I’m fairly sure that I only heard the name Dino Jelusick for the first time back in 2018 when the Animal Drive album “Bite” was released. I learnt more about the impressive background of the Croatian singer when putting together some questions for an interview that was posted on the Rock Radio NI website at that time. Since then, he has become a much more widely recognized name; not least of all after his addition to the Whitesnake line-up in 2021. On 29th September a new album by Jelusick called “Follow The Blind Man” was released through Escape Music and it reinforces what an amazing talent Dino is.
When the opportunity arose to have a chat with Dino I jumped at it and we recorded an interview via Zoom on 8th November. We chatted about the new album, future plans for Jelusick, a new band in the works and some of his other recent musical projects as well as his involvement in the Croatian version of ‘The Voice’.
Following earlier appearances by Reb Beach and Joel Hoekstra, Dino actually becomes the third member of what is likely to the final Whitesnake line-up to be a guest on the Friday NI Rocks Show. You can hear the interview as well as tracks from the new album and some of his other work on the Friday NI Rocks Show that was uploaded on 10th November. That Show is now available from our MixCloud page -
OZZY OSBOURNE - Over the Mountain
HALESTORM – Brightside
THE GEMS – P.S.Y.C.H.O.
SAFFRON GORMAN & THE BLACK EAGLE BAND – Boo Hoo
JELUSICK - Acid Rain
Interview with DINO JELUSICK Pt1 (6min)
JELUSICK – Died
Interview with DINO JELUSICK Pt2 (5min)
MICHAEL ROMEO - Destroyer
Interview with DINO JELUSICK Pt3 (7min)
JELUSICK – Reign of Vultures
MICHAEL ROMEO - Divide & Conquer
DIRTY SHIRLEY – I Disappear
JEFF SCOTT SOTO - Don’t Let It End (ft. Dino Jelucik.)
MOTÖRHEAD – (We Are) The Roadcrew
W.A.S.P. – Blind In Texas
Y&T – Mean Streak
Promo for New KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD album Pt1
KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD – Best of Times
Promo for New KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD album Pt2
BLACK DOG WOLF - Black Dog Wolf
VOODOO CIRCLE - Sweet Devotion
LYNCH MOB - The Synner
LAWLESS - 1914 (Ghosts of No Mans Land)
SAXON - Kingdom of the Cross
SABATON - 1916
NI ROCKS – Hi Dino. Thanks for taking some time to talk to us at Rock Radio NI. I wanted to focus first of all the new album “Follow The Blind Man” which we just played a track from. The album was released on 29th September. When did you start writing the tracks for this album?
DINO - Well, the tracks were written back in... Some of the tracks were written in 2017, some were written in 2018, majority was written in 2019. Everything was recorded in 2019, but then we ended up on court as Animal Drive. And we broke up and I had to make a new lineup and decided to change the band name. And then “Healer” and “Acid Rain” were written on the same day in 2021. We kind of worked out all these tracks a little bit more, but like originally they were written in 18, 19. Pretty much, majority of.
NI ROCKS – The band features three other musicians, one of whom, guitarist Ivan Keller, was previously in Animal Drive with you. What can you tell us about the band members?
DINO - Well, Mario (Lepoglavec), I've known Mario for a while, but I've known him as a pretty decent singer. Then I found out that he's also an amazing drummer, so it really made sense to get him in the band and get him on board. Luka (Broderick) and I used to play in an Iron Maiden tribute for 10 years together; well actually five years but we celebrate ten years from the first gig together this year so I would say ten years. But yeah, so he's one of the best bass players I've ever heard so it was a no-brainer for me to call him and see if he's available and he was so we made a pact again.
NI ROCKS – Where was the album recorded and who did you work with in terms of production, mixing etc
DINO - His name is Simon (Jovanovic) He's a mixing engineer from Slovenia, but as far as like producer kind of thing, that was all me.
NI ROCKS - Okay. And it was recorded in your own studio there?
DINO - Yeah, in this room. Majority was recorded in this room. Guitars were done in my beach house because we did real amps, but vocals are recorded right here, this spot. Keyboards are here. Bass was recorded here and drums were recorded at our drummer's house.
