Al-Marsad newspaper: The late Kuwaiti artist Youssef Muhammad revealed the reason for his retirement from art in his last appearance with the “Wenk” program.
Youssef Muhammad said: “I was singing at a party where people were drinking alcohol and others were dancing and playing, and one of our people who was present at the party called me, and he said to me, “O my son, I know your father. It doesn’t fit you.”
He pointed out: “This embarrassed me a little, and I sat down to review myself, and I put a picture in my imagination and began to look at myself, and when I approached the age of 30, and I said, “When will I sing?”
He pointed out: “I said, ‘Why do I not go to the words of God instead of these poems that I memorize?’” He explained: “The poems gave me good expression and introduced me to people, and I said I will put a break for the life in which I am walking and stay away from people and turn to isolated places and pray in mosques so that no one knows me.”
He continued, “I was a little ashamed, and I was obligated to pray in the mosque with the five duties, and I was employed in an oil company affiliated with the Kuwait Oil Corporation, and there was firmness and severity, so I asked myself when I go to work, I am afraid of the official.”
And he stated: “I had a religious friend named Issa Al-Ansari who encouraged me to adhere to religion and planted the seed of religiosity in myself.”
The retired Kuwaiti artist, Youssef Al-Balushi, passed away at the age of 70, after a long struggle with illness for a number of weeks.