(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Thu 5 March 2026 9:00, UK
Who is to say where inspiration comes from? Questlove once called Prince one of the greatest musicians of all time, but was surprised to learn where ‘The Purple One’ found his ideas.
The Roots drummer admitted that when he was growing up, he was so enamoured with Prince that he began copying basically everything that the musician did, which meant listening to the music that Prince recommended, dressing the way that he did, and even fancying the same women – the star took over Questlove’s life.
You can only imagine how excited the drummer was then when, later in life, he and Prince became good friends. They played together, worked together, and as a result, Questlove got a look behind the curtain and saw what Prince’s creative process was like. It turns out that in order to feel inspired, the musician immersed himself in two very specific movies.
“Here’s the deal. Since 1997, Soul Train has been my aquarium. That’s a Prince term,” said Questlove when talking about the creative process. “When he was alive, whenever you’d go to Prince’s house, two things were always on TV: [the 2003 animated film] Finding Nemo and Black Orpheus, this beautiful Brazilian film from 1959. He would have those on a constant loop: ‘Yeah, it’s my aquarium.’”
That might sound somewhat peculiar, but Prince wasn’t the only one who let very specific movies become a pivotal part of his career. Cat Stevens wasn’t born with that name, his birth name is Steven Georgiou, but when he started making music, he decided to take on a new name that sounded a bit catchier. A number of factors helped him decide on “Cat”, and two of them were popular movies at the time.
In 1965, when he first started to make a name for himself, two movies that were quite popular both featured the word “Cat”; these were Cat Ballou and What’s New Pussycat? On top of that, Norma Tanega had a hit song with ‘Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog’. All three of these releases inspired the name; however, perhaps the biggest influence was Cat Stevens’ girlfriend at the time.
Steven’s love was a woman called Christine, with whom he found himself completely enamoured. When speaking to her one day, she commented on the fact that he looked a bit like a cat. That comment, paired with the hit movies and songs which were released at the time, all pointed towards one name, which he decided to adopt as a stage persona. “All I did was add ‘Cat’ to my first name, shifting Steven from head to tail,” said Cat Stevens when discussing landing on his name, “Hey-ho! ‘Cat Stevens’ was born.”
Christine didn’t just inspire Stevens’s name, though, she was also the inspiration behind one of the first big hits that he wrote. It seems that when things grew tumultuous between the two, Christine became the muse for his track ‘The First Cut Is the Deepest’, which was originally performed by PP Arnold.
This song was an insight into how much of a great songwriter Stevens was, because while he was writing from a place which was entirely personal, Arnold was able to resonate with the song on a deep level. She felt as though the song touched something deep within her soul, which is always the sign of a great writer. Suffice to say, this was the start of a pretty good career.
“It encapsulated everything that I was at the time,” said Arnold when discussing the track, concluding, “Having the courage to get out of that [abusive relationship] and create a life for me and my kids… What a blessing.”