Yungblud has hit back at critics of his music, saying that he’s made it his “mission” to get them “wearing a Yungblud t-shirt next year”.
The Doncaster singer-songwriter – real name Dominic Harrison – recently opened up to SPIN about being misunderstood as an artist. “To Exploited fans, I’m a fucking poser,” he said. “To fucking Ariana Grande fans, I’m scary.”
However, Harrison conceded that receiving such a polarising response is part and parcel of being an authentic, well-known musician: “Ask any great, true, rock and roll artist. They’ve been ridiculed. But this is real. You saw it last night. Everyone’s dressed like each other, but there’s a thousand cultures in a room. It’s fucking liberating.”
Elsewhere in the chat, he said: “One of the biggest misconceptions about Yungblud is that it’s fucking 15-year-old emo kids at the gig. It’s this beautiful array of diverse people.”
Harrison told the outlet that every major act’s success is a result of them “say[ing] something or perform[ing] like a God”.
“I’ve known Billie [Eilish] since she was in fucking dungarees,” he continued. “Billie’s known me since I broke my leg and I was driving around America in a wheelchair on my first tour [in 2018] in a fucking van, staying in Motel 6’s, getting ringworm.
“Don’t you fucking dare question my authenticity. ‘Cause I got to fucking put cream on. You know what I mean? My mission is to make those people slagging me off wearing a Yungblud t-shirt next year, because it’s not about telling them to fuck off. It’s about going, ‘Stop hating, get on the dance floor’.”
Yungblud’s comments come after he was recently hailed by Mick Jagger for bringing new “life” to contemporary rock music. “In rock music you need energy and there have not been a lot of new rock singers around. Now there are a few,” the Rolling Stones frontman said.
“You have Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly. That kind of post-punk vibe makes me think there is still a bit of life in rock and roll.”
Speaking to NME back in 2019, Yungblud namechecked Jagger while speaking about his ambition to achieve a similarly lengthy music career as the legendary Stones singer.
“I’m not arsed about being about for 10 minutes, have a hit song, get a fucking mansion, do too many drugs and kill myself,” Harrison explained. “I want to be doing this until I look like Mick Jagger. He’s still sexy as fuck!”
Yungblud also told NME at the time that he thought rock’n’roll was “very much alive” and had been “reinvented for a new generation” of fans.
Yungblud is expected to release his as-yet-untitled third studio album at some point this year. He shared the single ‘The Funeral’ in March, and is set to drop a new collaboration with Willow tomorrow (May 6).
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