I love Bowie and Freddie Mercury and I always wanted to be a photo on someone's wall, says Yungblud ahead of new album
The Doncaster-born rocker — real name Dominic Harrison — recalls: 'There was a video going round a couple of months ago about a fan crying, saying, 'You saved my life'.
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"I said to her, 'Darling, I've never met you. You saved your own life. Maybe music was the soundtrack, but it was you who did it all'.'
Speaking via video call, a svelte and healthy-looking Yungblud explains how the moment forced him to rethink the idea of hero worship.
'I called the album Idols because we all have these photographs on our walls — but why do we credit our emotional growth to people we've never even met, instead of to ourselves?' he says.
'I never met Bowie or Freddie Mercury, but I love them. I always wanted to be someone's photo on the wall — but that's all it is.'
Writing the album became a way to explore the feelings of influence and identity.
Best work yet
'When you're in your formative years, you're inspired by everything — musicians, your mum, your dad, a sports star. You absorb it all, churn it up inside you, and spit it out as something new.
"Something individual. That's what I wanted this album to be — a celebration of individuality.'
It's a typically chaotic afternoon when I'm finally connected to Yungblud, who's grinning from the back seat of a cab. 'I'm on my way to Paris,' he says in his unmistakable Yorkshire drawl.
'The album's blown up in France, so I've got to go give the French a bit of love.'
As we speak, he's weaving through queues at St Pancras International, waving and shouting 'Bonjour!' to fans who clock him mid-call. 'I'm always on me travels or something,' he says with a laugh. 'But I'm vibing.'
YUNGBLUD - teresa
Idols is Yungblud's best work yet — the first half of a double concept album he started writing four years ago, just after Weird! topped the album charts.
'I was dissuaded from doing Idols after Weird! because Weird! was so commercially successful,' he says. 'I went and worked with a load of songwriters — and when you do that, you've got seven people a week telling you what Yungblud should do next. I had to figure that out for myself.'
'I didn't want to make vapid songs that sound great on the radio. Yeah, we've got a couple of f**king radio bangers on this record, but I wanted to make one album that's a through line — classic and timeless.
"There's no gimmicks, man. None. This is me leaving everything on the table, showing the world what I can do.
"That's why I orchestrated everything. I did everything I could to make it as deep and five-dimensional — lyrically and musically — as I possibly could.'
I've had a strange relationship with the internet because the polarisation of people loving me so hard and hating me is not a stable ground to walk. You never know when you're about to step on a landmine.
Yungblud has always been open about the critics who've tried to tear him down.
'When you're 19, from the north, full of spunk, writing songs about hating Brexit, and you get way bigger than you ever expected, the mainstream starts making you insecure about things you didn't even know about yourself,' he says.
'I've had a strange relationship with the internet because the polarisation of people loving me so hard and hating me is not a stable ground to walk.
"You never know when you're about to step on a landmine.
"People have questioned my authenticity and I'm not going to lie, it did get to me. It would be easier to just bullsh*t everyone.'
That search for something real led him back home. Yungblud decamped to Leeds, just a few miles from where he grew up, to write and record Idols.
'I needed to go back north, to family,' he says. 'Because when you write a record with family, they don't give a f**k about hits, they don't give a fk about radio.
"All I want is the truth out here. My mum will tell me when I've been a dick.'
Epic rock opera
On his journey of reclaiming his self-belief, Yungblud wrote Hello Heaven, Hello, a nine-minute epic rock opera that opens Idols.
'It was the last song I wrote for the album,' he tells me. 'I needed this bridge between the past and now.
"It starts shy and unsure like 'Do you love me or do you hate me?' and then takes you on this journey of self-reclamation. It wasn't meant to be nine minutes long.'
Inspired by Britpop, Yungblud sees Idols as a celebration of British music.
'I've been all over the world and spent a lot of time in America, but for this album I needed to come home,' he says.
'I love British music, British art — and I'm so happy to be British. I don't think there's enough British music at the forefront of the British music industry right now, so I wanted to make a record that sounded unmistakably British.'
I love Irish music too — poets and lyricists like Thin Lizzy, Bob Geldof and Shane MacGowan.
He grew up on his dad's favourites — The Stone Roses, Cast, Oasis — while his grandad introduced him to Led Zeppelin, T. Rex and The Beatles.
