Ozzy Osbourne tribute set for 2025 MTV VMAs with Aerosmith, Yungblud

WASHINGTON, DC: The 2025 MTV VMAs will pay tribute to legendary Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne with a performance by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, singer-songwriter Yungblud and Portuguese-American guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, according to Deadline.

Aerosmith is an American rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of lead vocalist Steven Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford.

They will take the stage Sunday to honour Osbourne with a medley of his greatest hits.

Yungblud, Tyler and Bettencourt were among the artists who joined Osbourne in his Back to the Beginning concert just weeks before his death. Osbournce died July 22 of a heart attack at the age of 76.

From 1969-79, Osbourne was the head-banging front man for the Birmingham, England-based Black Sabbath, which codified the bottom-heavy, churning sound and lyrical demonology that would course through dozens of metal bands to come. Though the group’s history was a chaotic one, characterised by monumental substance abuse and tumultuous in-fighting, its early albums survive as classics of the genre, as per Variety.

His popularity among metal fans was so immense that his wife and manager Sharon Osbourne built a touring festival, Ozzfest, around him; it became one of the biggest box office attractions of the ’90s and attracted a glittering lineup of support acts.

Osbourne garnered additional fame early in the new millennium as the addled paterfamilias of “The Osbournes,” an MTV reality series that focused its lens on the rock star’s home life.

With more than 120 million albums sold nationwide, Osbourne was a five-time Grammy winner, two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, both with Black Sabbath in 2006 and as a solo artist in 2024, with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Birmingham Walk of Stars, among other honours, reported Deadline.

Hosted by LL Cool J, the 2025 MTV VMAs will also feature performances by Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Post Malone, Doja Cat, Ricky Martin, who will be honoured with the VMAs Latin Icon Award, Busta Rhymes, who will receive the inaugural Rock the Bells Visionary Award and Mariah Carey, who will receive the Video Vanguard Award, reported Deadline.

The awards show will air live coast-to-coast from New York’s UBS Arena, airing Sunday, September 7. (ANI)