Yusuf / Cat Stevens is back to celebrate an album he made half a century ago
You will heard his songs so many times, on the radio, recorded by him and many others - Moonshadow, First Cut Is The Deepest, Morning has Broken - the back catalogue of the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, then Yusuf Islam, now just Yusuf, is immense.
Now he is back to celebrate an album he made half a century ago.
Tea For The Tillerman is 50-years-old.
It was the album that made him an international star with hits like Father And Son, and Wild World, and to mark the anniversary he has "reimagined" the tracks, with changes here and there to suit who he is now.
"I don't need a Hard Headed Woman," he remarks - referring to one of the album's best known tracks.
"I've found her," he chuckles - in the shape of his wife of many years, with whom he lives, along with their children, in Dubai.
The album was set to be released in June with a world tour and new studio album.
But of course coronavirus has meant mass gatherings are not possible right now, and while the music industry has continued in some shape, live touring is off the agenda.
The album will be released in September now, and the tour?
Yusuf / Cat Stevens, which is how his name is written now, is hopeful that next year there will be a tour - but he says with changed production to allow events to go ahead, in what will probably be a world still redefining what’s possible.
Yusuf has been on an extraordinary journey for the past few decades.
There have been brushes with death, spiritual awakening, controversies, a decades long absence from commercial music, a triumphant return.
He seems to love being back making music, and performing, and says he had his musicians all ready for his tour, and then Covid-19 happened.
With many forecasting an existential crisis for some parts of the creative industries, he is more circumspect about music.
The social aspect of concerts is important he says, being in a crowd together but music has another side, a more intimate side and that has come to the fore he says.
People are listening to songs and the words in a way they perhaps didn’t before.
In the 1970s he says, people would be up dancing and then one of his songs would come on and they'd stop and sit down.
It used to annoy him he says, but now he likes the idea of people stopping to quietly listen themselves.
His anniversary release of Tea For The Tillerman will be accompanied by a moving video animation for the song Where Do The Children Play.
This song, he says, resonates even more strongly today with its themes of preserving the natural world for future generations.
During lockdown, he says, we will have seen how beautiful the world is, the skies clear and birds and insects flourishing.
It can take enormous events to make us reset he agrees - for him it was his bout of tuberculosis and near drowning some years, followed by his conversion to Islam and departure from music to explore his spiritual life.
Lockdown in Dubai meant a different kind of Ramadan he told me with a smile, in the sense that he saw more of his wife during this period than ever before.
He took part in a series of reflections over Ramadan for the BBC - doing readings from the Qu’ran and other holy texts.
As for Eid when friends and family usually get together, those festivities were put on hold until next year.
And his proposed tour?
He has had to revise certain plans for the moment.
He was to have had a reconditioned train, named after his charity The Peace Train, follow him on tour planting trees, and giving out food to homeless people.
There is no tour yet but his charity has been working around the world, with food kitchens feeding those effected by the pandemic.
He is not only confident that he will be celebrating Tea For The Tillerman on stage next year, but also hints that he may even take to perhaps the most famous music stage in the world.
"I've been thinking about Glastonbury," he says.
"I'll have to see if Michael (Eavis) invites me."
That will be an emphatic post-pandemic return to business for both.