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We’re just up the street from his dad’s guitar shop, where he’s been coming since he was five. He’s energised, sipping sparkling water, occasionally fielding requests from his team, even if he admits he’s “fucking knackered”.
Fair enough, all things considered. In June last year, his fourth album Idols went to No 1, and 30,000 people attended Bludfest, the festival he curates. A month later, he played Black Sabbath’s farewell show, Back to the Beginning – his performance of Changes later earning him a Grammy. Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne – Harrison’s friend and mentor – died just 17 days later.
Yungblud and Ozzy Osbourne at Back to the Beginning. Image: Tom Pallant
It’s a loss he’s still processing. But this year’s looking big too. Days before a sold-out UK tour, he sits down with Big Issue to talk about what Ozzy’s legacy means for his music, his new London venue, and why he only goes on Instagram two days a week.
What was Back to the Beginning like? Were you nervous?
That was the biggest David-and-Goliath moment of my life. If you’re ever going to make a movie, that’s definitely a big scene in it. It was like Live Aid or some shit. I was the only artist under 30. Six generations of rock musicians, and I’m going out to honour the Boss, who I’ve loved since I was two years old. Before I even knew what music was, he was like Batman to me.
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I’m not an idiot, I read the internet, I know what some people think. But I had a conversation with a guy in New York, about 55, and he said: “I hated you before Back to the Beginning. Then you stood on stage, and I was like, oh my god, this kid has sung one of my favourite songs. He’s just an Ozzy fan, just like me.”
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What would you say to Ozzy if you could talk to him now?
Ozzy would say to me – and that’s what Sharon has said – go, fuck the world, and make what you want to make. Don’t be sidelined by the shit the internet says.
Jack [Ozzy’s son] told me that on the morning Ozzy passed, he was watching it [Yungblud’s performance of Changes]. That is just insane. That whole family – they’re just the greatest. For the amount of success and money that’s come their way, they are so fucking real.
With the Grammy he won for Changes in January. Image: Ariana Ruiz / PI via ZUMA Press Wire / Shutterstock
I was in the Bahamas when he died. No signal. Came out for a cig after a four-hour stint in the studio, picked up my phone to like 80 messages. I thought my mum or dad had died. Then someone came in and was like, “I’m so sorry to hear about Ozzy”. And I just knew. We wept for two hours.
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How do you go from loving someone your whole life – since I was two years old, this guy taught me how to speak, then I got into music and I templated my life around Bowie and Ozzy and Sid Vicious – and then he dies. How the fuck do you comprehend that?
What kind of music are you trying to make? Do you want to disrupt the conventional idea of rock?
I don’t want to be confined to: you must play Download [festival] because you play metal, you must play Reading because you’re a bit more pop. Fuck that. New artists aren’t thinking like that. I am here to destroy every boundary and every medium placed upon a young British musician.
The next album – it’s pulling from disco, it’s pulling from blues. It’s sexy, putting the roll back into it. Watch when I put it out, people will say ‘this ain’t rock’. I’m like – go all the way back. It is.
Yungblud hasn’t always had an easy ride with critics. He’s never had a hit single in the UK, and for a long time struggled to get booked at festivals or played on radio. Bludfest – the festival he launched himself, drawing 30,000 people in its first year and expanding to Czechia this summer – grew from that frustration.
Back to the Beginning. Image: Kazuyo Horie
You have a really dedicated fanbase. But you also provoke quite a visceral hostility in some people. How do you deal with that?
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I want to be loved. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. That’s why I started this. But what Ozzy and Sharon and that family helped me understand is – people don’t like Coca-Cola, people don’t like chicken tenders, people don’t like fish and chips, but those things are so themselves. I used to get eaten up by people saying my music’s shit. Now I love it. People love me or they fucking hate me. Any expression I’m invoking in people is the point of art.
Did you miss the UK when you were in the States?
I love the UK so much, but a lot of the UK press don’t like me. A lot of BRIT Awards don’t like me. A lot of bookers don’t like me. So I feel weird because I am so British. When you meet me, I’m a northern lad who has a cup of tea and fish and chips and walks the dogs, you know? It’s fucking hilarious but I’m like a quintessentially English fucking fella, yeah, with a new school ideology, you know. Dog-walking, bitter-drinking.
All you ever want is to be loved in your own country, but you almost have to go elsewhere for that to happen. Radio said no, labels said no, press said no. So I went to America, the Netherlands, Poland, Australia – and it was welcoming. But the people in my home country, that’s where it’s the biggest crowds. I love performing here.
Image: Tom Pallant
The West End’s Denmark Street has long been a centre of music history. Legends like Elton John, David Bowie and the Rolling Stones recorded at studios here.
But London’s independent music venues are under threat; 45 shut down in 2025 alone, victims of noise complaints and soaring business rates.
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Image: Tom Pallant
Last year, Yungblud opened a new venue on Denmark Street, along with a store and fan club on the street. You can get a £2 coffee and play pool on a table painted with leopard print. It’s where our interview is taking place.
Tell me about this street, and about your new venue here.
I grew up on this street. It’s like the pinnacle of music for me. Elton John met Bernie Taupin here, you’ve got the Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren. My old man has Hanks [guitar shop]. So I’ve been coming down here since I were, like, five years old. My uncles are still in there, so I go see them all the time.
It was all independent music shops. But then a property developer started to gentrify the area – coffee shops popping up everywhere, all that shit. Then Philip O’Ferrall [the executive behind the Denmark Street redevelopment] met me. Fair play – it takes people within corporate structures to have the bollocks to go, we’re gonna let a bunch of young fucking reprobates into this building.
