Yungblud received some harsh criticism for his tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne at the MTV Video Music Awards last month, specifically from brothers Dan and Justin Hawkins of The Darkness. In a new conversation with Jack Osbourne, the UK singer has responded to the naysayers.
At the VMAs, Yungblud sang a medley of Ozzy and Black Sabbath songs, including “Crazy Train,” “Changes,” and “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry joining him on the latter tune.
Shortly thereafter, Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins slammed the tribute, writing, “Another nail in the coffin of rock n roll. Cynical, nauseating and more importantly; shit. Makes me sick how people jump on this shit to further their own careers.”
His brother, Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins, followed up a couple days later by saying, “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.”
In a new episode of Jack Osbourne’s Trying Not to Die podcast, both Jack and Yungblud discussed the backlash, with Yungblud noting, “You will never see someone that’s bigger or more emotionally evolved than you talk shit on you. You ain’t ever going to see fucking [Metallica frontman] James Hetfield slag off a young rock star, because he’s James fucking Hetfield. They don’t need to insert themselves into a conversation, because they’re emotionally evolved and they know what it takes to get somewhere.”
Jack then defended Yungblud, referring to him by his real name, Dominic, remarking, “You were so much more involved. These people didn’t fucking know, they don’t know the fucking story of it, the things we know, and I was kind of like, ‘Fuck you, dude, Dom meant something to my dad, my dad meant something to Dom.’”
Yungblud then continued, “I think the strangest thing about that was all I was trying to do was my best for your old man, because he gave me such a gift.”
He then seemed to address the Hawkins brothers when he concluded, “When people try and intellectualize a sense of spirit and six musicians on a stage going ‘fucking love you man,’ it’s just bitter and jealous. They are doing the things they say we are doing. They’re trying to insert themselves into a conversation to obtain some kind of relevancy, on the back of us honoring one of the greatest rock stars that ever lived. And then they talk about authenticity and stuff like that. I just loved your dad.”
It all appears that Yungblud is getting the last laugh, as he recently announced a 2026 North American tour, and pre-sale tickets were selling like wildfire, with more than 100,000 people in the Ticketmaster queue for his Radio City Music Hall gig alone. A general on-sale just started today via Ticketmaster, with ticket to sold-out shows available via StubHub.
See Yungblud’s conversation with Jack Osbourne, as well as the singer’s 2026 tour dates, below.