NI ROCKS - This is the first album to be released under the name Jelusick. What prompted you to use that name rather than choose something more generic.
DINO - I don't know. I just started building this brand and I thought, you know, changing my last name from what it used to be to Jelusick and thought, okay, my name grew in the industry. Why wouldn't I call the band like Van Halen, like Bon Jovi, Winger, Dokken and Tremonti. I was like, you know, let's try, let's go and do it this way.
NI ROCKS – Do you see “Follow The Blind Man” as a very different body of work, or would it sound similar to what Animal Drive would have progressed as a band?
DINO - The first version of this album that we recorded as Animal Drive was already a progressed version of Animal Drive, production wise and just stylistically. But yeah, I mean, I think this is the beginning for the band and I think it's going to progress a lot more on the second one. I have so many different ideas, and I just need to put it all together and see which direction it's going to go for the next one.
NI ROCKS – The band have already done a few live shows. What plans do you have to get the band out? Are you planning a tour of Europe or are you going to focus on festivals for example.
DINO - We have actually done 35 shows so far in this lineup. We have approximately that amount of shows to do in 2024. We already booked a tour and, well, I'm still not allowed to say, so I got to be quiet. We have a big tour on a different continent next year. And yeah, a European tour next year. Definitely.
NI ROCKS – The album was released through Escape Music. You must have had quite a bit of interest in releasing the album, how did you end up with Khalil and Escape Music?
DINO - Well, I did a song for Khalil and Turkish Delight. And then we were looking forward to see how we're going to do it and he offered us a nice deal and it seemed fair because I own all the masters and I own all the publishing. We found a nice deal and I didn't want to get into something that I was in before with the ex label so this seemed fair.
NI ROCKS – I had pre-ordered what is called the ‘blade bullet’ coloured vinyl version of the album. How much input did you have into the vinyl format and to the album cover as well?
DINO - Well, this album cover was done already for the Animal Drive version of the album, so I loved it from day one. I thought, perfect! The song is about a broken person and it should be a broken head of a blind man. So I'm really happy. Yeah, I love it.
NI ROCKS - What about the vinyl? Did you give any input to the vinyl or is that down to Escape?
DINO – Khalil sent me what he thinks is cool and I agree with him and so we went with that soon.
NI ROCKS – We’ll play another track from the album now. Can you pick a track and tell us something about it please?
DINO - Let's go with “Died”. That's probably my favourite song out of all the heavy songs on the album; my favourite lyric on the album and that chorus is my favorite chorus on the album and that riff is my favourite riff on the album.
NI ROCKS – You did an interview for our website via e-mail back in 2018 just after the Animal Drive album “Bite!” was released. We covered most of your earlier career at that time, but one thing that I noticed since then was that you’d got a Masters Degree from the Academy of Music at the University of Zagreb (in 2020). That was obviously a personal goal that you had; what motivated you to do that and how long did it take?
DINO - It took way too long because while I was in college, I was also touring at the same time, so it took me a lot longer it should. But it was great. Knowledge is something that can just grow and cannot be taken away from you. So, I'm sure to a certain extent it helped. Just knowing stuff theoretically helps a lot.
NI ROCKS – I’ve only seen you perform live once and that was with Whitesnake in Dublin in May of last year. Your first show with the band. When we did the interview back in 2018 you’d said that Whitesnake was the band that you’d love to perform in. How did that become a reality and what was it like getting to perform with David and the other guys in the band….and girls.
DINO - I did a video with Mike Portnoy and Joel Hoekstra back in 2020 for the lockdown sessions. We did “Jane” together and Joel had no clue I can play keyboards. So when he saw that I could play keyboards, David was looking for a final member for a final tour and Joel said, I have a guy for you; and this guy can also sing. He played him “Stormbringer”, the version I did with Joel. David loved it. And he said, but what am I going to do with a singer? And he said, but he can also play keys. And David was like, wow, so I can have a keyboard player that can sing, you know, and help me out for the last tour. He loved that. He loved the “Paradigm Shift” (Liquid Tension Experiment) video and “Father”, and he loved my sense for melodies, and he just called me on the phone and asked me to be a part of his “reptile fun” and I said, of course, I'm going to be a part of your reptile fun, David.
