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EDITORS NOTE: Only 23 days left until Bonnaroo! Since 2016 Elizabeth Thorpe has been the exclusive Nashville.com Bonnaroo photographer. She’s an amazing live music photographer based in the state of Washington. Thorpe travels far and wide to see great shows and is giving us a sneak peek on what we can expect from Yungblud.
I saw Yungblud at WAMU Theater in Seattle on Friday, and it made me even more excited for his performance at Bonnaroo.
Yungblud has a true understanding of and appreciation for music history, having grown up in his father’s guitar shop in Doncaster in the north of England. He started releasing singles in 2017, with a self-titled EP in January 2018 and his first full album later that year.
He’s always incorporated different genres into his songs, with more of a hip-hop/punk style early on. The single “Lowlife” came between his early career and the rock god persona he now embodies, and it was one of the standouts in Seattle, along with the Nirvana-reminiscent “fleabag,” from 2021.
But the most emotional song of the night was his cover of Black Sabbath’s “Changes,” which he sang at Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning benefit show, the farewell to his mentor Ozzy Osbourne.
Yungblud has been a chart-topper in the UK for a long time, but that “Changes” cover was a turning point. It earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance, and, more importantly, even more respect from the rock royalty he has always admired. He’s collaborated with Aerosmith, Ozzy, and the Smashing Pumpkins, as well as many others from different genres including Avril Lavigne, Machine Gun Kelly, and Marshmello. A writing collaboration with Eddie Vedder is in the planning stages after they performed together in December.
I’ve never seen so many kids at a rock show with “my first concert” posters, as well as Ozzy fans and parents with their emo teenagers. “Changes” was the highlight of the show, as the crowd sang along and Yungblud got emotional. But the closer “Zombie” was also pure rock n roll power.
The bigger the stage, the better for Yungblud. He’s only 28, and if he’s not yet a household name in the U.S., he soon will be. Bonnaroo will love him.
Look for Yungblud at WHAT stage on Friday from 6:45pm to 7:45pm.
–Elizabeth Thorpe
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