Andy Summers recently spoke to Everyone Loves Guitar and revealed why he believed The Police had been ‘victims’ when it came to profiting from record sales.
The guitarist was discussing the band’s early success when the host pointed out how Summers had written in his 2006 biography, ‘One Train Later,’ that he and his bandmates weren’t profiting from record sales but only living off of tour earnings during the Police’s earlier days.
Summers then decided to delve deeper into the topic, revealing how the act had no ‘financial rewards’ even when their albums were dominating international charts, saying:
“We were number one virtually in every single country and we still seemed to be living off the tour things and, of course, I think we were sort of victims of record company bureaucracy.”
He carried on by explaining how much time it took for the band to actually gain profit from their sales:
“This money was coming from all these places before we got to see the result. We did get there eventually, but I think it was a clear two years of massive success before we saw the actual financial rewards in terms of record sales.”
The rocker also had previously discussed the Police’s earlier and ‘problematic‘ later days, as Summers once blamed his former bandmate, Steward Copeland, for halting the act from getting back together and, at another time, he even accused Sting’s laziness for harming the band’s sound.
However, the Police isn’t the only topic he delves into during interviews, as you can check out how he recently shared ‘the challenge’ of having a non-musical passion while trying to maintain his solo tour and guitar work.