NI ROCKS - Yeah, you're not going to turn that one down.
DINO - Absolutely not.
NI ROCKS – Not that long after the Whitesnake tour was unfortunately cut short, you took over as frontman for The Dead Daisies for some shows in Europe and I think in the USA as well. Stepping in for Glenn Hughes can’t be easy – how much time were you given to prepare for those shows.
DINO - One day!
NI ROCKS - One day!
DINO - Yeah, pretty surreal, man. I got a call. I was on vacation. They said, listen, Glenn is sick. Can you learn eight songs for the first show, 16 songs for the second show? No! 12 songs for the first show, 16 for the second. And it was wild. That was the most rock and roll thing I've ever done. Just playing an amphitheatre, opening for Judas Priest, singing the songs I've heard the first time a day before. Pretty surreal. But I loved playing with Doug and Brian and David and Yogi.
NI ROCKS – I noticed that your band will be supporting The Dead Daisies in Croatia I think later this year sometime.
DINO - Yeah, we're playing a show together in Slovenia.
NI ROCKS – Since our last interview you’ve released music with Stone Leaders, Restless Spirits, Magnus Karlsson’s Free Fall and appeared on your old friend Jeff Scott Soto’s Duet’s Collection. You also did the Dirty Shirley album with George Lynch. How do you decide what you want to get involved in and what to leave?
DINO - Well, you just named the oldest collaborations I did. I think if I was offered that now, I probably wouldn't do any of those, to be honest with you. Dirty surely I would, because I wrote the album. Jeff Scott Soto is a friend, so I did a duet with him. Stone Leaders was cool, but my role was kind of weird in that band. Restless Spirits was just a guest appearance. You forgot the most important album, which is Michael Romeo, “War of the Worlds”.
NI ROCKS - That was my next question.
DINO - That's an important album, if you ask me. I think that was a gate opener for the new era of what I'm going to do musically. So, yeah, I'm really proud of that one, followed by this one. And in March, there's going to be an album from a new band that I'm in, which is a Prague supergroup. It's going to be announced, I think, in a month. So, yeah, but Dirty Shirley was a great record. I really love that album because I wrote most of the stuff with George and I love that. Although everything else that you mentioned was pretty much me doing guest appearance for one or two songs, you know, Restless Spirits and Jeff Scott Sotto.
NI ROCKS – You mentioned obviously Michael Romeo’s “War of the Worlds Pt2” where you sing on all the non-instrumental tracks. I thought we’d maybe play one of the tracks from that album next – perhaps “Divide & Conquer” or “Metamorphosis”. I’ll let you chose. What can you tell us about that album?
DINO - Well, I mean, you can play “Divide and Conquer”. That's the hit song off the album, but I love every song from the album. I love... Which one? Let me think. You know what? Play “Destroyer”.
NI ROCKS – “Destroyer”. We'll play that one.
DINO - Yeah, that's a cool one.
NI ROCKS - Any reason for that one?
DINO - It's just dark and orient and it's probably the first time I've heard Michael Romeo using a seven string.
NI ROCKS – Am I right in thinking that you’re not doing the Trans Siberian Orchestra tour this year? You’ve been involved with it for some time, but is that something you’ve left or do you hope to return to it at some stage?
DINO - Yeah, I'm not doing TSO this year because I'm the judge on ‘The Voice’ in Croatia, so I can’t do both. The Voice takes really all of my time right now. It takes a lot of dedication. Next year, I would love to be back in TSO. We'll see what happens. My schedule next year is pretty tight. There's going to be some legendary gigs with some legends, and there's going to be a lot of tours with Jelusick. There's going to be a tour with this new band. So, we'll see. I mean, I'm truly happy that there's so many possibilities for next year. We'll see what happens.
NI ROCKS – You were recently part of the Andy Taylor / Cancer Awareness Trust show in England – about two weeks ago. How did you get involved in that and what were the highlights for you personally?
