Juraj Kušnierik has passed away
“How are you doing, Miško?”, so used to begin our meetings with Ďuro Kušnierik, whom I, for some strange reasons, called Jürgen. Just to see the wide smile of a boy in a big body, and the world was a better place, and the tremendous will to live and to see everything from the bright side...
14. November 2015
I remember how we all tickled him for always writing gracious reviews... But there was something strong about his graciousness that differentiated him from other people - Ďuro was, in fact, one of the men of the highest principle I have ever met. He loved freedom and was able to fight for it. And, of course, he loved music. Few people know it, but Kušňo, that was his another nickname, influenced Pohoda fundamentally. We didn’t just discuss bands, we also talked about other things related to the festival. He had his stage, and he used to take care of it with such love that there was always joy and really good atmosphere in his backstage. He was always adorable in our festival T-shirt – and he would complain that we didn’t have the size for real men, but still he would proudly wear it... He was also my boss: when I wrote articles for .týždeň, he was in charge – and it was quite a challenging situation, because I do have a problem with deadlines; if he hadn’t been the addressee, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. He first saw our band in 1986 in the student’s hostel Mladá garda. At that time, we didn’t know each other, but we were fortunate to meet later on. Having Ďuro Kušnierik as a friend is a great gift, and we are happy we could get to know him. We learned about his death at the concert in Žilina. We finished it as planned, but it was difficult. When we told people at the concert, they started clapping their hands, it was a strong spontaneous applause for the man who did very much for the music in Slovakia. There was respect in the applause, and I believe that there was also much love... The Slovak music has the best ambassador in heaven possible... When we parted from our meetings, we would always say at the end “we continue our way”. It is his phrase, his encouragement, his commitment, and he could barely know how much it helped me. “How are you doing, Miško?” Well, Jürgen, I’m sad, very sad. We continue our way... And we are going to miss you so much following it.