Cat Stevens has postponed his tour of the U.S. and Canada due to unspecified visa issues.
The London-born artist, who also goes by Yusuf, was set to promote his new book and play a little music in six U.S. cities and Toronto, beginning Oct. 2 in Philadelphia.
“Waiting months for visa approvals, we held out as long as we could. However, at this point, the production logistics necessary for my show cannot be arranged in time,” Stevens wrote Monday in a Facebook post. “I am really upset! Not least for my fans who have bought tickets and made travel plans to see me perform.”
The book, “Cat on the Road to Findout,” will still be released as scheduled on Oct. 7. Stevens noted in his post that “books don’t need visas!”
Stevens, 77, most recently performed in the U.S. in 2016. That tour was part of his return to secular music, after he spent multiple decades off the mainstream radar following his 1977 conversion to Islam.
The upcoming tour was scheduled to stop in Philadelphia, Boston, Toronto, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The New York show was to occur at the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan.
Stevens promoted the tour as “an in-depth conversation about his new memoir” with “select acoustic performances of songs that have defined generations.” He said Monday there is still a chance the performances will be rescheduled.
“Those dates would be some time away because of other travel tour plans but, hopefully, fans will be able to hop on the Peace Train route at some time in the future,” he wrote.
