Sting claims he has no BTS envy: ‘I’m not desperately trying to get on the K-pop charts’

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“Roxanne,” “Every Breath You Take” and “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” anymore.But the former Police frontman isn’t about to go chasing the charts in his golden years.“I’m 71 now, so my music has to reflect who I am, so I’m not desperately trying to get on the K-pop charts,” Sting told Music Week. “But there’s something about being a young musician, a young songwriter; it’s just kind of balls to the wall, let’s go for it.

That energy is something that you can’t discount.”The English rock icon will become an Ivors Academy Fellow in London on May 18, receiving the highest honor from the songwriting organization.“Songwriting is a craft, and the Ivor Novello is its guild, if you like, so to be invited to be part of the fellowship is a great honor and one I don’t take for granted at all,” said Sting, who was born Gordon Sumner.Despite no longer trying to keep up with the BTS’s of the world, the 17-time Grammy winner still knows a great song when he writes — or hears — it.“Well, we all know it when we hear it,” said Sting. “If it was a formula, it would be one thing and then we’d just keep repeating it, but it’s not.

It’s something much more mysterious. I don’t know, and I don’t suppose I ever will, but I know it when I hear it. And I know it when I’ve written one.”Even before receiving the Ivors Academy Fellow honor, Sting had already been gifted the ultimate props from another foundation fellow, Paul McCartney.

The Beatles legend named Sting’s 1993 hit “Fields of Gold” as the song he wishes that he’d written.“I can’t tell you how many songs of Paul McCartney’s I wish I’d written,” he said. “So that was a lovely thing for Paul to say.“But again, he’s one of those people who inspired me to become a songwriter.