NEW YORK, Nov. 10 (UPI) — Music icon Sting has detailed his use of hearing aids and why he has chosen to stop using them.
“I’m fairly deaf. ‘What?’ is my favorite word,” the rocker said Tuesday of his diminishing hearing during SiriusXM’s Artist Confidential series according to People magazine.
“I tried wearing a hearing aid, but I heard more than I wanted to hear!” he continued. “People talk a lot of [expletive].
Sting was also on hand to discuss his upcoming album “57th & 9th” which is set to release Friday.
“My entire musical DNA is on this record,” the 65-year-old said before noting that the project’s title comes from the intersection he passes on to the way to his studio in New York.
“Walking has always been important to me,” Sting said. “The binary rhythm of walking invokes narrative. ’57th and 9th’ became this taking-stock point.”
“You could write a play just by listening to people’s phone conversations on the street in New York. The energy of New York gave [the album] an urgency.”
Also coming up for Sting on Nov. 12 is a performance inside Paris’ Bataclan concert hall in honor of the first anniversary of a terror attack that killed 130 people.
The gig will reopen the venue after a trio of Islamic State gunman opened fire on concert goers enjoying a performance from U.S. rock band Eagles of Death Metal last November.
“In re-opening the Bataclan, we have two important tasks to reconcile. First, to remember and honor those who lost their lives in the attack a year ago, and second to celebrate the life and the music that this historic theater represents,” Sting said in a statement.
“In doing so we hope to respect the memory as well as the life-affirming spirit of those who fell. We shall not forget them.”