YUSUF ISLAM - ISLAM'S RELIGIOUS EPIPHANY AFTER STRAITJACKET GIFT

ISLAM'S RELIGIOUS EPIPHANY AFTER STRAITJACKET GIFT

YUSUF ISLAM decided to quit music and convert to Islam after a friend gave him a straitjacket as a joke birthday gift. The singer changed his name from Cat Stevens and walked away from his successful singing career in 1977. But during a talk in London last night (31May07), the star revealed he made the decision almost a decade earlier during a birthday party. He said, "It was my birthday towards the end of the 60s, and I was having a party in Los Angeles, and I was given a straitjacked, as a joke, by one of my producers, and I just didn't want to be there any more so I walked out of that party and walked and walked and turned my back on that world forever."