(Credits: YouTube / Tom Pallant)
Sat 11 October 2025 9:59, UK
The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins has admitted that he never intended to “incite a feud” with Yungblud after his comments on the star’s VMAs tribute to Ozzy Osbourne faced backlash.
In September, Yungblud honoured the late Black Sabbath frontman alongside Nuno Bettencourt, Joe Perry, and Steven Tyler, with a performance of Ozzy’s greatest hits. The Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins reacted to the tribute negatively, deeming it “another nail in the coffin of rock’n’rolla.”
Dan also described the display as “cynical, nauseating and, more importantly, shit”. He concluded by calling those involved “a bunch of bellends”.
His brother Justin, also a member of The Darkness, then took to his YouTube channel to add his thoughts. Among other things, he said, “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.”
After his comments originally received backlash, he retaliated in a video, stating, “I don’t think I criticised Yungblud’s spirit. I admire that as much as the next person. What I was saying was that it comes off like a TV personality doing rock.” However, he admitted that he found the performance “cringe”.
Now, he has weighed in again. In a new video on his Justin Hawkins Rides Again YouTube channel titled ‘Yungblud And The Cost of Having An Opinion’, Hawkins opened up about the online discourse, sharing: “There’s nothing feudy about it, especially when it comes to my reactions to the VMAs performance. None of that was intended to incite a feud.”
He turned his attention to Yungblud, sharing, “I think that Yungblud is a very well-connected and, as such, dangerous artist. He’s an individual who is not the sort of bear you’d go round poking.”
Hawkins was originally disdainful towards Yungblud’s alleged use of autotune during the tribute. He addressed this, saying, “But I think that when there’s real-time pitch correction happening and stuff like that, and the other observations I made about the overall delivery of it… you’re talking about somebody that came from musical theatre via Disney and is now being lauded as the future of rock. And if they have real-time pitch correction and that kind of background, I think it’s OK to be a bit skeptical about it.”
Referencing the backlash received, he added, “I know that’s not a very popular opinion but from the reaction community if you can’t say something negative about something that leaves you only one opinion available to you and that’s not how life works. Everybody’s allowed to say whatever they want.”
Hawkins finished by stressing he has no bad blood for the 27-year-old: “I’m not slagging him off because… I don’t even think I’m slagging it off actually. I think I’m making a point that if the future of rock requires real-time pitch correction in a live environment rock is pretty fucked, isn’t it?”
Related Topics
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.