Sting inspired to become musician by Queen Mother

LONDON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- British rocker Sting said he was inspired to become a successful musician after waving to the Queen Mother when she passed through his hometown in the 1960s.

"That was when I got infected. That was when I thought: 'I don't want this life: I want that one.' Once I'd found a guitar to play I found a friend to help me get there," he told Britain's The Guardian.

Sting is releasing his first solo album in more than a decade, "The Last Ship," Sept. 23, The Daily Telegraph reported. The album was inspired by his childhood growing up near the Swan Hunter shipyard in Wallsend near the River Tyne.

A Broadway show by the same name opens next year, The Daily Telegraph said.

Sting told The Guardian he's comfortable with where his professional career is because everybody in the band "knows their job.

"Nobody's fighting for my position, so it's very stable. Creative instability shouldn't be in the politics of a band. That's tiresome. I've done all that," he said.

Additionally, he has free creative control with his record label.

"I'm given the license to do things by previous successes," he said. "Those successes meant I could walk into my record company and say: 'I'm making a record of 16th-century art songs on a lute,' and they say, 'Yes, Sting.' "