Dire Straits- On Every Street 35th Anniversary- Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler explains  why he retired the Dire Straits franchise after 1991’s On Every Street but not from making new music, and how he finally learned to embrace his own past rather than running from it. When the song “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits became a worldwide hit in Summer 1985, the album Brothers in Arms   from which it came won a Grammy Award for best recorded sound, while the song won another for Best Rock Song that year. However, the album also spent a stunning nine weeks as the #1-seller in the US in 1985, eventually selling a staggering 26,000,000  copies worldwide. This kind of celebrity could not have happened to a more reluctant rock star than Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler, and trust me here, there is absolutely no way to prepare for what comes next.

“It changes your life,” says Knopfler thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. ” Actually, it happened on the first album with ‘Sultans of Swing’. ..It’s like someone constantly pulling at a thread of your sweater, unraveling your life.” Throughout the remainder of the Eighties and into the early Nineties, Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits attempted to surf the tsunami wave of superstardom, eventually finding the swirling water of Dire Straits way over his head. Here In the Studio  in the conclusion of my in-depth series of exclusive classic rock interviews on the members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. – Redbeard