Dominic Miller

Sting’s previous solo tour stripped the band down to two guitars, bass and drums. This time he’s bringing the whole Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

“He really is unpredictable,” notes guitarist Dominic Miller. But “his fans have grown up with him, and they’re kind of used to that by now.”

So is Miller, the one constant in Sting’s career since “The Soul Cages” in 1991. The tour visiting the MGM Grand Garden today is a challenge to stay in step with 40-plus orchestra players.

“I have restrictions,” Miller says. “Usually, he gives me a lot of freedom to just go for it. In this gig, you’re innocent until proven guilty if I decide to do a suspended ninth or flattened 13th (chord) at random.”

But it’s a fair trade to hear classics such as “Fields of Gold” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” done with new majesty. “It’s an incredibly expensive operation,” Miller says of taking the entire orchestra on the road. It’s more traditional and cost-effective to contract players in each city, but Sting “wanted all the orchestral musicians to have some kind of ownership in this project.”

The guitarist wasn’t onboard for Sting’s first solo date on the Strip at the Aladdin in 1988. But his 1,000-plus concerts in the various lineups since then included some memorable stops in Las Vegas.

There were three strange days in May 1993, when Sting was a surprising opening act for the Grateful Dead at Sam Boyd Stadium. A freak thunderstorm greeted the first day with a lightning strike in the parking lot.

“It was an incredible experience to see Americana in that way, and the kind of audiences that came to those shows,” says the guitarist who spent his childhood in Argentina. Miller is “a certified Deadhead” himself and pays homage to Garcia’s guitar genius on his new instrumental album, “November.”

Sting was visibly having the time of his life at the Dead shows, and the album of the day, “Ten Summoner’s Tales,” became one of the biggest and most enduring of his career.

In October 1999, Sting played every song from the new “Brand New Day” album in a three-night stand at the Hard Rock Hotel. It went on to sell 3 million copies, his last real blockbuster.

“Brand New Day” also was, Miller says, “the start of another journey he went on, the start of the much more complex kind of thing” in its arrangements and engineering, one that continued on the “Sacred Love” album and 2004 tour stop at the MGM Grand.

Miller wanted his own solo album to have the more live feel of the older records, so he recorded it quickly and cheaply with few overdubs and a ban on noodling: “No solos, just themes,” he says, which was “incredibly challenging as a guitarist.”

Fans could have assumed Sting had moved past his rock ambitions until he surprised them with the about-face at Mandalay Bay in April 2006. “I find it very refreshing,” Sting then told the Las Vegas Review-Journal of the quartet format. “It’s punchy, it’s spare, it’s kind of nostalgic. I do a lot of Police material because it’s tailor made for that.”

That concert also fell under the banner of Tiger Jam, the annual fundraiser for the Tiger Woods Foundation (which is now of undetermined fate in the wake of Woods’ sex scandal).

“He’s a kind of rock star,” Miller says of the golfer. “I remember being struck by how down to earth he was. A totally regular dude.” Albeit, one who would later be exposed as “not that clever.”

It’s now clear the quartet tour “planted the seed for the Police reunion,” a career move that left Miller “on the bench for two years.”

“It came as a bit of a blow to me. Kind of like when the husband goes back to the ex-wife. I didn’t take it very well.”

You can’t begrudge the guy a paycheck. The Police reunion was a tough ticket to score for the MGM Grand in June 2007. But the band took the liberty to screw around with the classic arrangements, and when The Police came back for an encore in May 2008, there were empty seats and no effort by Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers to pretend they were enjoying each other’s company.

“Maybe he found out after going back to the ex, that maybe it wasn’t the best thing,” Miller says.

The guitarist won’t pretend to be upset, because he has his old job back. “I work best with him. I just know how to do the job. I’m always gonna be up for it.

“I’m like the old sofa in the band,” he says. “It’s comfortable. It works.”

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.