Milić Vukašinović (; born 9 March 1950) is a Yugoslav musician, the founder of the hard rock band Vatreni Poljubac as well as one-time drummer of the famous Yugoslav rock bands Bijelo Dugme and Indexi.

A rock'n'roll pioneer in the city of Sarajevo where he spent his formative years, Vukašinović is also known for his composing and songwriting work with some of the biggest Yugoslav commercial folk music stars such as Hanka Paldum and Toma Zdravković.

Early life
Born in Belgrade to a father from Andrijevica who held a rank of major in UDBA, infant Vukašinović was brought to Peć in 1953 when his father got reassigned there. After spending five years in Peć, the family moved to Sarajevo.

Career

Early musical activity
Vukašinović started drumming simultaneously to his primary schooling in Sarajevo, joining his first band Plavi Dijamanti in 1963 at the age of thirteen. Formed by guitarist , Plavi Dijamanti were an instrumental cover group—somewhat of an outdated setup since the city and the rest of Yugoslavia had already been experiencing the surging popularity of the vocalist bands. Mostly playing local high school dance parties, their shining moment came in 1964 at the city's very first gitarijada (battle of the bands) held at the Second Sarajevo Gymnasium—a competition they won largely thanks to Vukašinović's memorable drum solo cover of The Shadows' "See You in My Drums".

Vukašinović then switched to Čičak, a band featuring Zoran Redžić on bass, Mahmut "Paša" Ferović on rhythm guitar, and Dragan Danilović on lead guitar. Čičak folded in 1969.

Kodeksi

During spring 1970, Željko Bebek invited Redžić to join his cover band Kodeksi on a club & bar tour of southern Italy since they immediately needed a new bass player. Redžić, in turn, brought along his friend and old Čičak bandmate—twenty-year-old Vukašinović—since the struggling Kodeksi, that also featured twenty-year-old Goran Bregović, needed a replacement drummer as well. 

Arriving to a cover band primarily catering to tourists in the Naples area by playing a mixed commercial repertoire of Eastern European upbeat folk sounds (čoček, kozachok, kolo, etc.) and Top 40 Western English-language hits, Vukašinović began to encourage and eventually managed to convince his new bandmates to turn towards hard rock along the lines of the pioneering music coming out of England epitomized by acts like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. In terms of their finances, the cover band's new musical shift backfired immediately as it resulted in Kodeksi being fired from most of the bars and nightclubs in and around Naples they had regularly been playing prior. Continuing to move away from commercial songs, the band expanded their repertoire with the Canned Heat-inspired boogie rock sound favoured by Vukašinović and Bregović, all of which—due to the songs lacking vocals—led to their vocalist Bebek feeling disregarded and soon deciding to leave. The band then reconstituted as a trio, Mića, Goran i Zoran, with only Vukašinović, Bregović and Redžić remaining. Following a few more Italian bar gigs, the musicians returned to Sarajevo by early 1971.

Back in Sarajevo, the cover band played at the Želimir Altarac Čičak-run Kaktus night club within Dom mladih. They even made an appearance on TV Sarajevo, the band's television debut, for which they had to compose an original number on short notice due to the station's policy of only allowing original music to be performed. Covering other band's music generally began making 21-year-old Vukašinović feel stuck creatively and he soon made a decision to leave Yugoslavia in search of "inspiration for becoming a hard rock musical author".

Move to London
In late summer 1971, twenty-one-year-old Vukašinović relocated to London where he would end up spending the following three years. Finding musical success in England proved elusive as he was quickly reduced to earning a living through menial jobs such as washing dishes in restaurants, unloading lorries, and bussing tables at the recently-opened Hard Rock Cafe near Hyde Park Corner.

Not forgotten by his peers back home in Sarajevo, not long after arriving in London, during late fall 1971, Vukašinović received a telegram offer of taking over the drummer spot in Indexi, an already established band throughout Yugoslavia. However, he decided to decline it, reasoning he wanted to continue trying to make it in London.

