Sir Rod Stewart has faced fierce criticism after displaying an artificial intelligence-generated video during his American tour performances, intended as a memorial to recently deceased rock legend Ozzy Osbourne.
The 80-year-old singer’s concerts in Charlotte, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia featured the controversial footage whilst he performed his 1988 hit Forever Young.
Concert attendees and social media users have condemned the digital tribute as inappropriate and poorly judged.
The backlash emerged after audience members shared recordings of the AI visuals online, prompting widespread mockery and disapproval across various platforms.
The negative response has overshadowed what Stewart apparently intended as a heartfelt homage to the Black Sabbath frontman, who passed away on July 22 at 76 years old.
The controversial footage depicted Osbourne wielding a selfie stick whilst posing alongside computer-generated representations of numerous deceased entertainers.
The AI-created sequence showed the late rocker appearing to take photographs with musicians including Prince, Tina Turner, Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain, George Michael, Amy Winehouse, Freddie Mercury, Aaliyah and XXXTentacion.
The digital montage also featured hip-hop artists Tupac Shakur, pop icon Michael Jackson, and singer Whitney Houston amongst others.
These artificial images were projected onto massive screens behind Stewart during his dedication of Forever Young to Osbourne.
According to audience reports, Stewart concluded the tribute by stating: “Very sad. A lot of those people died ’cause of drugs… I’m still here, though!”
The footage has been traced to a TikTok account called Eternal Stars, which specialises in creating AI videos of deceased celebrities.
One attendee noted: “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 Stuart Puppeteering his face for this tacky.”
Social media platform X saw particularly harsh criticism. One user wrote: “We are truly in the end times,” whilst another observed: “I’ve seen some s***ty AI visuals in concerts but this is a new low.”
Critics highlighted the impersonal nature of the tribute, with one commenting: “This is bizarre for many reasons, not the least of which being the fact that Rod Stewart has performed with Ozzy Osbourne.
“Instead of blasting AI images of Ozzy in heaven, they could show this real & quite lovely picture of Rod Stewart with his arm around the actual Ozzy Osbourne.”
“So Rod Stewart has been on tour dedicating Forever Young to Ozzy and now he’s showing the AI generated video of him in heaven taking selfies with all these dead artists.” another wrote.
“Ooh that’s heinous!” another fumed, while one more added: “this is so f***ing disrespectful to all these artists.”
Some people thought the criticism was unnecessary though, with one writing: “I understand that some people might not like this, but I disagree.
“If I were a painter and created a picture of my beloved rock artists who passed away, along with Ozzy as a tribute, I don’t think that’s weird. Now that we have AI, why not make use of it?”
The timing of Stewart’s AI tribute has drawn particular criticism, coming merely days after Osbourne’s burial on July 31.
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Stewart had previously offered more conventional tributes, posting on Instagram on July 22: “Bye bye Ozzy. Sleep well, my friend. I’ll see you up there – later rather than sooner.”
During a July 26 performance in Mansfield, Massachusetts, Stewart dedicated Forever Young to Osbourne, telling the audience: “we lost a really, true legend this week in Ozzy… I knew his family very well.”
He added: “I’ll be with you soon… but not too soon,” before performing the song with colourful postcard-style images of his band members on screen.
The controversy emerged less than a month after Osbourne’s final public appearance with Black Sabbath, where bandmate Geezer Butler described him as “frail” but “thrilled” to perform one last time.
