Yungblud Fires Back at ‘Bitter And Jealous’ Critics Of His Ozzy Osbourne VMAs Tribute

Yungblud has responded to musicians who slammed his Ozzy Osbourne tribute at the VMAs, calling the backlash “bitter and jealous.”

Yungblud has spoken out against the musicians who criticized his tribute to Ozzy Osbourne during this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. The English artist joined Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, along with Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt, for an all-star performance honouring the late Black Sabbath frontman. The group played a medley of Ozzy’s classics including ‘Changes,’ ‘Mama I’m Coming Home,’ and ‘Crazy Train.’

While the performance was celebrated by many fans watching the broadcast, several musicians later took shots at Yungblud online. One of the most vocal critics was Dan Hawkins of The Darkness, who posted a clip of the performance on Instagram, writing, “Another nail in the coffin for rock’n’roll. Cynical, nauseating and more importantly, sh*t. Makes me sick how people jump on this sh*t to further their own careers.”

Yungblud addressed the backlash during an episode of Ozzy’s son Jack Osbourne’s Trying Not to Die podcast, saying he doesn’t let the negativity get to him. “The thing about hate is you will never see someone that’s bigger or more emotionally evolved than you talk shit on you,” he told Osbourne.

He continued: “You ain’t ever going to see f**king James Hetfield slag off a young rock star. Because he’s James f**king Hetfield. And they’re not going to see your dad slag off a f**king rock star because they don’t got anything to prove. They don’t need to insert themselves into a conversation because they’re emotionally evolved and they know what it takes to get somewhere.”

Yungblud went on to describe his detractors as “bitter and jealous,” arguing that they were the ones chasing relevance. “They are doing the things they say we are doing. They are trying to insert themselves into the conversation to obtain some kind of relevancy on the back of us honouring one of the greatest rock stars that ever lived.”

During the podcast, Jack Osbourne became emotional as he defended Yungblud’s connection to his father. “You were so much more involved, and we respected that you respected that. But these people didn’t fucking know. They don’t know the f**king story of it,” he said. “Dom meant something to my dad. My dad meant something to Dom.”

Osbourne also revealed that before the performance, he texted Yungblud an encouraging message that read: “F**king crush it.” Yungblud said he carried that sentiment with him onto the stage. “All I was trying to do was my best for your old man because he gave me such a gift.”