Over the past few years, the British musician Yungblud has cultivated a classic rock-star image, collecting co-signs from originators like Ozzy Osbourne and Aerosmith and indulging in the kinds of tongue-out leather-pants poses that we don't see so often anymore. He has been a major-label artist for his entire career, at least since his time on the Disney Channel show The Lodge, so it's not exactly surprising that there's been a lot of "industry plant" chatter around him. It seems that those accusations have weighed heavily on Yungblud.
One prominent source of that industry-plant talk is past Yungblud collaborator Machine Gun Kelly. On his Fred Durst collab "Fix Ur Face" earlier this year, MGK took a shot at Yungblud: "Mickey Mouse kids turned rockstars/ Leaving private schools, tryna be outlaws." MGK talked more shit to Yungblud in an Instagram comment soon afterward: "you cancelled a tour because you couldn't sell tickets blamed it on mental health then got parazzi'd at Nobu the next day Pinocchio... shut the fuck up you silver spooned preachy wanker."
Last month, Yungblud headlined his own Bludfest festival in Hradec Králové, Czechia. During his set, he got visibly emotional, sobbing onstage and telling the crowd, "Lately, I have been so disconnected from everything. I have been trying my best to wake up every day. I have felt in pain a lot, and I don't know why, for a long time. But every time I find your faces, every time I find your eyes, every time I look at you, I know that I belong somewhere."
Last week, Yungblud posted a video of that moment on Instagram. In a long caption, he commented on the way that negative chatter has affected him:
Warning. Truth incoming. Please read the full caption.
Honestly, I’ve been debating whether or not I should post this clip because I don’t want it to feel disingenuous like I’m doing it for a reason like clicks or personal game but at the end of the day this is what happened and it’s genuine so I thought fuck it.
To be truthful. Recently, I’ve been really struggling and this moment is a byproduct of my body releasing the wave of emotion that has hit me in the past year that I’ve been unable to process. I’m not gonna lie to you when I got off this stage I felt elated but 20 minutes later when I was in the shower on my own I had a breakdown.
Being an artist in this day and age is so strange because everything moves so quickly. You never get to sit in what happens for more than a couple hours therefore you fail to navigate or process anything you feel both good or bad at all.
In the past 10 years I’ve been on a million different journeys tried a million different sounds trying to figure out who I am or what I can mean to the world everyday whilst the world shouts back.
The amount of hate and disbelief around me from strangers on the Internet or bitter musicians really weighs on my heart as all I’ve been trying to do for the past 10 years is spread love, build something I believe in and unify people in a safe space.
I should really say nothing about this because it would makes me seem cooler and like it isn’t affecting me but deep down but I don’t think that’s who I am or why we all connect to each other.
I read an article the yesterday morning that felt validating to me. It’s strange because the press don’t usually like to compliment me. Writers and influencers get more clicks out of negativity around me. I don’t complain about it because I think that’s just the space that I take up for them, that’s the kind of artist I am and that’s the way of the world.
This article said “Yungblud isn’t an industry plant. The Internet just missed the grind.” This made me feel happy. I think when things appear to happen so quickly and you get millions of eyes upon you that didn’t know you existed there two hours before of course it feels unbelievable, of course it feels disingenuous, of course it feels in authentic.
I think that’s why I’m so grateful to have all of you. We relish in a journey together that started nearly 10 years ago in 100 seater venue upstairs in Amsterdam. I think this is why I got so emotional when I saw 20,000 of you in a field in Czechia on a festival we started from scratch two years ago in the UK now it’s first International year.
We’ve been moving so fast that I haven’t really been able to process anything at all but in this moment my emotions got the better of me. I needed that. Thank you for providing a space that makes me feel safe enough where I could express myself truly. This community is created by us, for all of us.
I think the most beautiful thing about this festival is that WE built it. This place is a house that is ours. Here, I feel like I’m like standing in front of my girlfriend or my mother. I can’t hold it in. I can’t hold anything back. I can’t be “professional.” I can’t hide.
Right now, deep down, I know I need to do a bit of work on myself to process everything I’m feeling and attain the a strength I need to keep going at this pace as we move into another chapter together. I feel good about the next couple months before I hibernate and take the time to prioritise that work.
To all my beautiful community reading this I just want to let you know how lucky I feel to have you all. This day reminded me of why I do this and how special what we have is. I love you with all my heart and I am truly thankful. What an honour it is to spend this life with you.
If you are a journalist reading this, please don’t twist it. This is how I feel.
Yungblud's Instagram post got supportive comments from people like SZA, Anthrax's Scott Ian, Exodus' Gary Holt, and actors actors Alyssa Milano and Charisma Carpenter. But Yungblud is still having a hard time, apparently.
This weekend, Yungblud was supposed to play his first show since Bludfest at Calgary's Cowboys Music Festival. In a social media post last night, the festival announced that Yungblud's management had decided to pull him from the festival. Yungblud left a statement, saying, "I'm currently in a place where I'm working on myself and taking time off at home in the UK. I'm taking this extremely seriously and facing head on what's going on for the good of the long term."
Yungblud still has a few US shows coming up, including a stop at Lollapalooza in Chicago.
