Robert Downey Jr.’s performance at Sting’s 60th birthday bash continues to astound music fans. “Ironman can sing – like that?!” is a common response. As befits a star of his status, Downey Jr. is self-effacing when he speaks of his long friendship with Sting. He says they first met when he, Downey, was in his mid-20s and taken by the notion that he was a great songwriter. He attempted to palm a demo cassette onto Sting on a stairwell after a Sting concert. Sting was startled.

Sting’s wife Trudy Styler recognized Robert Downey Jr from Less Than Zero. “How nice of you to have come”, she said, greeting the young actor. Sting and Trudy never mentioned the tape until, 25 years later, they told Downey that they’d found it and asked if he wanted it back. Downey deadpanned that if they listened to it, they rewound the cassette and taped the case closed again. Fortunately, this didn’t stand in the way of Sting including Downey on the lineup at his birthday fundraiser in 2011.