Born in Belgrade to a father from Andrijevica who held a rank of major in UDBA, Vukašinović moved to Peć in 1953 when his father was reassigned there. After spending five years in Peć, the family moved to Sarajevo.
Career
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 Formed by guitarist Edo Bogeljić, Plavi Dijamanti were an instrumentalcover group — somewhat of an outdated setup since the city and the rest of Yugoslavia had already been experiencing the surging popularity of the vocalist bands.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 held at the Second Sarajevo Gymnasium — a competition they won largely thanks to Vukašinović's memorable drum solo while covering The Shadows' "See You in My Drums". Vukašinović then switched to Čičak with Zoran Redžić on bass, Mahmut "Paša" Ferović on rhythm guitar, and Dragan Danilović on lead guitar. Čičak folded in 1969. During spring 1970, Željko Bebek invited Redžić to join his band Kodeksi on club & bar tour in southern Italy since they immediately needed someone to play bass. Redžić in turn brought along Vukašinović as well, since the struggling band that featured future Bijelo Dugme leader Goran Bregović also needed a replacement drummer. Right after arriving in Italy, Vukašinović encouraged and eventually convinced his new bandmates to make a turn towards hard rock, similar to the pioneering sound that was coming out of England at the time epitomized by acts like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. The band's new style backfired as they got fired from most of the places they were regularly playing up to that point and eventually returned to Sarajevo. In late summer 1971, 21-year-old Vukašinović decided to leave for London where he'd end up living for the next three years. Finding musical success in England proved elusive, and he earned a living mostly through menial jobs. Among them, working as a busboy at London's Hard Rock Cafe near Hyde Park Corner. After returning to Sarajevo in late 1974, he joined Indexi, performing with them on several singles. In October 1976, Goran Bregović offered Vukašinović the drummer spot in Bijelo Dugme since their regular drummer Ipe Ivandić suddenly got called up for his mandatory military service. Vukašinović immediately accepted and reportedly got YUD20 million to play on the upcoming studio record and the subsequent tour. He thus appeared on their 1976 album Eto! Baš hoću!, but decided to leave the group in 1977 right after the album tour ended. The same year, 1977, he formed the enthusiastic power trioVatreni poljubac. In parallel, he started working with Yugoslav commercial folk artists, composing songs for them — in 1979 his song "Voljela sam, voljela" sung by Hanka Paldum became a huge hit. After recording nine studio albums between 1977 and 1986, Vukašinović disbanded Vatreni poljubac choosing to pursue a solo career, recording five albums. After the Yugoslav Wars he released two more albums and took part in Bijelo Dugme’s 2005 farewell tour. In 1997 he entered the Eurovision song contest for Bosnia and Herzegovina with Alma Čardžić with their song "Goodbye". Since November 1997 he's been living in Belgrade where he collaborates with fellow musicians. In late 2006, he took part in a brief Vatreni poljubac reunion, the focus of which was a December 29 concert at Belgrade's SKC. After expressing interest to appear as one of the opening acts at the Rolling Stones concert in Belgrade on July 14, 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 1995. He identifies as Yugoslav and Bosnian. On March 1, 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 July 24, 2018, his daughter Maja Avdibegović committed suicide by overdosing on illegal drugs. She was 35.
