{"id":54800,"date":"2025-09-10T08:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T08:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/54800\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T08:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T08:51:10","slug":"the-darkness-dan-hawkins-blasts-vmas-ozzy-osbourne-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/54800\/","title":{"rendered":"The Darkness&#8217; Dan Hawkins Blasts VMAs Ozzy Osbourne Tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins has slammed the <a href=\"https:\/\/au.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/2025-vmas-ozzy-osbourne-tribute-steven-tyler-yungblud-83187\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">VMAs tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The awards ceremony paid tribute to the Black Sabbath legend with a set featuring Aerosmith\u2019s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry alongside Yungblud and\u00a0Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt.<\/p>\n<p>Ozzy\u2019s family, including son Jack, introduced the tribute set with a heartfelt video introduction, but not everyone was impressed.<\/p>\n<p>Over a clip of Yungblud and Tyler duetting \u201cMama, I\u2019m Coming Home\u201d, along with a video of pop star Ariana Grande\u2019s overwhelmed reaction to the performance, Hawkins wrote, \u201cWhat a bunch of bellends,\u201d adding the following caption:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnother nail in the coffin of rock n roll. Cynical, nauseating and more importantly; shit. Makes me sick how people jump on this shit to further their own careers. #whatabunchofcunts\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DOVKDC5CKt4\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\"\/>\n<p>Yungblud, Bettencourt, and Tyler were all among the artists who took part in Ozzy\u2019s \u2018Back to the Beginning\u2019 farewell concert just weeks before his July 22nd death; Yungblud performed the Black Sabbath ballad \u201cChanges\u201d, while Bettencourt was featured in the backing band dubbed Tom Morello\u2019s All-Stars. Tyler sang lead vocals of songs by Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, but no Ozzy-fronted tracks at the Birmingham gig.<\/p>\n<p>The Darkness, meanwhile,\u00a0are <a href=\"https:\/\/au.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/the-darkness-australia-new-zealand-tour-tickets-80258\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">returning to Australia and New Zealand<\/a> in February 2026 for a 12-date tour.<\/p>\n<p>The tour kicks off in Auckland on Tuesday, February 17th, and wraps up in Melbourne on Saturday, March 7th. Along the way, the UK rock band will perform in major cities including Wellington, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Wollongong, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, Fremantle, and Frankston (see full dates below).<\/p>\n<p><b>The Darkness Australia &amp; New Zealand Tour 2026<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\" style=\"text-align: center;\">Presented by SBM Presents<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For tickets and more info, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/morsecodepr.us7.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=7b1c6b6a750020944eaf07501&amp;id=72ace0900e&amp;e=5da9b9ef40\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" aria-description=\"https:\/\/morsecodepr.us7.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=7b1c6b6a750020944eaf07501&amp;id=72ace0900e&amp;e=5da9b9ef40\" target=\"_blank\">SBM Presents<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Tuesday, February 17th<\/b><br \/>Powerstation, Auckland, NZ<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Wednesday, February 18th<\/b><br \/>Meow Nui, Wellington, NZ<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Friday, February 20th<\/b><br \/>The Tivoli, Brisbane, QLD<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Saturday, February 21st<\/b><br \/>Miami Marketta, Gold Coast, QLD<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Sunday, February 22nd<\/b><br \/>Bar On The Hill, Newcastle, NSW<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Wednesday, February 25th<\/b><br \/>Waves, Wollongong, NSW<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Friday, February 27th<\/b><br \/>Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Saturday, February 28th<\/b><br \/>Hindley Street, Adelaide, SA<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Sunday, March 1st<\/b><br \/>Odeon, Hobart, TAS<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Wednesday, March 4th<\/b><br \/>Metropolis, Fremantle, WA<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Friday, March 6th<\/b><br \/>Pier Bandroom, Frankston, VIC<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Saturday, March 7th<\/b><br \/>Forum, Melbourne, VIC<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins has slammed the VMAs tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne. The awards ceremony&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[39220,39218,18,117,19,17,36342,2944,337,38898,39802,5204,36343,39219,39803,1247,36344],"class_list":{"0":"post-54800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-aerosmith","9":"tag-dan-hawkins","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-joe-perry","15":"tag-mtv-vmas","16":"tag-music","17":"tag-nuno-bettencourt","18":"tag-ozzy-osbourne-vmas","19":"tag-ozzy-osbourne","20":"tag-steven-tyler","21":"tag-the-darkness","22":"tag-the-darkness-australia","23":"tag-vmas","24":"tag-yungblud"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}