Oh dear. Where do we start with Rod Stewart’s AI-generated ‘tribute’ to Ozzy Osbourne?
The 80-year-old singer is currently on tour in the States and has been dedicating his 1988 song Forever Young to the Black Sabbath frontman who sadly left us two weeks ago. Nothing unusual in that, of course – Oasis have been dedicating Rock N’ Roll Star to Ozzy at their gigs over the last week or so too.
Unfortunately, Forever Young has been accompanied on the big screens with AI-derived ‘footage’ of Osbourne posing for selfies with an array of other departed stars, including Bob Marley, Tina Turner, Prince, Freddie Mercury, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston and XXXTentacion.
(The latter, in case you were unaware, was a ‘cloud’ rapper who was murdered in 2018, aged just 20. It’s highly likely that Ozzy Osbourne, whilst living, had no idea of his existence.)
Anyway, the footage is in dubious taste. Not to mention that the notion that, well, if there’s a heaven all the dead pop stars residing up there are slapping each other’s backs and duetting with each other, is somewhat simple, verging on imbecilic.
And besides, would they have physical accoutrements such as selfie sticks and cameras in heaven? Clearly, Stewart’s team hadn’t thought that one through...
The video of Stewart’s ‘tribute’ has been viewed more than three million times on Twitter/X alone and has stirred up some controversy, as you can imagine. One user posted: “This is the craziest, most disrespectful sh** I ever saw in my LIFE.” Whilst another remarked: “I’ve seen some sh**y AI visuals in concerts but this is a new low.”
Not everyone hates it, mind you. One user asked: “Why on earth is this disrespectful??? Meeting with all those stars in Heaven is a good thing to wish!!! Stop being soooo sensitive!!!”
We’ll leave the last word to the person who said pithily: “There was I thinking his saying that we should give Nigel Farage a chance would be the worst thing ol’ Rod would do this summer.”
