10 minute read
Dating Dialogue, Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW
point, not to rush into things. You have to let things chill. Any business decision, think it over overnight, discuss it with people, don’t rush.
What are some questions that you get asked all the time throughout the years?
Well, people want to know where the name Country Yossi come from. What does it mean? “Why did you call yourself Country Yossi?” And the truth is, it’s because I’m up in the country, and we did a radio show up there for many, many years. Besides the country parodies which I used.
Could you give a tip that will give encouragement to people out there who have talent and want to express it?
You have to create yourself. Don’t let anybody try to mold you into something that they want you to be. You have to be what you are intended to be, what Hashem wanted you to be. And of course, that’s to fulfill your entire potential as you grow up. But you have to have “shtultz,” and a strong backbone. Keep trying for it. Don’t give up. No matter how many failures. You’re not a failure till you don’t get up. You can get knocked down many times in a fight. But if you get up, you’re still in the fight, still in the battle. You’ve got to keep trying.
I was trying to sell radio in the beginning. That didn’t work, so I switched to a magazine. You’ve got to be flexible. You’ve got to maneuver around. Then the radio picked up, because the magazines started getting popular. So, one thing feeds off the other. You have to be willing to try new things and not to be afraid.
What are some other tips you would recommend to someone that has talent? How not to give up, to express it? To “grab that guitar.”
People pick up the guitar and try to learn guitar. Then it hurts their fingers, so they give up. You have to get past that initial discomfort in a new endeavor. Eventually you’re going to get calluses on your fingers, and you won’t feel anything. Everybody who plays guitar has calluses on their fingertips, and that’s how you learn how to play guitar. So, yes, it’s going to hurt in the beginning, but don’t give up. That’s the key. Learning how to play guitar is a life-changer. You have that talent, suddenly you’re the center of attention. You’re the life of the party. All you have to learn is three chords because you could play a hundred Carlebach songs with three chords. And everybody has different talents. Not everything is musical talent. Not everything is radio tal-
Country, it’s been now roughly a year, close to a year, since the pandemic began. For some, it was devastating. For others, they had time to think and reflect. Do you have some reflection on the past year?
Well, with all the time now available with people locked up in their homes, I suggest people pick up a creative endeavor. Now’s a good time to learn how to play piano. A good time to learn how to play guitar. I’ve been spending time listening to a lot of shiurim on Torah Anytime. I’m listening to Rav
ent. Everybody has their own talent that they have to nurture, figure out what it is, and use it to improve themselves.
You were producing some amazing Country Yossi albums. I’m sure they sold tens of thousands, and then you expanded the horizon to include children’s albums. Can you talk about that moment when you decided to expand into that?
We had the Country Yossi albums, which were big successes. And then one night I said, “Why don’t we make a CD with songs for kids?” And I bounced it off Heshy and he said, “That’s a great idea. Let’s do it.” So, I sat down with a legal pad and I started writing Kivi and Tuki songs and the dialogue started developing. And once you get the characters going, then it just writes itself, just, where should I take it? But the hard part is getting over that initial hump. Who are these characters? We introduce Kaili, the little girl into it. So, you keep adding things. We’re working on another Kivi and Tuki album now. Moshe Meir Weiss. I have time for writing the new Kivi and Tuki album and spending a lot of time trying to improve my musical abilities. I told you I’m not a professional musician, but I’m working on it. There’s a lot of chords out there I still can’t play. But now that we’re locked up in the house like many other people, you can’t get away. I usually have parties to go to and all kinds of simchas, baruch Hashem. But now that they’re minimizing participation in those things, it’s a good time to work on yourself.
Were you ever surprised on the type of feedback and reach that you’ve had?
We were on the air on Tuesday nights many, many years ago. I was taking phone calls and we were blowing the phone lines. We got a call from the phone company – really, it was in The New York Post the next day – we got a call from the phone company that I have to limit the calls to a certain geographic area because they were overloading the lines and people were losing telephone service. So, I started taking phone calls from men only for one hour, then women only for the other hour, then children only for the third hour. And in that way, we were able to keep the service going on Staten Island and the surrounding environs.
We have this new feature where each guest shares a great tip that has to do with their initials. Now, in your case, “C.Y.” stands for Country Yossi. I’ll leave it to your creativity.
Well, like I said before, C.Y. was “create yourself.” You got to look deep inside yourself. Be true to yourself. Like Reb Shlomo said, “To thine own self be true.” Find out what your strengths are and pursue your goal without hesitation. Don’t get weak. Just keep going for it because every Yid is imbued by Hakodosh Baruch Hu with a certain talent. You have to find out what it is and when you find it out, exploit it and use it. And use it for what? Not just to make money and not just to become famous. It’s going to be the little kinderlach, not the rich man, the famous man, the wealthy man. Kinderlach are going to bring Moshiach with learning Torah. A lot of the songs I write are funny, but my favorite songs are the ones that I call the mussar songs. “Tick Tock.” “It’s Only Make Believe.” Songs about the essence of Yiddishkeit, what it means to be a Yid and to be a successful Yid at that. By success, I don’t mean monetarily or financially, I mean being all you can be, “ruchniysdik.”
