EX-POP STAR RENOUNCED THE MUSIC, NOT THE ROYALTIES

Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens, has renounced pop music but he still profits from it. Islam, who had big hits in the early '70s like "Peace Train" and "Morning Has Broken," is now a devout Muslim and has a dual system for the royalties he collects from his songs. Songs that he considers acceptable to his faith fall under his Cat Music company and he lives on income generated by them, but royalties from songs that dwell on sex and drinking go to charity. Islam is on a five-city speaking tour of the United States to raise money for Islamic schools and told The Washington Post that the wealth and adulation that came with his pop success were quite tempting. "It was an easy living, in a way," he says. "You earned your living playing. That's what you did. It's an easy option for a person who doesn't really want to buckle down and do anything serious with his life, so I did it!"