Yusuf / Cat Stevens on its “Road to the tail”

“You must admit that I was misunderstood,” said singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam. “Even when I wrote ‘Foreign’, I started with words, I cannot use words because the meaning always leaves for you to choose. And so, the artist, to try to explain himself, must work a little harder. “”

In a way, music was the by-product of a permanent search, explains Islam (also known as Cat Stevens), which met us behind the scenes in London.

I asked, “Do you get something to play on stage that you don’t play, playing alone?”

“I’m afraid,” he replied. “Many human beings there!”

But this musical giant who made his debut in the 1960s and is now in the late 1970s, can still move a crowd.

Nicole Perry Ellis came to Hyde Park in London with her daughter Natasha to attend a Yusuf concert. She described it as a “very emotional moment. Because before (Natasha) of birth, we listen to music when I was pregnant.”

Natasha described Yusuf as timeless: “He has spirit, he has the soul and it transcends.”

“I think my songs have always been a shallow in one way or another,” said Yusuf. “Many of them are so relevant to the world today. I mean, “wild world”? You know, go! And “peace train”, While waiting for the train to arrive. Boy, we need it, yes. I mean they are relevant. “”

His main themes have endured because his name has undergone his developments. “I had a girlfriend who looked at me one day and said,” Ooh, you look like a cat. “And I went:” What? “It stayed.

“Do you think you would have been successful that Stephen Demetre Georgiou?” I asked.

“There is no … you can’t play with fate,” he replied.

In his new memories, “Cat on the road to watch”, he explores family, faith, career and ego.

He writes that Equesting the Surardom in her adolescence was quite difficult. “The problem with success is that it detaches you from reality in a certain sense,” he said. “Who are you? Are you this person on the screen, on stage, or is there anything more for you? I was looking for great answers.”

I asked: “What did you try, spiritually?”

“Well, you know, the bookstore is full of many different views of life and beliefs and philosophies, so I was digging everywhere. I think the most important thing was when I finally reached the Koran at the end. And that gathered everything.”

He took the name of Yusuf Islam, and – believing that the music was haramOr forbidden – has redirected his fees to finance his charities, his instrument auctions, family -oriented and for almost 30 years has left music.

Why did he believe that music was prohibited? “It took me a while to realize that a large part of what I was told at the beginning when I became Muslim was not exactly fair,” he said. “You know, Islam does not prohibit anything healthy and morally good.”

I asked: “How do you reconcile the you who put this aside, with you who kissed the music again?”

“You go through steps,” said Yusuf. “At one point, you can fall in love, and the next time you have such an argument with a person, you say:” What are the devil, get out of my life! “You know, you change, your attitude changes according to the circumstances.”

It provides a context to a controversial chapter concerning the novel by Salman Rushdie “The Satanic Verses”, which ignited the Muslim world – and the Fatwa calling for the death of the author. In 1989, in an appearance in a British television program where hypothetical questions were asked, he was asked if he was going to attend a combustion of effigy of Rushdie, to which he replied: “I would have hoped that it would have been the real thing, but in fact no, if it was only an effigy, I do not think I would have been moved to go.”

“I mean, I have a British sense of humor,” said Yusuf. “I took it in a kind of slightly comical direction. It was not a good thing to do, because no one laughed. So, you know, I sort of made a mistake by thinking that people could have the joke. But it was a serious problem, so I shouldn’t have really done this.”

“The joke you mean, saying preferred the real thing, not the effigy?”

“No matter, it doesn’t matter.”

“When you saw the headlines after that, you even worry today -“

“Removing this subject, please,” said Yusuf.

“You take it out in the book, so it seems -“

“No, it was just a little part of the book.”

I said: “But it seems that with this book, you partially want to define the pendulum directly from your point of view.”

“It’s true,” replied Yusuf. “I think I did that.”

I asked: “How is it to sit down and write something so personal, to go through good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful?”

“I left a lot of ugly, in fact, to be honest!”

“You were hard with you.”

“Really? It’s nice to know. I tried to be honest in my writing of songs and in writing my book.”

This singer-songwriter who once gave up Fame For Faith has now found his balance, performing like Yusuf / Cat Stevens.

Asked how it was to happen using the two names, Yusuf / Cat Stevens replied: “In fact, it is very symbolic in a certain way, because for a long time, what I wanted to do was separate in a way of my past, and I did it. So, to join these two names together in fact, I am not listening to the songs.”

Web exclusivity: prolonged interview – Yusuf / Cat Stevens (video)

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History produced by Mikaela Bufano. Publisher: Brian Robbins.