Earlier this week, The Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins went viral after slamming the tribute to Ozzy Osbourne at MTV’s Video Music Awards show in Los Angeles.
The performance featured Yungblud, Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, Black Sabbath keyboardist Adam Wakeman and band performing Ozzy’s Crazy Train and Sabbath’s Changes, before the Aerosmith duo of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry joined the action for Mama, I’m Coming Home.
In an Instagram post, Hawkins called the medley “Another nail in the coffin of rock’n’roll” before going on to describe the tribute as “cynical, nauseating and, more importantly, shit” and the performers “a bunch of bellends.”
Now, older brother Justin Hawkins has weighed in, on the latest episode of his excellent Justin Hawkins Rides Again podcast.
“There has been some discussion this week regarding my brother’s comments on the Ozzy tribute and Yungblud at the VMAs,” says Hawkins. “Was it really necessary to refer to anyone as a ‘Bellend’? Let me try to explain.”
In the episode, a shirtless Hawkins discusses Yungblud’s clothing and performance, and questions his positioning as Ozzy’s anointed heir.
“The tribute to Ozzy extends to what he was doing on the red carpet,” says Hawkins. “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.”
After going on to praise Nuno Bettencourt, calling his fingers “the eighth to eighteenth wonders of the world”, Hawkins returns to the subject of Yungblud.
“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 Darkness are currently on tour in Canada, with a short run of US dates scheduled next week. They arrive in Europe at the end of the month. Full dates below.
The Darkness Dreams on Toast Tour 2025
Sep 12: Toronto Phoenix Concert Theatre, Canada
Sep 13: Kitchener Elements, Canada
Sep 14: Montréal Club Soda, Canada
Sep 16: Indianapolis Egyptian Room at Old National Centre, IN
Sep 17: Detroit Saint Andrew’s Hall, MI
Sep 19: Minneapolis Varsity Theater, MN
Sep 20: Milwaukee The Rave/Eagles Club, WI
Sep 21: Cleveland Agora Theatre and Ballroom, OH
Sep 30: Bruxelles Ancienne Belgique, Belgium
Oct 02: Tilburg Escape Room 013, Netherlands
Oct 03: Hamburg Steinway & Sons Fabrik, Germany
Oct 04: København Poolen, Denmark
Oct 06: Oslo Rockefeller Music Hall, Norway
Oct 07: Johanneshov Fållan, Sweden
Oct 10: Berlin Metropol, Germany
Oct 11: Bratislava Majestic Music Club, Slovakia
Oct 13: Zurich Komplex, Switzerland
Oct 14: München Backstage, Germany
Oct 16: Milan Alcatraz, Italy
Oct 17: Ciampino Orion Live Club, Italy
Oct 18: Nonantola Vox Club, Italy
Oct 21: Barcelona Sala Apolo, Spain
Oct 22: Madrid Sala Riviera, Spain
Oct 24: Lisboa Cineteatro Capitólio, Portugal
Oct 26: Bilbao Santana 27, Spain
Oct 28: Luxembourg City den Atelier, Luxembourg
Oct 29: Paris Élysée Montmartre, France
Oct 30: Köln Live Music Hall, Germany
Nov 07: Houston Warehouse Live Midtown, TX
Nov 08: Austin Emo’s, TX
Nov 09: Dallas The Echo Lounge & Music Hall, TX
Nov 12: Los Angeles The Wiltern, CA
Nov 13: San Francisco The Fillmore, CA
Nov 15: Boise Knitting Factory Concert House, ID
Nov 17: Portland Revolution Hall, OR
Nov 18: Vancouver Commodore Ballroom, Canada
Nov 19: Seattle The Showbox, WA
Nov 21: Salt Lake City The Depot, UT
Nov 22: Denver Summit Music Hall, CO
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