Cat Stevens has postponed the North American leg of his book tour in support of his memoir Cat On the Road to Find Out due to what he said were visa issues. According to an Instagram post from the singer who now goes by Yusuf, the tour slated to kick off on Thursday (Oct. 2) at the Met in Philadelphia, “Sadly, my Cat on the Road to Findout Book Tour in the U.S. and Canada looks like it won’t go ahead as scheduled in October.”
Without getting into the details of why or how his paperwork was impacted Stevens added, “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. I am really upset! Not least for my fans who have bought tickets and made travel plans to see me perform.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame star tried to keep a positive attitude about it, saying that the tour delays “should not affect the book, which you’ll still be able to enjoy… the obvious benefit of it being — books don’t need visas!”; the book will hit shelves in the U.S. on Thursday. Earlier this month, Stevens warned fans that the North American tour was in “serious jeopardy” due to “significant delays in U.S. immigration processing.”
Stevens promised that North American fans may still get a chance to see the tour if the visa approvals eventually come through, though those dates could be further in the future because of his other travel plans. “But, hopefully, fans will be able to hop on the Peace Train route at some time in the future.”
Other scotched, for now, shows include stops at the Boch Centre Wang Theatre in Boston, as well as stops in Toronto, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Stevens is the latest foreign artist bit by a reported slowdown in processing visa applications and the Trump administration’s slow-walking of the process, which has resulted in a number of overseas acts cancelling or postponing tours this year and the loss of millions in revenue for Latin artists due to the White House’s immigration crackdown.