By 1973, his girlfriend Vera joined him in London. The pair returned abruptly to Yugoslavia in late 1974 due to the news of the death of Vera's father.

Return to Sarajevo, joining Indexi

Immediately after returning home in late 1974, Vukašinović joined Indexi, recording several singles with them. He notably played drums on the "Bacila je sve niz rijeku" single that was initially met with lukewarm reception, but would eventually, fifteen to twenty years later, become an evergreen hit when Crvena Jabuka covered it in 1991 and director Srđan Dragojević incorporated it in his 1996 hit movie Lepa sela lepo gore.

During late February 1975, Vukašinović played with the band at their triumphant Skenderija Hall concert in front of 14,000 people. The accomplishment led to a Yugoslavia-wide tour sponsored by the state-owned Zagreb-based Generalturist travel agency. The tour ended up not as successful as the Sarajevo concert since the band struggled to replicate the crowd draw outside of their hometown.

Vukašinović parted ways with Indexi in early fall 1976, dissatisfied over revenue sharing within the band—specifically his own cut of the financial compensation for the upcoming tour of the Soviet Union.

Bijelo Dugme
 
In October 1976, Goran Bregović offered Vukašinović the drummer spot in Bijelo Dugme on a contract basis due to their regular drummer Ipe Ivandić being suddenly called up for his mandatory military service. Vukašinović immediately accepted, reportedly receiving YUD20 million to play on the upcoming studio record and the subsequent tour. He thus appeared on their 1976 album Eto! Baš hoću!, but left in 1977 right after the album tour that, in addition to Yugoslavia, also included Poland.

Vatreni Poljubac, collaboration with commercial folk artists, and solo career

The same year, 1977, Vukašinović formed the enthusiastic power trio Vatreni Poljubac. The band's debut album Oh, što te volim, joj! was released in 1978 by Sarajevo Disk, a newly-launched record label established by the socialist self-management technomanager turned entrepreneur Ishak "Braco" Džirlo and talent agent Muradif "Mufta" Brkić who had mostly been managing the career of his commercial folk singer wife Hanka Paldum. In parallel, working with Paldum, Vukašinović composed the song "Voljela sam, voljela" that became a huge Yugoslavia-wide hit for the young performer. 

In 1982, Vukašinović returned to working with Hanka Paldum, composing music, writing lyrics, and arranging each of the eight tracks on her album Sanjam. He furthermore produced the album from which the track "Ja te volim" went on to become a big hit in Yugoslavia.

After recording nine studio albums between 1977 and 1986, Vukašinović disbanded Vatreni Poljubac choosing to pursue a solo career, recording five albums.

In 1990, Vukašinović wrote and composed the song "Sećaš li se, Sanja" that appeared on Toma Zdravković's album Kafana je moja istina and went on to become a hit.

Vukašinović remained in Sarajevo for most of the Bosnian War, living through the city's siege. In the mid 1990s, emerging folk music star Ceca released covers of two of Vukašinović's song that he had composed for Hanka Paldum—"Volela sam volela" and "Tražio si sve".

In 1997 he entered the Eurovision song contest for Bosnia and Herzegovina with Alma Čardžić with their song "Goodbye".

Relocation to Belgrade
During fall 1997, Ceca's husband Arkan brought Vukašinović from Sarajevo to Belgrade with a view of having him write and produce Ceca's next studio album. Provided with paid accommodation at Hotel Jugoslavija, Vukašinović ended up staying in Belgrade for almost six months, and eventually remained living in the city permanently. Right away, upon arriving to Belgrade, he began displaying a colourful public persona, making memorable guest appearances on Minimaksovizija talk show with its host Minimaks. Ultimately, the collaboration with Ceca did not result in Vukašinović doing the entire album as Ceca went with her previous songwriters Marina Tucaković and Ljiljana Jorgovanović for song lyrics while Aleksandar "Mili" Milić produced it. The album, named Ceca 2000, was eventually released in late December 1999 in time for New Year's with its promotion focused around millennium celebrations. Vukašinović's only participation on the album ended up being composing music and doing arrangements for two tracks, "Sviće dan" and "Ako te ona odbije".

