Yungblud has praised bands such as Fontaines D.C., Turnstile and Geese for helping to keep rock music alive.
The Doncaster singer-songwriter (aka Dom Harrison) made an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show on Monday (December 15). During the chat, host Stern said: “I’ve been feeling lately like rock is dead, and it makes me sad because I love rock ‘n’ roll music.”
READ MORE: Yungblud is ready to leave his idols behind
However, Harrison disagreed with this argument. “Rock music is so brilliant, it gets its flowers in hindsight because it’s such a sacred genre,” he responded. “Every dad says, ‘I don’t like that band, it sounds like… a band that they knew as a kid’.
“Every fucking dad says to his kid, ‘I don’t like that! That sounds like what I knew’. It always happens.
“The reason rock music is coming back at the minute… people always put so much pressure on one person bringing it back: ‘Who’s gonna save rock ‘n’ roll?’ That’s a load of bullshit, you know what I mean?”
He continued: “It’s spherical at the minute. In hardcore, you’ve got Knocked Loose and Turnstile; in punk you’ve got Amyl & The Sniffers and Lambrini Girls; in indie you’ve got Fontaines [D.C.] and Geese and Wunderhorse.”
Yungblud went on to explain how he wanted to “bring a sense of theatre and showmanship and adventure” to his new double album, ‘Idols’, “in a 2025 way”.
“It was a fucking risk, man. When we went in to play the first single – which is nine minutes [long] – to the label, they went fucking green. But we were in a place where we have a community, we have a culture, we have a fanbase that will go with us.
“I think it was mad to do, but to see the amount of people that have got behind it and loved it has been fucked up, you know?”
Yungblud then reflected on part one of ‘Idols’ being nominated for Best Rock Album at the Grammys 2026, where the single ‘Zombie’ is also up for Best Rock Song. “It’s just wild,” he told Stern.
The artist’s praise of current rock greats comes after he spoke out once again about the criticism he received from The Darkness about his tribute to Ozzy Osbourne at the MTV VMAs. Dan Hawkins called the performance “another nail in the coffin of rock n roll”, adding: “Cynical, nauseating and more importantly; shit.”
Yungblud said: “The criticism at the VMAs was coming from people that were trying to be doormen at a party that they weren’t invited to. That’s the harsh reality of it.”
He had previously hit back at the comments, describing them as “bitter” and “jealous” during a conversation with Osbourne’s son Jack.
The live cover of ‘Changes’ that Yungblud performed at Black Sabbath’s farewell ‘Back To The Beginning’ show is also nominated for Best Rock Performance at next year’s Grammys.
Meanwhile, Yungblud’s rock picks Turnstile and Geese appear in NME‘s 50 best albums of 2025 list with ‘Never Enough’ (Number Eight) and ‘Getting Killed’ (Number One), respectively. Lambrini Girls’ ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’ also features at Number 32.
Yungblud at Black Sabbath’s final show. CREDIT: Tom Pallant
Last year, Fontaines D.C.’s latest record ‘Romance’ was named the second-best album of 2024 – coming in behind Charli XCX‘s ‘Brat’. The Dublin band landed at Number 23 in the best songs of 2025 rundown with ‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’.
Turnstile and Geese feature on the latter list, too, as well as Yungblud’s own ‘Hello Heaven, Hello’ in the Number 32 spot. The latter entry reads: “Dominic Harrison’s dauntless nine-minute rock opera tightened his increasingly secure place at the head table of rock’n’roll.
“Gliding from strings-fuelled Britpop to sleazy Zeppelin flair, he’s never sounded so confident. Across this journey of “self-reclamation”, Harrison pivots from mainstream cult hero to one of Britain’s definitive rock stars.”
In October, Harrison revealed the music legends that would make up his all-time dream rock band line-up. Over the summer, he was joined on stage by Billy Idol for a collaborative rendition of ‘White Wedding’ at BludFest.
Yungblud released the first part of his double album ‘Idols’ in June, and it hit Number One in the UK. Speaking to NME this summer, he explained: “Part one is about the reclamation of yourself: ‘All you are is a self-fulfilling prophecy / A product of your own temptation’.
“Part two is the dark and downward spiral to the inevitable realisation that I’m not going to be here forever – who do I want to spend my life with? Mortality. Part two plummets you back down to earth, and it’s a little bit more cynical.”
In other news, Yungblud has announced some intimate “up close and personal” shows in London and Kingston for 2026.
The post Yungblud on why rock isn’t dead – thanks to Fontaines D.C., Turnstile and Geese appeared first on NME.
