“Ozzy forever, man”: Yungblud wore Ozzy Osbourne’s necklace during tribute performance at the VMAs last weekend

Yungblud wore one of Ozzy Osbourne’s necklaces while paying tribute to the late Black Sabbath singer at the MTV Video Music Awards last weekend.

At the ceremony – held at the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York on Sunday (September 7) – Yungblud joined Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt and former Sabbath keyboardist Adam Wakeman to perform Ozzy’s solo song Crazy Train and Sabbath’s Changes. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith then played Ozzy’s Mama, I’m Coming Home with the band.

In an interview with E! News held on the VMAs red carpet and published this morning (September 8), Yungblud reveals that he wore one of Ozzy’s cross-shaped necklaces while onstage, having developed a friendship with the Prince Of Darkness during the singer’s final years.

When asked by a reporter how he feels going into the VMAs performance, Yungblud holds up the necklace and says, “He’s here, he’s with me. I’ve got his cross on. Ozzy forever, man.”

He then talks about his relationship with Ozzy, with the singer having transitioned from inspiration to friend for the 28-year-old.

“I’ve had to navigate in the past couple of years, to get to know a hero of yours and then he passes away, right as you start to get to know each other as humans, was really hard,” he says. “But, like I said, I’m going to play this song [Changes] every night for the rest of my life and keep that guy’s legacy alive. He was everything for me, you know?”

Yungblud first sang Changes onstage during Back To The Beginning, Ozzy’s blockbuster farewell concert at Villa Park in his hometown of Birmingham on July 5. Yungblud’s performance – for which he was joined by Bettencourt, Wakeman, Anthrax bassist Frank Bello and Sleep Token drummer ‘II’ – was received as one of the standouts of the all-day extravaganza, with Metal Hammer writer Rich Hobson saying it “set Villa Park alight”.

Yungblud and Ozzy had collaborated prior to the event, as the Sabbath man and his wife/manager Sharon have cameos in the video for his 2022 single The Funeral. The video depicted the couple running over Yungblud in a car, with Ozzy asking, “Who was that?”, and Sharon responding, “Just some fucking poser.” Ozzy then replied, “Ah, run him over again, then.”

Ozzy died following a heart attack aged 76 on July 22, just 17 days after his retirement. Yungblud paid tribute via social media the same day, saying, “Your cross around my neck is the most precious thing I own.”

Yungblud released his fourth album, Idols, on June 20 via Locomotion and Capitol. In an interview with Louder’s Dave Everley, the musician called it a statement of “self-reclamation”.

”It’s a concept album about relinquishing your idols and finding the answers to your own life,” he explained. “You look at a photograph on a wall, you want to be that photograph. In my case, you end up as that photograph. But then you realise the photograph never had any answers, it’s me who had the answers all the time.”