Vh1 has show the last few Hall of Fames. I remember last year with Eddie Vedder and his new punk haircut in ducting the Ramones and then shortly after Dee Dee died. That was last years right? I only wish that VH1 would show the whole thing. I mean, this is a big honor and therefore it shouldn't be cut. My friend went to the Hall and he received a cool CD with songs from the artists that got inducted. He was able to get Acca Dacca to sign it. One of a kind. I wonder if Sting gave the Hall his cool (haha) jacket that he wore on the Synchronicity tour and videos. I would! Below is an interview that VH1 did with Stew. You can find it at VH1.com VH1: So this was your year... Stewart Copeland: Yeah, it's been an interesting year - 25 years since the revolution. It's actually kind of disappointing that the Sex Pistols weren't at the forefront of this year's ceremony. The Sex Pistols were the watershed act [back then]; they changed everybody's haircuts for God's sake. They were the beginning of a new era. They may not have been as good as the Clash or as popular as the Police, but they're just as important. VH1: Should we think it odd that we'd all consider the Police a true part of that ilk? You guys were always a bit more sophisticated compared to other "punk" bands. Copeland: We were a smidge removed from it, we were a refinement of it. Version 1.0 was the Pistols, the Clash, and the Damned. Version 2.0 was the Police. We were right in there, in 1976, as the scene was coming together. But I was a few years older, and I had already played in professional bands. I had an adult savvy of what was going on. The Clash and the Sex Pistols were the genuine article. They had no idea what the f*ck was going on. They were real-deal wild kids, picking up a guitar and burning down the house. VH1: Did you and Andy and Sting feel you were pointedly disrupting some kind of status quo? Copeland: Yes. It's nice to say something and have people jump up and down. It gives you a thrill - like you're having some kind of impact on the world. Armed with all the cool stuff that we had so much fun concocting in London with all those other groups, we had [that disruptive power]. When the Police came to America and hit San Francisco, we'd get on the radio and immediately say something like "Yeah, the Grateful Dead suck." I mean... it's so easy to say. It doesn't have to be true or anything. Suddenly everyone's talking about it and about us. We get ink, we get noise, we get outrage. "What the f*ck's all this?" [Older bands] were sitting targets. There was a generation out there, hitherto unnoticed by the grown-ups of the music industry, ready to see all the heroes get eggs thrown at them. They were ready to rise up and elect, if you will, their own stars. VH1: Did some of those bands you just named view you guys dubiously because you were a bit more musically sophisticated? Copeland: Interesting. The journalists spotted us as "the wrong stuff." We were not the true phenomenon; we were a bunch of savvy guys jumping on it, and they spotted that. When the Police played live, we weren't throwing ourselves around the stage that much. We were actually playing. But the musicians of the other punk bands would come to our gigs, pick up chops, and sidle over to ask about specific musical ideas. Paul Simonon was really into his bass, and wanted to be a better bass player. I remember him chatting with Sting about bass playing, and it was almost like he didn't want to be caught by the rest of the Clash. Also, their so-called managers also learned a lot from Miles [Copeland, the Police manager, and Stewart's brother]. It was sort of like we were the smart people in town. VH1: Your songwriting was obviously strong. But many feel your true gift was arranging. You guys sounded pretty rich for a three-piece outfit. Copeland: That's the fun of a trio. Each person has a wide area to cover, and it helps build a strong character. There are a lot of four-member or five-member bands that are really great, of course. But if you get the right three guys, it simultaneously distills everything and amplifies everything. For me, it's a magic number. Even though the other night [at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony] we were just a faint echo of our former glory, we actually hit the spot a couple times. VH1: Did it come close to a decent night compared to the old days? Copeland: It came close to a fun night for me, yeah. Whether or not it equaled our sound when we were playing every night when we were 25 year old... probably not. In fact you can see it with AC/DC, who are in business, who are touring and who were tight as sh*t. They were really together! But there were a few spots where we got into terrain that compared favorably with the past. VH1: On stage, Sting made a joke about you saying that there wasn't enough drumming in the tunes you guys played, "Every Breath You Take," "Message In a Bottle," and "Roxanne." Rhythm is obviously at the heart of the Police's work. Tell us about that aspect of the band. Copeland: In the case of reggae being used in punk, the door was opened by [DJ] Don Letts. And the Clash playing "Police & Thieves" preceded the Police playing "Roxanne." We didn't do [reggae] the way the Clash did. But we were inspired by it. I knew a little about reggae beforehand. I was a DJ at the University of California at Berkeley. I was in charge of anything that wasn't mainstream American stuff. One day a package came in from Island, and it had Bob Marley stuff in it. Wow. Then I moved to England heard the Marley album with "Lively Up Yourself." That when most of the world got into it. Actually it was Desmond Dekker's "The Israelites" that first got reggae into my bloodstream. It was completely out of the ordinary, completely great. Talk about a pearl sitting there with nothing around it... it's amazing that a movement didn't start right there. VH1: The Police albums have just been remastered and released. Name three under appreciated tracks from the canon. Copeland: "Masoko Tanga" from the first album. "Deathwish" from the second album. Ahh... Zenyatta Mondatta was the album that had a couple hits, and the rest of the stuff I'm not so sure about. Ha! And finally, on Ghost In the Machine, the song "One World (Not Three)." VH1: Which disc best illustrates who you guys were? Copeland: The second album is my favorite, Regatta de Blanc. Sting's songwriting got stronger and deeper as we went along. But the band vibe part of it was at its most electric and vital on the second album.