Yungblud has accused The Darkness of “trying to be doormen at a party that they weren’t invited to”.
The 28-year-old singer has reacted to the I Believe In A Thing Called Love brothers Justin and Dan Hawkins’ criticism of his MTV Video Music Awards tribute to late hero Ozzy Osbourne in August.
At the request of the late Paranoid hitmaker’s family, Yungblud joined Aerosmith duo Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt, to perform a tribute to Ozzy.
The I Think I’m Okay singer told Billboard: “The criticism at the VMAs was coming from people that were trying to be doormen at a party that they weren’t invited to.
“That’s the harsh reality of it.”
He argued that facing adversity and provoking a reaction – like Steven and Ozzy have – is better than people being “indifferent”.
He added: “If you don’t have that fear that you need to prove something, you’re not on the right path and journey.
“If people are indifferent about you, then you’re not truly anything at all.”
Yungblud – whose real name is Dominic Harrison – previously slammed “bitter and jealous” rock star critics of the performance, after the siblings took aim.
Darkness guitarist Dan originally branded it “another nail in the coffin of rock n roll”, while his sibling said on his Justin Hawkins Rides Again YouTube channel: “Yungblud seems to have positioned himself as a natural heir to the Ozzy legacy, having nothing to do with the really important stuff.”
Jack Osbourne later told Yungblud that “these people didn’t f****** know” how involved he was in Ozzy’s life.
He added on the Trying Not To Die podcast: “They don’t know the fucking story of it, the things we know, and I was kind of like, ‘F*** you dude’.
“Dom meant something to my dad, my dad meant something to Dom. I texted you the night of the gig and I said, ‘F****** crush it.’ ”
Justin has since insisted he never “intended to incite a feud” with Yungblud.
Taking to his YouTube channel in October, he continued: “I think that when there’s real-time pitch correction happening [referring to his criticism of Harrison’s use of autotune] and stuff like that, and the other observations I made about the overall delivery of it… you’re talking about somebody that came from musical theatre via Disney and is now being lauded as the future of rock.
“And if they have real-time pitch correction and that kind of background, I think it’s OK to be a bit skeptical about it.
“I know that’s not a very popular opinion but from the reaction community if you can’t say something negative about something that leaves you only one opinion available to you and that’s not how life works. Everybody’s allowed to say whatever they want.”
