Andy Summers talks Joni Mitchell, ‘mythology’ of The Police, new documentary

TORONTO – Andy Summers is on the phone to talk about his documentary “Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police” but admits his thoughts are with Joni Mitchell these days.

Reached recently in Los Angeles, the famed British guitarist is eager to glean more information about Mitchell’s health as conflicting reports swirl about her hospitalization.

“I spent time with Joni,” Summers points out.

“I had a whole weekend in New York with her once in my life and I played with her and she was an incredible person. Of course, we all have incredible admiration for her knowing she is one of the absolute greats. Amazing. I would be very sad if what’s going on is true.”

They performed together in 1989, at a concert to raise awareness of environmental issues. Summers was part of an all-star band including Herbie Hancock, Larry Klein, Wayne Shorter and Omar Hakim.

“She was very into The Police, believe it or not,” Summers says.

“She loved The Police and I’m sure Sting was influenced by her at some point in the songwriting. I think she wanted to record with us at one point but I think we were too far into being The Police to have anyone else really play with us.”

The band’s meteoric rise, eventual breakup in 1983, and reunion 20 years later is detailed in the feature-length doc, based on Summers’s memoir “One Train Later.”

Told through Summers’s point of view, it starts with a look at his early days in the London music scene in the ’60s. Everything changes with a chance encounter with drummer Stewart Copeland and a bassist who calls himself Sting. They form the neo-punk trio The Police in 1977.

Over the ensuing years, they would become almost as famous for inflated egos and infighting as their hits, including “Message In a Bottle” and “Every Breath You Take.”

Summers says most of those stories are more “mythology” than truth.

“The press kind of branded us with that fairly early on and it’s just like all these things, a small moment becomes mythology and legend and it’s never really the truth,” he says.

The doc outlines some of that discord, but also traces a more personal storyline about how fame and constant touring destroyed Summers’s marriage. Just as the band hits superstardom, his wife Kate asks for a divorce in 1981.

From there, Summers embarks on a four-year spree of drugs and groupies, until “a miracle” happens — he reunites with his wife and she becomes pregnant with twin boys.

“As I’ve been turning up at various cinemas doing Q&As it’s amazing how many women come up to me and go, ‘I was so glad you got back with your wife.’ They love it,” he says.

As for his relationship with Sting and Copeland, Summers says they’ll always be linked, no matter where their various careers take them.

“Obviously we’ve got our own careers and our own lives but we’re still sort of enveloped in the past. You can’t get away from it, including this film right now. The past is ever present.”

“Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police” gets a theatrical release in Toronto on Friday. It hits DVD, Blu-ray, and on-demand platforms July 14, when Summers expects to also release new music.