NEW YORK (AP) – New Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Cat Stevens is taking the “Peace Train” back on the road.
He announced Monday that he will make a six-city concert tour in North America this December, his first series of shows in the U.S. since the late 1970s conversion to Islam that put his music career on the shelf for a quarter-century. He’s also releasing a blues album in October produced by Rick Rubin.
Stevens is using that stage name along with Yusuf, the name he took when he converted. The performer of 1970s-era hits “Wild World,” ”Morning Has Broken” and “Peace Train” has slowly broken back into secular music during the past decade and has made only a handful of semi-public and television appearances in the U.S.
“I’ve been a bit slow in coming around to the United States, but there were so many people asking me to do that, that I just felt an obligation,” Stevens said in a telephone interview from Dubai, where he lives most of the time now.
The title of the “Peace Train … Late Again” tour refers to his unhurried music career. Only six dates are scheduled so far – starting Dec. 1 in Toronto and hitting Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.