YUNGBLUD appeared on ‘The Howard Stern Show‘ this week, roughly a month after scrapping his 2025 touring slate due to health concerns. During his time on the show, the multi-platinum alternative rocker took part in an interview and performances of his song “Zombie” and his GRAMMY Award-nominated cover of Black Sabbath‘s “Changes“ and more.
YUNGBLUD‘s live take on that latter 1972 track from this year’s ‘Back To The Beginning‘ sendoff for Ozzy Osbourne & Black Sabbath is currently up for the ‘Best Rock Performance’ at next year’s GRAMMYS. That performance saw YUNGBLUD flanked by Anthrax bassist Frank Bello, Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, Sleep Token drummer II and Adam Wakeman (Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath) on keys.
YUNGBLUD became a protégé of the Osbourne clan in recent years, having been taken under the wing of Ozzy and Sharon in a sense after working together back in 2022. During this appearance on ‘The Howard Stern Show‘, YUNGBLUD relayed that Ozzy himself urged him to put out the aforementioned live cover as a single, after personally being blown away by it. YUNGBLUD stated of Ozzy‘s encouragement [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“He sent me a text message, he was like, “Hey — in multiple capital letters — have you f*ckin’ seen the reviews of your cover of ‘Changes‘? You gotta f*ckin’ put it out man. Don’t read [the reviews,] they’ll make your f*ckin’ head big. Much love, here when ya need me, Oz.'”
During his discussion with Stern, YUNGBLUD also presented an argument that rock isn’t dead. While that belief was perhaps most infamously uttered by KISS‘ Gene Simmons, he’s not the only one to have voiced their concerns regarding the genre’s fall from mainstream popularity in recent years.
YUNGBLUD‘s thoughts on the matter came in response to Stern offering up, “I’ve been feeling lately like rock is dead, ya know? And it makes me sad because I love rock n’ roll music.” YUNGBLUD pushed back, offering:
“Rock music is so brilliant, it gets its flowers in hindsight, because it’s such a sacred genre that every dad says, ‘I don’t like that band. It sounds like a band that they knew as a kid.’ Like every f*cking dad says to his kid, ‘I don’t like that. That sounds like what I knew.’ …It always happens. The reason why rock music’s coming back at the minute, people always put so much pressure on one person bringing it back. ‘Who’s going to save rock and roll?’ That’s a load of bullsh*t, you know what I mean? I think with it all, it’s spherical at the minute.
Hardcore: you’ve got Knocked Loose and Turnstile. In punk, you’ve got Amyl And The Sniffers and Lambrini Girls. In Indie, you got Fontaines D.C. and Geese and Wunderhorse. And what I really wanted to do on this album was was to bring a sense of theater, and showmanship, and adventure, and 9-minute songs back in a 2025 way. And it was a f*cking risk, man…”
While rock and metal may still pale in the shadow of the current chart dominance of pop, Latin music and hip-hop on the charts, 2025 was still a banner year for the genre. Both Sleep Token and Ghost managed to top the Billboard 200 with their respective latest albums, while the likes of Deftones and Turnstile also continue to experience success both on the charts and at their ever-expanding live shows.
