The Darkness' guitarist Dan Hawkins has taken to social media to slam the recent Ozzy Osbourne tribute at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards.
The ceremony went down on Sunday night in New York (7 Sept), where Black Sabbath and Ozzy keyboardist Adam Wakeman teamed up with Yungblud, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt for a medley of Ozzy classics.
The group, led by Yungblud for majority of the performance, kicked things off with Crazy Train, before heading into Changes, and then into Mama I’m Coming Home, where Steven Tyler joined Yungblud on vocals.
While footage of pop star Ariana Grande’s jaw-on-the-floor reaction to the performance went viral online, Dan Hawkins was having none of it. The Darkness guitarist took to Instagram on Monday night, sharing a clip of the performance alongside Ariana’s stunned face - and then absolutely let rip.
“Another nail in the coffin of rock n roll,” he wrote. “Cynical, nauseating and more importantly; shit. Makes me sick how people jump on this shit to further their own careers.”
Dan originally posted the clip alongside the hashtag #WhatABunchOfC**ts, but later changed it to calling them 'bellends,' before turning comments off on the post. He later deleted the post entirely.
It’s unclear whether Dan was calling Yungblud, Aerosmith and co see-you-next-Tuesdays, or if the comment was directed at Ariana Grande’s reaction to the performance. Either way, shots were well and truly fired.
Dan’s comments aside, the MTV VMAs has had a lot of criticism over the years from the rock and metal community for overlooking heavier music and leaning on non-rock acts in the Rock category.
And this year’s Best Rock Award? That went to Coldplay for their ‘All My Love’ video, which to me, definitely feels like a stretch.
Personally, I think it was refreshing to see actual rock music - and a metal legend - being celebrated onstage at the awards. But hey - that's just my two cents.
