In a new interview with Igor Miranda of Rolling Stone Brasil, Croatian singer/multi-instrumentalist Dino “Jelusick” Jelusić, who was enlisted by WHITESNAKE for its final European tour, reflected on his brief stint with the David Coverdale-fronted outfit. Speaking about the circumstances that led to WHITESNAKE‘s July 2022 announcement that it was canceling the remainder of its European tour “due to continuing health challenges”, Dino said: “Well, that was a really weird tour. I saw (then-WHITESNAKE guitarist) Reb Beach, he gave an interview saying the farewell tour was a disaster. You know why? Because Reb Beach got COVID, and he tested for COVID. He was COVID positive for 20 days. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. So he was kept away from… His last gig was Kraków… So he did, like, maybe 10 gigs, and then David wanted to cancel already. We were in Prague, and I remember us talking to David. I said, ‘Listen, if Joel (Hoekstra, then-WHITESNAKE guitarist)…’ ‘Cause Joel is a different kind of a guy. He needs to learn everything. I’m more of a guy, if you ask me to play now something, I’m gonna start playing it. If I know the song, I’m gonna play it. I’m gonna find a way. And I told Joel, ‘Listen, this can work. I can help. I can play riffs with you with the left hand. I have a cool sound. We’re gonna make it work. Just let’s not cancel stuff.’ So we pulled off Prague, and we kept going, we kept going. And then another band member got COVID after Hellfest. And we were kept in Milano for a week. At one point I said, ‘You know what, guys? If we’re not gonna do shows, I’m gonna go home.’ I sat on a bus with my stuff and I drove 12 hours back home, and I said, ‘You know what? Just let me know when’s the next gig. I mean, nothing is happening for a week.’ This is actually the first time I’m telling this story. So I got home. And then he canceled my hometown show. People were super disappointed. And then STEEL PANTHER was opening for WHITESNAKE, so STEEL PANTHER decided to play a smaller place, and they called me as their guest. So I sang and played keytar with STEEL PANTHER, having a little fun. And I went to do a blues festival, and Coverdale said, ‘I’m canceling the rest of the European tour,’ which opened a new thing for me. I went to play an all-star show with Johnny Depp, Joe Bonamassa, Zakk Wylde, which was amazing. And then I did THE DEAD DAISIES thing, ’cause (then-THE DEAD DAISIES singer) Glenn (Hughes) got sick. It was the same month. I learned 14 songs in one day, and we opened for JUDAS PRIEST. And then David canceled the North American (WHITESNAKE) tour, then he canceled the Japanese tour, the South American tour and a residency tour. So we were booked for two years, and I said, ‘Okay, I’m not doing anything but this.’ All of a sudden everything is empty. But it worked out fine because I started my solo project JELUSICK early 2023 clean, ’cause I ended up with a little court case, big court case I had with Frontiers. After (David) canceled everything, we were in touch, but we never talked about playing live again, and then he just retired. I spoke to him a couple of days ago. He was hiking, so… I guess he’s doing well if he can hike.”

Dino added: “I really enjoyed my time with David. He’s my biggest hero, and it’s been an honor seeing him giving me so much love and respect in the band. It was amazing.”

Regarding Coverdale‘s November 2025 announcement that he was retiring from music, Dino said: “(David) called me on the phone in November, before he retired, and he said, ‘Listen, I wanna tell you that I’m gonna retire. I went back and listened to everything I’ve done. I have nothing more to say. I’m happy with my career.’ Not many singers will do that, ’cause we always have something to say… So I’m really happy that he’s happy with that, and he’s happy to just enjoy his family time.”

