Call it Dad-rock Utopia.
Rock/pop icons Sting and Peter Gabriel have announced that they will join forces this summer, touring together through 19 cities starting in June. And beyond the obvious attraction of seeing some of the biggest hits from each of the super stars, fans will have even more reason to lineup for tickets: Both musicians will blend their extremely-talented live bands, performing many of each other’s hit songs with split vocal arrangements.
Called the Rock, Paper, Scissors Tour, the live events will be produced by legendary live music maestro Arthur Fogel, who has a long relationship with each of the iconic musicians and a storied history orchestrating massive tours from artists such as Lady Gaga, U2, and Madonna.
As the title suggests, the summer tour will be something of a grab bag from each of the musical icons who plan to experiment with different combinations of musicians and song libraries for each show.
“What intrigues me is that you get a good bunch of musicians together and interesting things will happen,” Gabriel said in a statement about the tour.
Sting joined in Gabriel’s sentiment, saying, “I’m very happy that we’re taking the chance to experiment this way. I think people will be intrigued, I certainly am.”
This isn’t totally new territory for Sting; The famous singer and bass player did something similar with another iconic songwriter, Paul Simon, in 2014. In an interview with the Associated Press, Sting compared the two tours, saying, “We traded songs, we traded musicians, we sang together. And the take home that people got from that was they loved it when we did things together.”
For fans of pop music of decades past, it’s hard to imagine a more exciting matchup — shy of another Billie Joel/Elton John reunion, maybe — and many of those who attended Sting and Paul Simon’s tour are likely to return to stadiums and amphitheaters to see the Rock, Paper, Scissors Tour.
Tickets for the tour will go on sale on January 25, and can be purchased through Live Nation, or through Gabriel and Sting’s individual websites.
