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THE OZZY tribute segment at this year’s MTV VMAs seems to have sparked the beginning of a backlash against young British singer Yungblud, with The Darkness’ Hawkins brothers leading the charge.
At the gig, Yungblud teamed up with Aerosmith’s Toxic Twins – Steven Tyler and Joe Perry – and Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme for a mix of Ozzy classics: “Crazy Train”, “Mama, I’m Coming Home” and “Changes”. Yungblud even vowed to perform the staple Sabbath ballad live in show for the rest of his life.
The Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins wasn’t into the whole thing, sharing footage from the show and writing:
“What a bunch of bellends.
“Another nail in the coffin of rock ‘n’ roll. Cynical, nauseating, and, more importantly, shit.”
Taking things a step further, Dan accused the musicians of taking advantage of Ozzy’s death. He added: “Makes me sick how people jump on this shit to further their own careers.”
Following these remarks, Dan’s brother and The Darkness frontman, Justin, took to his YouTube channel to add fuel to the fire.
Asking whether it was necessary to call someone a “bellend,” Justin said he finds the word “poseur” more fitting.
“There has been some discussion this week regarding my brother’s comments on the Ozzy tribute and Yungblud at the VMAs. Was it really necessary to refer to anyone as a ‘Bellend’? Let me try to explain,” Justin said.
“The tribute to Ozzy extends to what he was doing on the red carpet. So the minute he got there, he was like ‘OK, this is for Ozzy.’ One difference though, Ozzy was fucking hilarious, he really was funny.
“I suppose one of the things that irks musicians of a certain age is to watch Ozzy invent heavy metal, then turn into this household name with the television series and his decades of being brilliant, and then you kind of think, ‘What the fuck does all those decades of having this incredible legacy got to do with Yungblud?’
“I feel like what irks musicians of a certain age is the fact that Yungblud seems to have positioned himself as a natural heir to the Ozzy legacy, having nothing to do with the really important stuff.
“All of this posturing is 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, you know? It’s the latest in a long line of – I’m sorry to say it – poseurs… For seven minutes, the world is looking at rock and this is what we’ve given them.”
Justin clarified that his remarks were directed at Yungblud, praising other musicians involved in the tribute, especially Nuno and his “the eighth to eighteenth wonders of the world” fingers.
Falling In Reverse frontman Ronnie Radke also recently mocked Yungbud in a social media post.
Justin Hawkins, meanwhile, concluded: “It’s like you’ve watched a movie about rock and metal, it’s like what a male stripper would do. It doesn’t ring authentic. It’s rock’n’roll, but not as we know it. It kind of has this Disney veneer over the top of it, like it’s rock’n’roll seen through an Instagram filter of some sort. That’s what makes it galling to the people who have tweeted their disdain.
“It’s actually like watching David Hasselhoff, who I think is one of the greats… So when I say that, it’s not actually an insult. I just mean that it’s like rock’n’roll done by somebody who, perhaps, was famous for driving a talking car and felt reassured by wearing little red shorts and looking after you at the beach. It’s like a television personality doing rock’n’roll.”
The official footage of the Ozzy tribute is available through MTV’s YouTube channel.
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