Sting isn’t worried about the legacy of “Every Breath You Take,” even if it’s forever somewhat linked to Sean “Diddy” Combs.

In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times published on Monday (Nov. 11), the Police frontman was asked about his feelings toward his band’s iconic 1983 hit — which the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder famously sampled in his own “I’ll Be Missing You” – as Combs faces trial on numerous charges of sexual abuse, extortion and more.

“No,” Sting began. “I mean, I don’t know what’s going on (with Diddy). But for me it doesn’t detract from the song at all. It’s still my song.”

The original “Every Breath You Take” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks the year it was released, and it remains The Police’s only No. 1 hit on the chart. Fourteen years later, Diddy released “I’ll Be Missing You” as a tribute to the late Notorious BIG with Faith Evans and 112, featuring an interpolation of Sting’s classic; it was number 1 for 11 weeks.

Diddy was arrested on September 16 on charges of abuse, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery, after which he was immediately taken into custody and denied bail multiple times pending his trial on May 5, 2025. The latest update in his case came Friday (Nov. 8), when a judge rejected his “unprecedented” and “baseless” request to issue a gag order against his alleged victims and their lawyers on the grounds that they made “inflammatory, extrajudicial statements statements aimed at assassinating Mr. Combs’ character in the press.”

“The court has an affirmative constitutional duty to ensure that Combs receives a fair trial,” the judge wrote. “But this essential … requirement must be balanced with the First Amendment protections afforded to those who claim to be Combs’ victims.”

Meanwhile, Sting is once again touring as part of a trio with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, a format similar to his three-piece line-up with The Police’s Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland – and the singer of ‘We’ll Be Together’. is aware of the irony. “I never left the police force,” he said while speaking to police Times. ‘I’m not sure what I did. I just made a record – like the others had done – and enjoyed it more than when I was in a band.

“And here I am again,” he continued about his return to form. “My whole mode is surprise. I don’t want people to have complete confidence in what I’m going to do next. That to me is the essence of music. And no one expected a threesome at this point.”