Notable Quotes
I don’t really care if I’m the youngest...it’s all about getting knowledge for me.
- Belgian student Laurent Simons, 11, who became the second-to-youngest-ever college graduate after obtaining a bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Antwerp
If a child can play football well, we all think the media attention is great. My son has a different talent. Why should he not be proud of that?
- Simons’ father
We’ve survived this long together because, first of all, we give each other plenty of space to do our own thing.
- Jimmy Carter talking to ABC News after his 75th wedding anniversary
We’re always looking to do things or find things we can do together, like fly fishing and bird watching and just going out to the pond, catch a fish.
- Jimmy’s wife of 75 years, Rosalynn Carter
You know what’s good about this? We’re letting the nation know we can cooperate.
- President Biden, while visiting the site of the Surfside building collapse Let me get this straight? You can be off by 135,000 votes in a New York City mayoral primary alone but if someone loses the White House by less than 45,000 across multiple states in a presidential election you can’t have any questions. Seems legit… if you live in China.
– Tweet by Donald Trump, Jr., after the NY City Board of Elections admitted to erroneously including 135,000 test votes in their counting of the votes after the mayoral primaries
My father raised me with love, loving everyone. He always told me and my siblings to do good, to share everything with others.
- Emilio Flores Márquez, 112, of Puerto Rico, sharing his secret of longevity upon being crowned the oldest man alive by the Guinness Book of World Records last week
The assertion that Twitter is in coordination with any government to suppress speech has no basis in fact whatsoever.
– Statement by Twitter after they faced backlash for suspending a University of Canterbury professor’s account because he poking fun at Chinese President Xi Jinping
When you’re living in a world where 40 million people have been laid off and I’m making $200 million, you won’t get no complaining from me.
– NBA great Shaquille O’Neal responding to LeBron James complaining about the grueling NBA schedule last season
I don’t complain and make excuses, because real people are working their tail off and all we gotta do is train two hours a day and then play a game for two hours at night and make a lot of money…so my thought process is a little different.
If you don’t like hot dogs, you may not care.
- White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki when asked about the White House’s press release that the cost of a cookout this July 4th is down 16 cents from last year, in light of the miniscule savings and otherwise rapid inflation that is taking place
Scientists found that vulnerable people and communities of color are disproportionately exposed to air pollution from firework celebrations
- Tweet by National Geographic
The F.B.I. does not release full statistics until September, but homicide rates in large cities were up more than 30 percent on average last year, and up another 24 percent for the beginning of this year.
-The New York Times
In the aftermath [of George Floyd’s death], some criminologists attributed the spike in homicides to hesitancy among residents to turn to the police for help.
- Ibid.
We are seeing these headlines about percentage increases. Now, I want to say that any amount of harm is unacceptable and too much. But I also want to make sure that this hysteria, you know, that this doesn’t drive a hysteria and that we look at these numbers in context so that we can make responsible decisions about what to allocate in that context.
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Dem/Socialist-NY)
Gun violence discriminates. The way COVID discriminates, gun violence discriminates: 59% nationally are non-white victims. In New York State, 68% are non-white victims. In New York City, 77% are non-white victims. Black people are 10 times more likely to be victims of gun violence than white people. Latinos are 3.4 times more likely than white people. Gun violence is a major civil rights issue.
– New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo So, the Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal. Equal to what? What men? Only White men? Isn’t it something that they wrote this in 1776 when African Americans were enslaved? They weren’t thinking about us then, but we’re thinking about us now!
- Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) in her July 4th message
When they say that the 4th of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom they’re referring to is for White people. This land is stolen land, and Black people still aren’t free.
- Tweet by squad member Rep. Cori Bush, (D-Mo)
I really don’t understand the [Israeli Defense Force’s] involvement in rescue attempts of people tragically crushed under buildings in Miami. Their expertise is crushing buildings with people in them, not rescuing them.
- A retweet by liberal darling and Jew-hater Linda Sarsour
Do not expect those who worship violence and death to understand those who value life. The IDF, Israel’s army, the most moral army in the world, will always stand by our allies in times of need.
- Tweet by Israel’s former U.N. representative Danny Danon in response
Jews were able to make the world remember [the Holocaust], and the whole world bows to them, being afraid of saying one wrong word to them. On our part, we, being tolerant and kind, did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings and let the things down to the point when they have started to hurt us.
- Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko during a memorial service last week for Soviet soldiers who died in World War II
