Cat Stevens Rock Star And Artist Portrait

CatStevenRockStarPortrai

How did I come up with the idea for this Cat Stevens Rock Star And Artist Portrait? About a month ago I started a new art project of drawing pencil portraits of rock stars. When I was researching for photos to use as references for Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, I found information that she is also and artist and had been approached to draw portraits of other rock stars.  This piqued my curiosity of how many other rock star musicians might be also artists. When I googled it the phrase I was surprised to learn that there are more than I expected. I thought it might be fun and interesting to focus on these rock star musicians and artists.

Teaser and the Firecat by Cat Stevens artwork

One of the rock stars that falls into this category is Cat Stevens. He was born in the UK with the name, Steven Demetre Georgiou. His heritage is Greek on his father’s side and Dutch on his mother’s side of the family. His music was popular during the 1970’s. He took the stage name of Cat Stevens, after a girlfriend said he had eyes like a cat but primarily because he could not visualize anyone going to a record store and asking for a an album by Steven Demetre Georgiou (his Greek name).  As a young boy he was constantly in trouble in school but had always had interests in music and art. He was referred to as “the artist boy”. He attended a year of art school and considered a career as a cartoonist, but then began to focus on a career in music and considered performing under the name Steve Adams.

Cat Stevens artwork

Two events in his life strongly affected his musical career. In 1969, he contracted tuberculosis and was close to death when he was finally admitted to a hospital.  In his convalescence of several years, he wrote approximately 40 songs which he used in later years for many of his albums.  During the time he was so ill, he began to question his life and religion, took up metaphysics and became a vegetarian. in 1978, he almost drowned off the coast of Malibu, California.  It is said that he made a deal with God to please save him and he would dedicate the rest of his life to charitable causes. As the story goes, he immediately was picked up  and carried by a wave to the shore.  He immediately began to seek his religious path and after his brother gave him a copy of the Quran, he began his religious conversion to Islam. Cat Stevens formally converted to the Islamic religion on 23 December 1977.  He took the name Yusuf Islam in 1978. for approximately 30 years after this, he chose not to make his music a priority in his life, but instead chose to place his efforts into his  Small Kindness charity, which initially assisted famine victims in Africa and now supports thousands of orphans and families in the Balkans, Indonesia, and Iraq.

With his conversion to Islam, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam found peace, married and had five children.  He continued to draw income from his music which has been estimated to 1.5 million a year. His life was not without controversy however. In 1989, he is said to have been misquoted when asked about the death of Salman Rusdie author of The Satanic Verses where the media said he was in favor of the fatwa calling for Rusdie’s death. He has repeatedly denied this and said that the media was wrong in their interpretation of his statements.  In 2001, following 9/11 attacks in New York City, he issued a statement:

“I wish to express my heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate terrorist attacks committed against innocent people of the United States yesterday. While it is still not clear who carried out the attack, it must be stated that no right-thinking follower of Islam could possibly condone such an action. The Qur’an equates the murder of one innocent person with the murder of the whole of humanity. We pray for the families of all those who lost their lives in this unthinkable act of violence as well as all those injured; I hope to reflect the feelings of all Muslims and people around the world whose sympathies go out to the victims of this sorrowful moment.^[74][75]“

To further prove his sincerity in his sympathy for the victims and their families of the 9/11 attacks he appeared on a VH1 pre-show for the October 2001 Concert for New York City, condemning the attacks and singing his song “Peace Train” for the first time in public in more than 20 years, as an a cappella version. He also donated a portion of his box-set royalties to the fund for victims’ families, and the rest to orphans in underdeveloped countries.^{[76]  He also during that same year dedicated time and effort in joining the Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism, an organization that works towards battling misconceptions and acts against others because of their religious beliefs or their racial identity (or both), after many Muslims reported a backlash against them due in part to the grief caused by the events in the United States on 9/11.[57]}

In September of 2004, Yusuf was on a flight from London to Washington, traveling to meet with Dolly Parton about several of his songs that she planned to use in an upcoming album. While in flight his name was flagged as being on the no fly list and the flight was diverted to Bangor, Maine and he was detained by Homeland Security. He has reportedly said that this was over a mistaken spelling of his name.  Two years later he was admitted back into the USA without incident.  He did file a lawsuit over a British newspaper’s claim that they supported Yusuf’s exclusion from the United States and claimed that he had supported terrorism. He won and donated all the proceeds to the orphans from the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami

According to Wikipedia, 

“His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, and fifteen weeks at number one in the Australian ARIA Charts.^[6][7] He earned twoASCAP songwriting awards in 2005 and 2006 for “The First Cut Is the Deepest“, and the song has been a hit for four different artists.^[8] His other hit songs include “Father and Son“, “Wild World“, “Peace Train“, “Moonshadow“, and “Morning Has Broken“. In 2007 he received the British Academy’s Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection.^[9]“

In 2014, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and during the induction ceremony, he gave a stunning performance of his song, “Father And Son” which was followed by his song, “Peace Train” with a gospel choir as backup.  He has returned to his music after a long absence since 1978 and Tell ‘Em I’m Gone, is  Yusuf’s R&B-flavored new LP, his third disc since 2006.

Through the years, he continued to work on his art, but it took a back seat to his music and charitable causes. Many of his original artworks were used as covers for his music albums.  He is such a great talent. I hope you have enjoyed reading his story, listening to his music and viewing his art on my Cat Stevens Rock star Musician and Artist Portrait.  The prints of his rock star portrait are offered for sale in the gallery section of the website  or contact me using the form below.  Please also leave comments and sign up for my newsletter.

Bull Art by Cat Stevens