Cat Stevens

In 1976 he nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu, US. After he was washed ashore he took this as a sign of divine intervention and started reading the Qur'an given to him by his brother. He felt very familiar with Joseph's life and converted to Islam in 1977 and adopted the name Yusuf Islam in 1978.

Stevens was engaged to Louise Wightman for a short time. Then he married Fauzia Mubarak Ali on September 7, 1979 in London and the couple have five children.

When asked about his view on the fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie in 1989, he merely recounted the legal Islamic punishment. His comments were misinterpreted by the media as a supporter of the fatwa.

Cat Stevens, was born as Steven Georgiou, on July 21, 1948 in London. His parents Stavros Georgiou and Ingrid Wickman were restaurateurs. Steven had two elder siblings, Anita and David.

His parents divorced when he was eight, but continued to live above their restaurant, Moulin Rouge. The children often helped by working in the restaurant after coming back from the St Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School where they studied.

His first musical instrument was the family's baby grand piano. Thrilled by The Beatles, he bought a £8 guitar at the age of 15 and began playing and writing songs.

He and his mother went to Gavle, Sweden for a brief time. There he attended the primary school and developed his drawing skills. After attending several other local West End schools he took a one year course at Hammersmith School of Art to become a cartoonist.

This impulse was quickly overtaken by the will to become a musician and he performed at a local bar named Black Horse under the stage name 'Steve Adams', in 1964, for the first time.

In 1966, Mike Hurst was impressed with Cat Stevens’ talent and got him a record deal. His singles 'Matthew and Son' and 'I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun' charted at No. 2 and No. 6 respectively. The album 'Matthew and Son' reached No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart.

In the next two years he released several singles that occupied the British Pop Music charts and toured England and Europe with Jimi Hendrix and Engelbert Humperdinck. Pirate station Wonderful Radio London is credited for furthering his popularity.

After gaining recognition he wanted to release some seasoned tracks, but his producer declined as Stevens’ image was more of a teen pop star. This shocked Steven and he went into a depression and became an alcoholic.

In 1968, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and he spent a year in convalescence. This period gave him the time to reflect on his life and spirituality and he started doing yoga and meditation. On the musical front, he penned over 40 songs.

His new agent Barry Krost got him an audition with Chris Blackwell of Island records. On Blackwell's assurance that Stevens could make any type of music with any artist he wished for, Stevens signed the deal in 1970 and Paul Samwell-Smith became his producer.

His album 'Catch Bull at Four' spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and 15 weeks at the top of Australian ARIA Charts.