Profile of Cat Stevens on Famous Like Me

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Cat Stevens (born July 21, 1948) was a British singer-songwriter. Born Stephen Demetre Georgiou in London, he sold 40 million albums, mostly in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1971, he wrote music for the film Harold and Maude. His most popular songs include "Morning Has Broken", "Peace Train", "Moonshadow", "Wild World", "Father and Son", "Matthew and Son", and "Oh Very Young". Many of them were performed only with him playing either the guitar or piano.

Stevens became a convert to Islam in 1978 after a near-death experience. He adopted the name Yusuf Islam and became an outspoken spokesman for the religion. Stevens currently lives with his wife and five children in London, where he is an active member of the Muslim community. He founded the charities Muslim Aid and Small Kindness to assist famine victims in Africa. A box set of his music, as well as remastered versions of his original albums recorded under the name of Cat Stevens has since been released on compact disc.

Early life

Stevens was born Stephen Demetre Georgiou in London, the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father and a Swedish mother. The family lived above the restaurant that his parents operated on Shaftesbury Avenue in the West End. Although his father was Greek Orthodox, Georgiou was sent to a Catholic school. When Georgiou was about eight years old, his parents divorced, although they both continued to live above the restaurant. Later, his mother moved back to Sweden and took him with her, where he briefly attended school for six months. At age 17, he attended art school.

Early music career

Eager to move his music career forward, Georgiou sought the help of manager-producer Mike Hurst by knocking on his door and asking to play some of his songs for him. Not wanting to be rude, Hurst let him and when Georgiou was finished, Hurst told him, "You're bloody great! What's your name?" Georgiou answered, "My name is Stephen but they call me Cat Stevens." (He claimed that the name had been given to him because a girl told him he has eyes like a cat). Stevens published several songs, and in 1966, at age 18, he had his first hit with "I Love My Dog". He then toured with moderate success.

On August 14, 1967, his voice joined with other recording artists on the airwaves of Wonderful Radio London bemoaning the loss of the pirate radio station which had helped create his first hit record. (See IFPI 'Conflicts of Interest'.) It was around this time that Variety editor Peter Bart referred to Cat Stevens as "looking like a homeless person".

Illness

Later that same year at age 19, he entered a hospital and was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Conversion

Stevens nearly drowned in a freak accident near the end of the 1970s. He pleaded with God to save him. Stevens described the event in a VH1 interview some years later: "I said 'please, God, I'll do anything for you, I'll work for you...'" And thus, Stevens began to find peace with himself and began his transition to Islam. A song from his 1972 album Catch Bull At Four, entitled Boy With A Moon And Star On His Head, may have been a sign of this change. He converted to the Islamic faith in 1977 and he legally changed his name to Yusuf Islam.

Muslim faith and Stevens' musical career

Following his conversion, Stevens abandoned his previous career as a pop star. At one point he wrote to the record companies asking that his music no longer be distributed, but his request was denied.

In 1985, Stevens decided to return to the public spotlight for the first time since his religious conversion at the historic Live Aid concert, inspired by the famine threatening Ethiopia. Though he had written a song especially for the occasion, his appearance was skipped when Elton John's set ran too long.

He has since resumed making recordings featuring Islamic lyrics accompanied only by basic percussion instruments in his compositions. He also produced an album called A is for Allah as an instruction for children. He also established a record label called Mountain of Light (see link below.)

2003 recordings

In 2003 Stevens once again recorded the song Peace Train for a compilation CD which also included performances by David Bowie and Paul McCartney. He performed in Nelson Mandela's 46664 Concert with Peter Gabriel, for which he both performed and recorded in the English language for the first time in 25 years. Stevens explained that the reason why he had stopped performing in English was due to his own misunderstanding of the Islamic faith:

"This issue of music in Islam is not as cut-and-dried as I was led to believe," he said. "I relied on hearsay, that was perhaps my mistake."

In December 2004, he released (with Ronan Keating) a new version of Father and Son. It debuted at number 2, behind Band Aid 20's Do They Know It's Christmas?. The proceeds of Father And Son were donated to the Band Aid charity. Keating's former group Boyzone had also had a hit with a cover version of the song a decade earlier.

