During “Forever Young” performance, Black Sabbath singer shown taking selfies in heaven with Kurt Cobain, Freddie Mercury and, umm, XXXtentacion
What was meant to be Rod Stewart’s in-concert tribute to Ozzy Osbourne has instead been met with criticism and ridicule after video of the tribute — featuring AI images of Osbourne and other gone-too-soon artists — emerged on social media.
During Stewart’s last handful of concerts since Osbourne’s July 22 death, he has dedicated his song “Forever Young” to the Black Sabbath singer. However, what originally started as a normal tribute — with a simple image of Osbourne shown on the video screens — recently took a bizarre turn when “Forever Young” was accompanied by the AI Osbourne — in heaven with a selfie stick in hand — taking photos of himself with the likes of Freddie Mercury, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse.
In addition to the selfies with Prince, Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur, and Whitney Houston, the perpetrator of the insensitive AI video also strangely decided to have Osbourne take photos with controversial artists like Michael Jackson and XXXtentacion.
To add insult to the visual injury, Stewart told the Charlotte, North Carolina crowd following the “Forever Young” performance, “Very sad. A lot of those people died ’cause of drugs… I’m still here, though!,” the Charlotte Observer noted in their review of Stewart’s July 29 show.
Following news of Osbourne’s death, Stewart wrote on Instagram, “Bye, bye Ozzy. Sleep well, my friend. I’ll see you up there — later rather than sooner.”
