Yungblud has spoken out about the criticism he received from The Darkness about his tribute to Ozzy Osbourne.
The British singer, real name Dominic Harrison, teamed up with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt to honour the late Prince Of Darkness at the 2025 VMAs in New York on September 7. While it drew an enthusiastic reaction from the crowd, including Ariana Grande, The Darkness’ Dan and Justin Hawkins did not appreciate the performance.
“Another nail in the coffin of rock n roll,” Dan wrote in Instagram, using pictures of Yungblud and Grande. “Cynical, nauseating and more importantly; shit.”
Justin Hawkins would justify his brother’s comments on YouTube, describing Yunglud’s performance as “posturing” and arguing that he “seems to have positioned himself as a natural heir to the Ozzy legacy, having nothing to do with the really important stuff.”
The pair’s comments drew backlash online, to which Justin Hawkins claimed he “intended to incite a feud”, and that “it’s OK to be a bit sceptical”. Yungblud had previously hit back at the comments, describing them as “bitter” and “jealous” during a conversation with Osbourne’s son Jack.
In an interview with Billboard published on Monday (December 15), he would add further thoughts on the situation. “The criticism at the VMAs was coming from people that were trying to be doormen at a party that they weren’t invited to,” he said. “That’s the harsh reality of it.”
He would describe the criticism as being part of the nature of making an impact as an artist. “If you don’t have that fear that you need to prove something, you’re not on the right path and journey” he explained. “If people are indifferent about you, then you’re not truly anything at all.”
Elsewhere in the interview, he discussed being nominated for a Grammy for his cover of ‘Changes’ at Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning concert in July, as well as its enduring popularity. “It’s the greatest honour you can have as a singer,” he said. “I dreamed of knowing Ozzy my whole life. I met him, got to know him, his family asked me to honour him, and then I lost him. The fact that [Ozzy] was the one that made the world take notice [of me]… it’s just so crazy.”
Recently, Yungblud revealed that Robbie Williams wrote him a profound letter at a moment “when it really needed to come”.
Dan Hawkins also 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”.
“We snuck in there as a rock ’n’ roll band,” he told us. “We might be the last men standing at this rate, because the genre has sort of evaporated. One thing I was always really sad about was that there weren’t more rock bands that followed us through that. We’ve managed to cling on like a bad smell. It’s ironic: we started out playing classic rock and now we literally are, because of how old we are!”