We want people to come and have a place to belong, to exist and make friends. No judgement. A building in London where you ain’t gonna get judged. The dream is couches, cinema rooms, art rooms. A physical place where people can hang out.
Is London nightlife under threat?
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My vibe is it’s got to be Soho, because we can be fucking loud till four. When Soho was shit I was in Camden, then Shoreditch – now Shoreditch is becoming boring. So I’m enjoying being in Soho, going to Bar Italia, Ronnie Scott’s, the Toucan for a pint of Guinness. But I think that’s a byproduct of this hub that’s happening here. It always starts with music. Music is the essence of something that reflects culture.
In 2022, Yungblud became the youngest ever guest editor of Big Issue. The magazine has had a place in his life since his teens, when a vendor comforted him when he was crying in Soho about an injury he thought would end his career.
In a poem he wrote for the issue, he asked: “The big issue is endless / How do we solve the big issue? … we keep trying.”
You did our guest edit in 2022. Do you think the world has become more divided since then?
Objectively, on a public, global scale, they’ve got a lot more divided. But my vibe is – how do I make a difference? That was what I was questioning in the poem.
I look inward. I make my own world. I act local. Everything can be so daunting and scary, especially for a young person, because you feel like you’ve got to change the world. But if you’re so overwhelmed by the whole fucking spectrum you’re forgetting that, to change, you’ve got to put one foot in front of the other every fucking day, and then look back and go, holy shit, I just ran a mile. Do something local. Help at the fucking soup kitchen.
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What do you think the state of the UK is like right now?
The country is in complete disarray, and everyone’s so divided – no matter what side of the fence you’re on, everyone is very extreme right now. It’s sad the amount of division going on. I’ve been a Labour voter since I was old enough, and I’m just like, what the fuck is going on?
On the internet, no one has consequences for their words. You can create a fake account and spew crazy shit whenever you want.
I am ultra fucking liberal and progressive. But since the beginning of my career I have said I am not here to tell you what to think. You are entitled to make up your own mind.
What’s a big issue you’re worried about right now?
No one is present. We read 15 different opinions before we even have our breakfast. We get told who we should be, what to believe, who to vote for, before we’ve had a fucking second to walk out the street, feel the air in our face, taste the coffee.
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I do not go on Instagram. I go on Instagram two days a week. I’m not a hermit – but I don’t want to get fed bullshit opinions. We’re not supposed to be fed this much shit all day. It makes people stupid. Go to a museum. Because otherwise it’s like – oh shit, this guy’s gonna tell me about the Romans, and now this is who I should vote for, oh that’s the Labour Party, oh there’s the Tories, oh shit that’s Donald Trump, oh shit that’s fucking Michelle Obama. Within 10 fucking minutes I’ve been told 15 things about what to think.
Announcing Bludfest in Camden, 2024. Image: Cat Morley / SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire
Would you ban social media if you could?
Only go on it at lunchtime. Otherwise it’s gonna fry your fucking head. Slow down, put your feet in some fucking grass. For an hour a day enter the internet, it’s fun, it’s a dopamine hit, we’re all junkies to it. And then have dinner with your mum or your mate and talk about what you learned today. One of my best mates is a farmer. I think his political ideas are fucking shit. But we’re best mates.
What’s the one thing you’re looking forward to most this year?
Probably getting back on stage. It’s where everything makes sense.
Yungblud manager Tommas Arnby: ‘Every big act started in a small room somewhere’
The UK has a hugely impressive history of rock music – how can we ensure this legacy continues into the future?
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The key is intent and confidence in the genre, supporting the next generation of rock stars and empowering their evolution. The music industry needs to start taking rock seriously (again) and understand that it can work within a subculture as well as on a mainstream level. I think the genre became too self-entitled and stuck in the past but It’s time for new young rock artists to be supported and to shine, and we are already seeing it happen. There is some amazing new talent coming through! Rock feels exciting!!
Can artists take back control when it comes to ticket pricing?
Yes they can. In fact, artists and managers often have a lot more control over pricing than most people think but it is also important to take into account that touring has become much more expensive in recent years, which makes it hard for artists to sustain costs, even for some bigger tours.
Can artists also be instrumental in protecting independent music venues?
I think in order to truly make a difference in helping independent venues thrive, the live business, as well as artists and the public sector, need to work together. It starts by understanding how key independent promoters and venues are in helping the next generation of artists get off the ground and that every big act started in a small room somewhere.
How much of an artist being successful in 2026 is down to musical talent? How much is down to entrepreneurship, fan engagement and other things outside the music?
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Great talent and the ability to write amazing songs and perform them in a way that moves other people is absolutely still the most important driver of sustainable success. It’s funny how that is often forgotten about or gets overshadowed by other things such as driving fan engagement. If you can touch people through your music, you can build a community that sticks and the business opportunities are more likely to present themselves as a result. Then that can be built on in terms of further artist-driven projects, which will then be more sustainable and real. The most important thing in my experience, though, is never to take the relationship with your audience for granted and always find ways to over-deliver for them, starting by releasing more great music.
Last month Tommas Arnby was recognised as International Music Manager of the Year at the MUSEXPO & A&R Worldwide Awards Gala
Yungblud is currently on an arena tour. Idols II, featuring six new tracks, is available digitally and will be released physically on 15 May. Yungblud’s curated festival Bludfest takes place in Czechia on 27 June. Tickets are on sale now
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