In early 2005, it was reported that Stevens had contributed vocals to an upcoming Dolly Parton album. (Parton herself had recorded a cover of "Peace Train" a few years earlier.)

Denial of entry into the United States

On 21 September 2004 Stevens was traveling on United Airlines Flight 919 from London to Washington. While the plane was in flight, the Advanced Passenger Information System flagged his name as being on a no-fly list. Customs agents alerted the Transportation Security Administration, which then diverted his flight to Bangor, Maine, where he was detained by the FBI.

The following day Stevens was deported back to England. The United States Transportation Security Administration claimed there were "concerns of ties he may have to potential terrorist-related activities". The United States Department of Homeland Security specifically alleged that Stevens had provided funding to the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas, although it did not offer any proof of its allegation.

Stevens' deportation provoked a small international controversy and led British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to complain personally to Secretary of State Colin Powell at the United Nations. Powell responded by stating that the watch list was under review, and added:

"I think we have that obligation to review these matters to see if we are right."

On 1 October 2004 Stevens was reported to have requested the removal of his name

"I remain bewildered by the decision of the US authorities to refuse me entry to the United States."

Salman Rushdie

On February 21st 1989, Stevens addressed students at Kingston Polytechnic where he was asked to describe the controversy in the Muslim world and the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie - he explained his own dissatisfaction with the author, and referenced that Khomeini had called for his death. While newspapers including the New York Times quickly denounced Stevens for supporting a possible assassination of the writer, he released a statement shortly afterwards clarifying that while he agreed that Rushdie had stepped out of bounds, he was not personally encouraging anybody towards vigilantism.

Among the backlash over the Rushdie incident, Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs, who had included a cover of Peace Train on their 1987 In My Tribe album, deleted the song from subsequent pressings of their album, as a protest against Stevens' alleged remarks.

Man of Peace Award

On 10 November 2004 Cat Stevens was presented with a Man of Peace award by the private foundation of former USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev for his "dedication to promote peace, the reconciliation of people and to condemn terrorism". The ceremony was held in Rome, Italy and attended by five Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

Libel case

As a footnote to the actions taken by the U.S. government in deporting Stevens as a terrorist, The Sun and The Sunday Times British newspapers had published reports in October 2004 which stated that the U.S. was correct in its action. On 15 February 2005 a British court ruled that both newspapers had defamed Stevens by publishing false statements about him. Both newspapers acknowledged that Stevens has never supported terrorism and that, to the contrary, he had recently been given a Man of Peace award. Stevens responded that he was:

"... delighted by the settlement" which "helps vindicate my character and good name. ... It seems to be the easiest thing in the world these days to make scurrilous accusations against Muslims, and in my case it directly impacts on my relief work and damages my reputation as an artist. The harm done is often difficult to repair."

He added that he intended to donate the financial award given to him by the court to help orphans of the recent Indian Ocean Tsunami.

Discography (albums)

This list excludes the many compilation albums which have been made. The years link to the relevant year in music.

As Cat Stevens:

• Matthew and Son (1966)
• New Masters (1967)
• Mona Bone Jakon (1970)
• Tea for the Tillerman (1970)
• Teaser and the Firecat (1971)
• Catch Bull at Four (1972)
• Foreigner (1973)
• Buddha and the Chocolate Box (1974)
• Another Saturnight (1974)
• Numbers (1975)
• Izitso (1977)
• Back to Earth (1978)
• Box Set (2001) compilation containing many rarities and live tracks

As Yusuf Islam:

• The Life of the Last Prophet (1995)
• Prayers of the Last Prophet (1999)
• A is for Allah (2000)
• I Look I See (2003)

In March 2005 he released the first single, and the first song he has recorded with music, in over twenty years. The single was called "Indian Ocean" and was about the tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004. Proceeds from the single went to help orphans in Banda Aceh, one of the areas worst affected by the tsunami. The single was not released on CD, but could be purchased through several online music sellers. Stevens said he had recorded other songs, but wanted to see if he still had an audience; the song did not receive major radio air-play. At the time he also announced that plans were under way to create a musical based on his life and music.

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