Esteemed singer/songwriter Yusuf/Cat Stevens will tell his fascinating life story in the memoir Cat on the Road to Findout, which will be released Sept. 18 in the U.K. through Constable and Oct. 7 in North America through Genesis Publications.
After a decade of massive success thanks to such generation-defining songs as “Father and Son,” “Wild World,” “Morning Has Broken,” “The First Cut Is the Deepest” and “Peace Train,” Stevens walked away from music in 1978 and converted to Islam, after which he adopted the name Yusuf Islam and focused his efforts on philanthropy and humanitarian relief. He did not regularly record or perform in his prior style until the early 2000s.
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Since then, he has been active in the studio and on the road, with his most recent release being the 1974 concert document Saturnight: Live From Tokyo earlier this month. The album was previously only available in Japan for contractual reasons.
In 2020, Stevens also reimagined his classic 1970 album Tea for the Tillerman, which will be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame during a Friday (May 16) ceremony at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
“I’ve been on an amazing journey, which began in the narrow streets of London and led me through the most iconic cities, to perform upon the great stage of Western culture, ascending the dizzying heights of wealth, recognition and artistic pinnacles; freely exploring vast ranges of religions and philosophies, wandering through churches, temples, all the way to the Holy abode in Jerusalem — ignoring myths and warnings — and crossing the foreboded, desert heartlands, to arrive at the House of One God in Abrahamic Arabia,” says Stevens. “What finally elevated my perspective was a luminous Book that perfectly alchemized my thoughts [and] beliefs with human nature. It taught me Oneness, and my place and purpose within the universe.”
Stevens, who turns 77 this summer, will support Cat on the Road to Findout with a book tour this fall, although details have yet to be announced. He’ll also perform his most high-profile concert in two years on July 11 as part of a triple bill with Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts and Van Morrison at London’s Hyde Park.
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