DINO - I got a call from Phil X from Bon Jovi. He said, hey, guess who I'm playing with? And I said, who? He's like, Robert Plant. And I said, cool. He's like, I got a call from this cool manager, Rob Hallett, who used to manage Prince and Michael Jackson. So then he called me and he said, hey, what are you doing on October 21st? And I said, get out of here. He's like, we need a keyboard player for Robert Plant kind of stuff. You need to play Hammond and piano on “Stairway to Heaven”. And I'm like, of course I'm going to do it. In the end, when we rehearsed the song Robert Plant said you know I didn't sing this song in a while and I was kind of afraid to sing Led Zeppelin can somebody sing with me? Andy said hey Dino is a rock singer so I started singing with Robert Plant and he was like I'm not sure I'm gonna let you sing this one with me! I have a tape of the rehearsal; I'm not sure if I can post it, but I have a rehearsal tape where I sing “Stairway to Heaven” with Robert Plant. To me, that's a personal success, not something, you know, you're going to build your career on. But it was amazing. I love Robert. I mean, I had a chance to work with Robert Plant, David Coverdale and Paul Rogers. So being 30 year old in this day and age to be able to work with those legends, you know, it's just one of the things that I'm really proud of. And the cause of the concert was amazing because Andy Taylor has been suffering from prostate cancer, stage four, and they found a cure to cure it. So he's in remission now and I'm truly happy for him. He's a great guy and I think there's going to be more shows in the future.
NI ROCKS – The band Jelusick is obviously your main focus at the moment, although you’ve also mentioned on Facebook about a new prog band – which you can’t tell us much about. Other than those two bands are we likely to see you performing on any other albums or working on any other projects over the next year or so?
DINO - Pretty much those two things. I'll be doing Jelusick. If I decide to do something more softer, I'm going to just release it as a solo artist, as Dino Jelusick. But that and this band with some famous members from prog rock industry. Those two will be my main thing. Definitely just original stuff. I got a call for a couple of big, big bands. I don't want to join a big band, to be honest with you. I want to create my own band and make it big.
NI ROCKS - Yeah, that's great. You mentioned ‘The Voice’ earlier. How long does that keep going for? And then, is it something you'd like to do more of.
DINO - It started in September and it's going to end late January. So there's a lot of work, a lot of work with people.
NI ROCKS - Is that something you'd like to do more of over time?
DINO - Well, it's a different role. I like helping out people. I like to see singers grow with me as a leader. So it's a different perspective of art to me. But if I can help someone and if I inspired someone to pick me and said, hey, lead me, show me what I should do. And those singers, man, they sound amazing. I'm truly proud to inspire somebody. So I feel like I'm you know, responsible for the beginning of their future, let's put it that way.
NI ROCKS – You inferred earlier on that you’d started to write some more tracks for a second Jelusick album. Any idea what might the timescales be on that?
DINO - Well, there's a couple of songs I did write for this one, but we didn't want to put too many songs. I have a couple of tracks. Well, it's going to be, you know what, I'm not I'm not going to say anything because I might change my mind tomorrow because I'm a Gemini and it goes that way with me. What I can tell you is the next one is going to come out late 2024. I'm not losing any more time and I want to put out more music. We sold out our hometown show. We could have sold out that place two times. And I want to go into a bigger venue and see if I can sell that out with the next album. And as far as topics, it's going to be life, love, depression; it's all real life stories. I write only about stuff that I experienced. Everything is very relatable.
NI ROCKS - That's a great album. I've actually bought the vinyl version too, but it's a great album.
DINO – The vinyl version has actually shorter versions of songs because the album was too long to be on the vinyl as it is because the sound would change. So we cut short – “Animal Inside” ends after the solo, “Follow the Blind Man” ends after the solo, “The Healer” doesn't have an intro, and so on.
NI ROCKS – We’ll finish off by playing another track from “Follow The Blind Man”. Can you pick a track and maybe tell us something about it?
DINO - I don't know. To be honest with you, I'm really proud of every song on that album. Whatever you choose, I'm going to be happy with. Maybe “Reign of Vultures”. It's the song that opens the album and it just kicks ass. And there's so many changes in the song. It's kind of crazy, but I love that song. It has a great, punchy kind of gospelly chorus wrapped up in a metal arrangement. So let's go with “Reign of Vultures”.
NI ROCKS - Okay, we'll play that one. Again, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.