Yusuf / Cat Stevens (Father)

Strange.

But Dad was always supportive of me.

He was much more relaxed with me and, you know, he bought my first guitar, you know.

He didn't quite understand what the music business was all about, but he thought, well, if it makes a living, hmm, it's OK.

And he used to always ask my brother, how's Stevie?

Because, you know, he used to call me Stevie.

He said, Stevie, is he doing all right?

And David would say, yeah, he's doing very well, Dad.

I didn't really intend to do another version, to be honest.

But it was my son's idea when we were talking about what to do for the 50th anniversary of the release of Tea for the Tillaman.

So what are we going to do?

And he suggested this idea, why don't we record it again?

Because you're singing it kind of differently today.

I said, well, that's a good idea.

It was nothing about doing an old kind of replicate of what I'd done before.

I just wanted to live them again, as I do when I sing them, you know, live.

And that was the idea.

So that's how we got back to recording Father and Son again.

My son has a lot of good ideas.

It was, again, my son who suggested maybe we could pick a voice from the 1970s or some of the old recordings, and that could be the son, and then I could be singing the father's part.