Fans at Sir Rod Stewart’s latest gigs were left horrified after an AI video of Ozzy Osbourne meeting dead musicians in heaven was shown on screen.
The Prince of Darkness could be seen smiling as he held a selfie stick and posed with the likes of George Michael, Amy Winehouse, and Kurt Cobain.
It played as Sir Rod dedicated the track Forever Young to the late Black Sabbath legend, but many felt the AI video was too ‘tacky’ and simply too soon.
Osbourne died aged 76 on July 22 and was laid to rest on July 31, with a procession through his hometown of Birmingham.
Days later, on Saturday, August 2, the AI video was splashed across the screen in what one fan described as ‘man-made horrors beyond [their] comprehension.’
Using artificially generated footage of dead celebrities (and regular people) always proves contentious, but Sir Rod really angered fans with this move.
Sloane Steel, who was at the Alabama concert where the video was unveiled, called it ‘the craziest most disrespectful s**t I ever saw in my life’.
The comments on her Instagram post largely agreed with her, as playattentionnow replied: ‘Weekend at Bernie’s vibes. Prince didn’t even want his music on Spotify and changed his name to a Symbol to protect his intellectual property.
‘I’m 100% sure he wouldn’t have signed off on Rod Stewart puppeteering his face for this tacky 💩.’
Dietcokeconnoisseur added: ‘Omfg I was there too and was horrified by this 😂.’
‘Good idea: pay tribute to Ozzy and his friends in heaven,’ said theroseboy22. ‘Bad Idea: Making an AI-generated video with his dead friends/members.’
The (somewhat baffling) list included Prince, George Michael, Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Tina Turner, Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur, Aaliyah, Michael Jackson and XXXTentacion.
‘Those aren’t even Ozzy’s friends,’ criticised jenndependence. ‘I doubt he even knew most of those people. That’s part of what makes this so cringey, they just threw in any dead celebrity they could think of.
Even more bizarre, the video was seemingly taken from a TikTok account called Eternal Stars, the sole purpose of which is to make AI videos of dead people.
This wasn’t a tribute made by Sir Rod’s team, or footage taken from old Osbourne videos (of which there are plenty) or even a personal picture of the pair together.
It was made by a random TikTok AI generator with no personal touch at all, plastered on a screen by someone who called Osbourne his ‘friend’.
The resounding feeling from fans was that this was a huge misstep on a topic that is still incredibly raw for many people.
Many are still grieving the death of the icon who invented heavy metal, making Sir Rod’s surprising inclusion even more jarring.
Only days before, we all watched a heartbroken Sharon Osbourne weeping in her children’s arms as she stood at Black Sabbath Bridge to see the thousands of tributes left for her husband.
At the time of the Glastonbury Legend’s concert, it hadn’t even been a full month since Osbourne was last on stage himself for his farewell gig with Black Sabbath.
Described as ‘frail’ by bandmate Geezer Butler, he sat in a chair the entire gig, looking thrilled to perform one final time for the sea of fans.
That’s before we even dive into the morality of reanimating dead celebrities, often without their permission, to use their likeness for our own gain.
Shockingly, there are no requirements to gain permission to make AI deepfakes of people, so it’s unlikely the Osbournes were even aware of the original TikTok.
While Sir Rod may not have meant to offend fans, he clearly has. Maybe it’s best to quietly drop the AI and use some iconic Osbourne clips instead, at least then he’ll be authentically Ozzy.
Metro has reached out to Sir Rod Stewart’s reps for comment.
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