Sting, big fan of the Philadelphia Orchestra, is playing two shows at the Met Philly with his new trio

Sting can't seem to stay away from Philadelphia.

Last September, the British bassist and songwriter teamed with Jamaican rapper Shaggy to put on the only-in-Philly One Fine Day festival at the Mann Center, which could be back for a second iteration in 2025, he said.

This past March, the former Police man played two nights with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center, and between shows dropped in at the Free Library to play his song "The Empty Chair" at an author event for Colum McCann and Diane Foley's book .

In May, , a stage work collaboration with choreographer Kate Prince that uses Sting's immigrant saga "Desert Rose" as a starting point, had a weeklong run at the Miller Theater.

And now, the artist born Gordon Sumner is coming to Philly again, this time for two shows with Sting 3.0, the band he's fronting with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas.

The group is playing Monday and Tuesday at the Met Philly, performing a wide range of Police songs and Sting solo material plus his new single, "I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart)." Camden jazz pianist Elew opens the show.

Since forming the Police in 1977 — and playing their first Philadelphia gig at Grendel's Lair on South Street the next year — Sting, 72, has sold tens of millions of records and been recognized with pretty much every existing honor.

Queen Elizabeth made him a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2003 and he was a Kennedy Center honoree in 2014. According to music rights organization BMI, the Police's 1983 hit "Every Breath You Take" is the most played song in radio history.

So at this point in his career, he says, he's most interested in finding new ways to challenge himself and his audience.

"It's always about surprise. I want to surprise people," he said, speaking via Zoom from Louisville, Ky. "I want to give people what they don't expect."

With Sting 3.0, the surprise is the back-to-basics structure of the band with more onus put on the band leader and his two compatriots than is usually the case with the larger ensembles he's toured with in recent decades.

"We've stripped the songs down to their bare bones, and the songs are sturdy enough to withstand that treatment, which I'm happy about," he said.

In Louisville, Sting was playing the Bourbon & Beyond festival, where he was a headliner along with Zach Bryan, Dave Matthews, and Tyler Childers.

Does he drink bourbon? "No," Sting said. "I drink coffee."

As we spoke, he waited for his coffee to arrive, because in true rock star fashion, he had just woken up, though it was after 4 p.m.

"I do drink a little wine," he said. That's only natural, since Villa Il Palagio, the Tuscan estate where he spends summers with his wife, Trudie Styler, is surrounded by vineyards. (When they're not home, the 16-bedroom property can be rented for $67,000 a week.) "And I like mezcal."

But now his coffee is here, so let's get back to Sting 3.0.

It's not named to denote a third act in his career, he said. And he wouldn't call it a power trio either, though "I Wrote Your Name" brandishes a rugged sound and he and his bandmates certainly look ready to rock out in their rooftop publicity photos.

"I don't like any of these terms," he said. "We're loud. I'll give you that. But it's called Sting 3.0 because it's a trio. I'm not into putting chapters in my life."

Playing with a tighter group of musicians, "I think audiences like the clarity between the instruments, the space, the air. We can do it without any safety nets or padding. It's very fundamental music. And you know, I've had some experience with a trio, so I know how the machine works.

"There's nowhere to hide. And I'm enjoying that. There's a lot of cope with intellectually, musically, physically. But that's a lovely problem to have. It's an artistic problem. It's what we do. I love it."

Looking for creative ways to express himself also led to the tour that paired him with the Philadelphia Orchestra this year.

"That's one of the most renowned orchestras in the world," he said. "So the privilege of working with them is something else. I don't take it lightly or walk into it blindly. I love playing there, love hearing my songs being played by this august orchestra. I think there's enough harmonic variation in the songs for the musicians to get their teeth into."

On this tour, Sting is making donations to schools in the cities where he's performing. In Philadelphia, he's giving $25,000 to the music program at Laura W. Waring Elementary School in Fairmount.

Before he was a rock star, Sting taught English in Cramlington, near his hometown of Wallsend in the north of England.

"Having been a schoolteacher myself, I'm aware of how important teaching is. It's the most poorly paid job in society and should be one of the highest paid. So I try to give back, especially to music programs. And it's not just about music. It's about math, it's about socializing."

Another Sting surprise has been his bromance with Shaggy, which first produced a collaborative album named after their country's respective telephone codes, in 2018. It was followed by , a reggae-fied Shaggy album of Sinatra songs that Sting produced in 2022.

That in turn led to One Fine Day, which featured the Jamaican and British buddies, plus acts like Trinidadian soca group Kes, New Orleans' Tank and the Bangas, and Philly's G. Love & Special Sauce.

"The audiences seemed to have a good time, the artists seems to have a good time. And Shaggy and I shepherded the whole thing, like pied pipers going from stage to stage. It was a lovely atmosphere."

He enjoyed it so much, in fact, that he's planning for One Fine Day to not be a one-off, with hopes for a return to Philly in 2025.

"We couldn't do it again this year because of prior commitments," Sting says. "But we're looking to do it again next year in Philadelphia, and I think it would be very successful. Why move? We loved it."