NEW YORK – Yusuf, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, doesn't bear any grudges about being denied entry into the U.S. five years ago. He's responded to the widely publicized episode with a whimsical new song, "Boots and Sand," with a music video that he likens to "a spaghetti Italian cowboy movie."
Yusuf got a little help from his friends — Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton, Alison Krauss, and Terry Sylvester (formerly of the Hollies) — who sing backup vocals on the recording that features a guitar and mandolin backdrop. (They do not appear in the music video.)
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"`Boots and Sand' is a lighthearted take on that whole rather awkward moment in my life where I was suddenly faced with being interrogated by seven FBI agents asking me to spell my name again and again and again," said Yusuf in a telephone interview from London. "The song is great fun and it shows that we can look back and smile."
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Homeland Security put him on a plane back to London, prompting a complaint over his deportation by Britain's then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. It was an apparent case of mistaken identity, and Yusuf has since traveled to the U.S. without incident, most recently in May to Los Angeles to give his first West Coast performance in 33 years.
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The "Boots and Sand" music video, directed by Jesse Dylan, Bob's son, has the look of a spaghetti Western with Yusuf leading a band of bedraggled travelers and a herd of goats through California's Mojave Desert. Along the way, he encounters a Wild West-style wanted poster of the singer from his days as Cat Stevens, who's described as "the infamous outlaw ... who rode the Peace Train."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090605/ap_en_mu/us_music_yusuf_music_video;_ylt=AmrRWeG8ngYxPnM4tTyelanBaMYA
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