During the Rolling Stone Brasil chat, Dino also addressed last year’s cancelation of a concert in Serbia by him and some of the other former members of of WHITESNAKE. A press conference was held in late May 2025 in Belgrade, Serbia to announce the participants of the 58th Guitar Festival in Zaječar, which was scheduled to take place from August 28, 2025 to 30, 2025 at Kraljevica. The conference featured Dino, Marco Mendoza and Ivan Keller, who announced an exclusive performance at Guitar Festival by the band WHITESNAKE EXPERIENCE BY THE MEMBERS OF WHITESNAKE. The event was supposed to be the only concert in the world featuring members of the legendary band WHITESNAKE: Hoekstra, Jelusić, Mendoza, drummer Tommy Aldridge and keyboardist Michele Luppi. However, within just a few weeks, the WHITESNAKE EXPERIENCE concert was canceled, with Serbia’s Vreme reporting at the time that some of the musicians who were booked to appear at the festival objected to other artists’ mixing of politics and culture.

Jelusić explained: “WHITESNAKE EXPERIENCE never happened… So the funny thing is, I watch some comments on Facebook, and that’s why I don’t trust comments anymore, ’cause there was a lady that said, ‘Dino, you’re my favorite singer. Your work in…’, and then she mentioned the band, ‘and especially your work in WHITESNAKE EXPERIENCE, and those live shows were amazing.’ And I’m, like, what? What live shows? That never happened.

“I’ll tell you the story… I’m always afraid to open this topic because everybody was assuming I was gonna carry the torch in WHITESNAKE,” Dino continued. “And David kept saying, ‘Oh, I wanna do something with you. This is the type of song you and I should write together.’ And he would play me blues songs. ‘You should sing this. I’m gonna write this.’ Because we shared a lot of vocals in WHITESNAKE. We sang ‘Slide It In’. And Michele and I covered all the high parts and stuff, and ‘Crying In The Rain’ and ‘Still Of The Night’ and ‘Fool For Your Loving’ — a lot of stuff.

“So we were supposed to do one show,” Dino said. “Coverdale was happy. Tommy said yes. So the conditions were if I say ‘yes’ and Tommy says ‘yes’, it’s on. They only needed us two. I said, ‘If Tommy‘s in, I’ll do it.’ And Tommy was in. And Marco Mendoza was in and Michele Luppi was in and Joel was in. And all of a sudden, we do a press conference in Belgrade…. Oh, and my guitar player, Keller, he was supposed to do it, so him and Hoekstra together. So we came to Belgrade to do the press conference. And as we do the press conference, here comes Marco Mendoza out of nowhere in Belgrade at the press conference. And I love Marco. If he’s watching this, I love Marco. But he’s very unpredictable. He’s like, ‘Yeah, man, none of this would be possible if there wasn’t for Dino, this new project. It’s gonna be called WHITESNAKE EXPERIENCE.’ I suggested, maybe we should call this show WHITESNAKE EXPERIENCE, this one show. ‘Yeah, this project, WHITESNAKE EXPERIENCE.’ And I’m, like, ‘What is he talking about?’ All of a sudden, the media says, ‘New project. WHITESNAKE is moving on with Dino on vocals.’ And we all get a pretty serious e-mail from David‘s lawyer. And everybody backed off. And I was, like, ‘Marco, what happened?’ And Marco did some things without asking. And I called David. I said, ‘Listen. I just wanted to do these songs because I heard you were okay with this. If you don’t want me to do the show, you know I respect you.’ ‘Oh, no, brother. I know it’s not your fault, but Marco did this, Marco did that.’ So in the end, it was canceled… And then I saw Marco. I played with Marco and (former WHITESNAKE guitarist) Doug Aldrich at NAMM (in January 2026). We played WHITESNAKE. And again, it opened the box. ‘Oh my God, this is amazing. They should reform WHITESNAKE.’ And Marco was, like, ‘Hey, bro, I know what happened was wrong, but trust me, this is gonna happen.’ I’m, like, ‘Marco, come on, man. If David doesn’t say yes, if he doesn’t take care of this, it doesn’t make sense to do it.’ So without David‘s word, without David telling me, ‘Okay, do it,’ or, ‘I want you to do it,’ I’m not gonna do it, because it’s not my band after all.”

Dino added: “So that’s the story of WHITESNAKE EXPERIENCE. That never happened. It never existed.”