Cat Stevens says he inspired Carly Simon's classic You're So Vain

Bang Showbiz on Oct 14, 2025

Published in Women

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Cat Stevens claims that he was one of the inspirations behind Carly Simon's song You're So Vain.

The Matthew and Son singer had a passionate affair with the Nobody Does It Better artist during the early 1970s and knew that Carly's track about a self-absorbed lover - the identity of whom has long been speculated - was about him.

Writing in his new memoir Cat on the Road to Findout, the 77-year-old musician said: "I never understood the endless hide-and-seek of finding out who You're So Vain was about. Naturally, I knew it was about me!"

Cat added: "The affair enriched both our repertoires."

Carly, 82, previously confirmed that the second verse of the 1972 song is about the Hollywood actor Warren Beatty but has never revealed the inspiration behind the rest of the song.

She told People magazine in 2015: "I have confirmed the second verse is Warren.

"Warren thinks the whole song was about him!"

The Coming Around Again artist suggested that she was unlikely to reveal the identity of the other men mentioned in the song.

Carly said: "I don't think so, at least until they know it's about them."

The singer admitted that she is astonished that interest in who You're So Vain is about has persisted for so long.

She said: "Why do they want to know? It's so crazy!"

Meanwhile, Cat recently described how music was a "calling" for him.

The Wild World artist - who adopted the name Yusuf Islam after converting to Islam in 1977 - told The Sun newspaper: "I felt I had something to offer. I felt that people should get it.

"It wasn't just a career choice or business decision. It was more than that - it felt like a calling.

"I responded to it and it responded to me. My songs, everything, came so easily. I wrote The First Cut Is The Deepest when I was 17 (in 1965).

"My brother David also had a big hand in it because he was the business head of the family. He was instrumental in getting me contacts."