The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins never “intended to incite a feud” with Yungblud: “It’s OK to be a bit skeptical”

The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins has clarified his comments about Yungblud‘s authenticity as a rock star, saying he never “intended to incite a feud” and emphasised that “it’s OK to be a bit sceptical.”

The fracas began after the band’s guitarist Dan Hawkins called the artist – real name Dom Harrison’s – performance paying tribute to Ozzy Osbourne with Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt at the MTV VMAs “another nail in the coffin of rock n roll”. He also called Harrison, as well as his fellow performers “a bunch of bellends”.

Justin Hawkins  would later expand on Dan’s comments on his YouTube channel, describing the performance as “rock n’ roll seen through an Instagram filter of some sort” and adding: “Yungblud seems to have positioned himself as a natural heir to the Ozzy legacy, having nothing to do with the really important stuff.”

In response, Harrison described his critics as “bitter and jealous”, explaining: “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 honouring one of the greatest rock stars that ever lived – and then they talk about authenticity and stuff like that.”

Hawkins has now posted a video through his YouTube channel Justin Hawkins Rides Again titled ‘Yungblud And The Cost of Having An Opinion’. In it, he admitted that he was surprised when it was suggested to him in an interview that he and Harrison were ‘feuding’ because, by running a reaction channel, he is giving his opinion on a performance.

“There’s nothing ‘feudy about it,” he said, “especially when it comes to my reactions to the VMAs performance. None of that was intended to incite a feud. 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.

“But I think that when there’s real-time pitch correction happening [referring to his criticism of Harrison’s use of autotune] 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.”

He continued: “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 then cuts to Harrison’s interview on Jack Osbourne’s podcast when he talks about the comments.

“I’m not slagging him off because… I don’t even think I’m slagging it off actually,” he continued. “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?”

Earlier this summer, the singer announced he will be embarking on a one-man tour for his podcast, which will take place in the UK next year. Get your tickets to the ‘Justin Hawkins Rides Again… Again!’ tour here.

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