The Police Drummer Stewart Copeland Explains & Plays “Message In A Bottle”

Other rock drummers will tell you that Stewart Copeland is one of the greatest drummers of his generation.

People who understand the making of music generally recognize who the great musicians are. But even among many casual fans of The Police, Copeland’s skills did not the attention they deserved.

So how great of a drummer is Stewart Copeland?

This video put out by Drumeo answers that question.

Here is the the fascinating story behind one of The Police’s biggest commercial hits, Message In A Bottle (1979).

The drumming for the song was not all mapped out. As Copeland explains about his drumming for Message in A Bottle:

“It was all instinctive.

If I’m feeling a little depressed you know, happens to all of us and I need a little bit of a lift I just go on YouTube and I type in Stewart Copeland’s 10 best drum tracks and there’s there’s a world of nerds out there analyzing everything, you know, and everything.  I’m deeply blessed and honored in those people who do that bring me great joy. But I do want to tell the guys: uh I just made that up on the spot.”

That is the essence of musical genius.