July 4th, 1988
Nine years ago, Cat Stevens abandoned his career as a pop singer and moved to the Middle East to follow the teachings of Islam. But over the weekend, the British-born Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, traveled to the State University of New York College of Technology in Delhi, N.Y., to give a lecture at the annual convention of the Islamic Circle of North America. His message, perhaps not as profound as some of his lyrics in “Moonshadow” and “Peace Train,” was simply that he’s happy to be out of the music business. The 40-year-old erstwhile singer-songwriter called the music industry corrupt, saying he was glad that he had “extracted” himself from “that business.”
http://articles.latimes.com/1988-07-04/news/mn-3843_1_drug-fight