Could a Dire Straits Reunion Happen? Mark Knopfler Explains His Position

“I love Dire Straits and I loved doing all that, but what I wanted to do was just to expand and work with different players.”

Mark Knopfler spoke on the prospect of reuniting Dire Straits, explaining there are “a number of reasons” why he’s hesitant to make such a move.

It’s been 29 years since Dire Straits called it quits for the second and seemingly final time, and the band’s guitar-wielding star has stayed consistent with his position that a reunion isn’t something that’s needed, nevertheless leaving the doors open for staging one-offs that would benefit charities.

However, Knopfler kept collaborating with his former Dire Straits bandmate Guy Fletcher in the context of his solo career (Fletcher also appeared on the star-studded “Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero” orchestrated by the British guitar great), while the percussionist Danny Cummings also appeared on several Knopfler’s solo releases.

With the release of his new solo album “One Deep River” mere hours away, Mark Knopfler is slowly coming into the spotlight he’s been somewhat avoiding until relatively recently, but tells BBC Breakfast that a Dire Straits reunion is still off the cards (via Guitar):

“I don’t think so for a number of reasons, one of them being that I’ve built my own studio, which I really love and I haven’t had a bad day in there. And it’s given me the chance to really push. I mean, this last album, I have done far too many songs…”

Although Knopfler has no regrets about Dire Straits, he suggests that his current position allows him more creative freedom:

“I love Dire Straits and I loved doing all that, but what I wanted to do was just to expand and work with different players and have a bigger line-up.”

“The last time I had the band in, and that’s the high point for me, I would probably have had about six or seven guys. Bigger than the little four-piece that was stripped down when we had it, and that was great, I loved it.”

He added:

“I had an absolute ball for as long as it lasted, until it got so big that I didn’t know the names of all the roadies, it was just getting big. It got so big, we were actually leapfrogging stages, and that is what you have to do when you get to a certain scale.”

Earlier this month, Knopfler said that his playing skills have somewhat “reduced”, even though he feels as confident as ever about his writing skills:

“The musician part [of me] is much reduced, I think, but the writer part is as strong as ever. If a song wants to be born, then I try to let it happen, but I think the playing has deteriorated a little bit… I’d [find I’d] be ready to sit down and look at a song on the computer, but I wouldn’t be playing enough.”

“But that’s just something that seems to have happened recently, and I should really take steps to spend more time behind the instrument, to just get playing. It’s not that I’ve forgotten how to play it – I’m just rusty.”