Simultaneously, Vukašinović started Vatreni Poljubac again with different bandmates, releasing the studio album Sve će jednom proć` samo neće nikad Rock`n`Roll in 1999.

In 2000, shortly after Arkan's death, Vukašinović reached out to Ceca again, offering her the song "Sanjam da si opet tu". Ceca refused and the song ended up being recorded by .

Vukašinović took part in Bijelo Dugme's 2005 three-concert reunion tour

In late 2006, he took part in a brief Vatreni Poljubac reunion, the focus of which was a concert on 29 December at Belgrade's SKC.

After expressing interest in appearing as one of the opening acts at the Rolling Stones concert in Belgrade on 14 July 2007, Vukašinović was booked up until a couple of days before the show. However, at that time a row between him, Stones' management and local concert organizers came to a head and he ended up not playing.

In March 2014, Vukašinović released his ninth solo album entitled Nemoj pjevat'...Ma nemoj. The album was released through City Records.

Personal life
Born in Belgrade, he moved with his family to Peć when he was six years old. In 1963, they moved again, this time to Sarajevo where he spent most of his time until the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. He identifies as Yugoslav.

On 1 March 2008 he entered the Veliki brat house as part of the show's second season in celebrity format. He appeared in the same show one year later, and entered again in 2013.

In 2012, the first part of his autobiography titled Seksualno nemoralan tip, filozofsko-psihološki triler: Seks, droga, alkohol i rokenrol was published and released by Beoknjiga.

On 24 July 2018 his daughter, Maja Avdibegović, committed suicide by overdosing on illegal drugs. She was 35.

Discography

Solo albums

Potraži me  (1984)
Hej jaro, jarane  (1986)
Kao nekad  (1992)
Sad ga lomi (1992)
Seksualno nemoralan tip  (2002)
Ima Boga  (2003)
Gleda a ne da  (2005)
Disco Mix 50 hitova Gorana Bregovića  (2006)
Nemoj pjevat'...Ma nemoj  (2014)

with Vatreni Poljubac

studio albums
Oh, što te volim, joj! (1978)
Recept za Rock`n`Roll (1979)
Bez dlake na jeziku (1980)
To je ono pravo (1980)
Živio Rock`n`Roll (1982)
Iz inata (1985)
100% Rock`n`Roll (1986)
Sve će jednom proć` samo neće nikad Rock`n`Roll (1999)
Kad svira Rock`n`Roll (2011)

singles
"Doktor za Rock 'n' Roll" (1978)
"Na vrat na nos i na svoju ruku" (1979)

with Bijelo Dugme

singles
"Goodbye America" (1976)
"Tako ti je mala moja kad ljubi Bosanac" (1976)
"Dosao sam da ti kažem da odlazim" (1976)
"Himna lista Zdravo" (1976)

studio albums
 Eto! Baš hoću! (1976)

with Indexi

singles
"Samo su ruže znale" (1974)
"Pogrešan broj" (1974)
"Didn-da-da" (1974)
"Volim te" (1975)
"Obala pusta, obala vrela" (1975)

References

1950 births
Living people
Musicians from Belgrade
Yugoslav male singers
20th-century Bosnia and Herzegovina male singers
Bosnia and Herzegovina rock singers
Bosnia and Herzegovina rock guitarists
Bosnia and Herzegovina male guitarists
Bosnia and Herzegovina rock drummers
Bosnia and Herzegovina heavy metal musicians
Singers from Belgrade
Big Brother (Serbian TV series)
21st-century Bosnia and Herzegovina male singers