spiritually at least – as when he came with our cameras to a Newcastle pub. “They have come to bring me home, to shoot some local color, which would be you,” he told the crowd. “So, please be as colorful as you are!”
Sting performs “Message In a Bottle,” and the crowd joins in. CBS News
If ever there was a “local boy makes good” story, this is it. And everybody here seems to know the words to “Message In a Bottle.”
We asked Sting if he ever thinks of taking a vacation. “Explain that concept to me,” was his response.
But why is he still doing this? “Because I like to work,” he replied. “Could I retire? I’m not sure I could do it. I haven’t developed that skill to just sit and do nothing. Perhaps I’m afraid of it. I haven’t prepared myself for it. But while I’m still fit enough to do my work, I will continue. At some point, I hope I have the objectivity to say, OK, you’ve done enough. Go and sit on the farm.”
Could he do that? “I’m not sure!” he laughed.
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Sting (Video) https://www.cbsnews.com/video/extended-interview-sting/
Extended interview: Sting 18:42
For more info:
- “The Last Ship” (Official site)
- Sting’s”The Last Ship” at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City (June 9-14)
- Sting (Official site)
Story produced by Mikaela Bufano. Editor: Carol Ross.
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