The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins has criticised Yungblud once again, taking aim at his background in Disney, and said that “if the future of rock needs auto-tune to carry a song, then we are in trouble”.
The ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ hitmakers came to blows with the Doncaster rock star at the end of last year, when The Darkness’ Dan Hawkins hit out at the tribute to Ozzy Osbourne at the MTV VMAs, performed by Yungblud and Aerosmith.
Performing Osbourne’s solo classics ‘Crazy Train’ and ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’, as well as Black Sabbath‘s ‘Changes’ at the ceremony, the guitarist took to social media to call the artists a “bunch of bellends” and describe the slot as “another nail in the coffin of rock n roll”.
His brother, and the band’s frontman, Justin, then defended the comments, sharing on this YouTube channel that it “irks” him that “Yungblud seems to have positioned himself as a natural heir to the Ozzy legacy, having nothing to do with the really important stuff.”
He also described Yungblud’s on-stage presence as like “Jim Morrison meets the bloke from Stone Temple Pilots meets everybody else who’s ever owned a pair of leather trousers. It’s 101 School Of Rock stuff”.
Justin Hawkins has now reaffirmed his stance in a new interview with Classic Rock, and highlighted how Yungblud previously starred on the Disney Channel show The Lodge – playing an aspiring rockstar.
The show ran between 2016 and 2017, and looking at the momentum Yungblud is getting now in his current music career, Hawkins said: “If the future of rock comes from musical theatre and Disney, if this is Ozzy’s heir, we’re in trouble.”
He also shared that while he never looked to start a “spat” with his comments about Yungblud at the VMAs, he still stands with his criticism of the performance – particularly as it featured autotune.
“We said [it was a] ‘bit shit’ [because of the] auto-tune that was being run in real time,” he explained. “If the future of rock needs auto-tune to carry a song, then we are in trouble.”
The slot at the VMAs came before Yungblud and Aerosmith came together to share the collaborative EP ‘One More Time’, and shortly after Yungblud performed his Osbourne-approved version of the latter track at Black Sabbath’s final-ever show in July.
He later officially released the cover, and broke down in tears when performing it on tour in the US.
Addressing the comments from The Darkness back in October, the ‘Zombie’ singer said that he thought it was “the strangest thing” that he was getting backlash for trying to “honour one of the greatest rock stars that ever lived”. He also said that critics seemed “bitter” and “jealous” to him, and were “trying to insert themselves into a conversation to obtain some kind of relevancy”.
In December, he doubled down on the statements and added: “The criticism at the VMAs was coming from people that were trying to be doormen at a party that they weren’t invited to.”
Justin Hawkins has defended his critique of the VMAs set previously too, and said that “We can’t live in this culture where criticism is not allowed”.
“I don’t think I criticised Yungblud’s spirit. I admire that as much as the next person. What I was saying was that it comes off like a TV personality doing rock,” he outlined. “When I’ve done embarrassing things, people have called me out, and I appreciate that kind of guidance and criticism. That’s how you become a better artist.”
In other Darkness news, Dan Hawkins recently spoke to NME recently about the legacy of their hit 2003 Christmas song, their resurgence as an arena act, and how they feel like they are “one of the last proper rock ’n’ roll bands”.
As for Yungblud, the singer revealed that Robbie Williams wrote him a profound letter at a moment “when it really needed to come”, and recently teamed up with The Smashing Pumpkins for a rocked-up rendition of his hit ‘Zombie‘.
Last month, Sharon Osbourne spoke to Piers Morgan in one of her first interview’s since Osbourne’s death, and hinted that Yungblud may be booked to play the Prince of Darkness in an upcoming biopic.
When sharing that a “deal” that had been confirmed for a new film about the heavy metal pioneer, Sharon added that she was now going to “look for people to work on the movie”. When asked by Morgan if she was considering the Doncaster singer, she smiled and responded: “I’m not saying a word”.