'I found The Verve myself,' he adds. 'And I really lean on people like Richard Ashcroft — as well as Bowie and Bono, even though he's Irish. It's music from this side of the world.
"I love Irish music too — poets and lyricists like Thin Lizzy, Bob Geldof and Shane MacGowan.'
The hauntingly poignant Zombie is central to Idols — a powerful ballad inspired by the death of Yungblud's beloved grandma after her battle with alcoholism. Its equally moving video stars Hollywood actress Florence Pugh.
'Zombie came out because of my grandma,' he says. 'She passed from alcohol addiction, and it was one of the hardest things to watch.
"She was such a glamorous, beautiful woman who inspired me. Full of life. My grandma and grandad were the main characters in our family — and now they've both passed, Christmas ain't ever the same.'
'I wrote Zombie because watching someone you love silently suffer and deteriorate is devastating. The nurses who cared for her were amazing — a huge inspiration for the song.'
Pugh plays a nurse in the emotional video.
'I sent her a DM and asked, and she was into it,' he grins. 'When you've got one of those blue ticks, it does a lot.'
Night to remember
'I think the NHS is the single greatest asset we've got in this country, and I wanted to show that. It's a love letter to nurses and I needed a great British artist to tell the story with truth and authenticity. That was Florence.'
They wrapped the shoot with a night out to remember.
'We celebrated by necking ten pints of Guinness each at an Irish pub — with a sausage roll and a bag of chips. We didn't go to some Mayfair bar.'
Yungblud has openly discussed his struggles with anxiety and ADHD, and two years ago started boxing as a way to manage his mental health and body image issues.
'I needed to take control of my life as I had turned to alcohol and food — I was binging,' he reveals. 'I was doing anything to avoid having to face myself.
"When you're in the public eye, you become insecure about things you don't know about because someone has said it. Is that what people think of me?
'So, I got sober for eight months and started boxing. I worked on my relationship with food. I managed to find a sense of self-love and I have really found my confidence.
"It's so easy when you are a rockstar to be bored at 10 in the morning, so you crack open a beer.
"Or when you're on tour and walk into a dressing room where there's a bottle of whisky, a bottle of champagne and three bottles of wine.
"If you don't have anything to do, you open one and before you know it you've drunk half a bottle of whisky before you've gone on stage. It's a really easy thing to fall into.
'Now I can have a couple of pints on the weekend or with my Sunday dinner, but I can't go off the rails as I've got to get up in the morning for training.
I'm in a period of my life where I'm really enjoying exploring my masculinity. I'm enjoying saying to the world that I'm a f**king man.'
"I'll go out and get battered once a week, to blow off steam, but I can't do it more than that because of my boxing.'
Reflecting on where he's at right now, Yungblud says: 'I'm in a period of my life where I'm really enjoying exploring my masculinity. I'm enjoying saying to the world that I'm a f**king man.'
He adds: 'It's hard for young lads at the moment, especially with Andrew Tate's ideas floating about.
"We've got to look after them — teach them there's a compassionate, caring, emotional side to masculinity.
"If they fall through the cracks, it's going to be a dark generation.'
Emotionally, Yungblud is still drawn to one person, American musician and actor Jesse Jo Stark, who Yungblud confesses is the 'love of my life' but had to pause their relationship because of his personal struggles.
'I needed to go away and work on myself as a man, as I've been doing this job since I was 18 and needed to grow.
"We talk every Sunday. I really hope we can work it out as she's a queen, but we need to work on the foundations of the relationship before we jump back in.
"It's really hard to navigate this life when there are 10 million people in a relationship of two.'
I do things my way
Next weekend, Yungblud's very own one-day music festival returns to Milton Keynes Bowl.
Curated and headlined by the singer, Bludfest launched in 2024 as a protest against inflated ticket prices — he keeps tickets capped at £49.50 to stay affordable and inclusive.
'It's great because I get to do things my way,' he says. 'No one backed us at first.
"We had to bow our heads and tip our caps to all the promoters who didn't think it was going to work. I had to compromise a lot — but we still got 30,000 people to Milton Keynes.'
This year's show will feature a fresh setlist packed with new material.
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'I'm going to play Hello, Lovesick Lullaby, Zombie and probably Ghosts and Monday Murder from the new album.
"We're going to have fun with it. I'm bringing out some mates and we're going to celebrate.
"I'm so proud of Lola Young and how far she's come — she was at Bludfest last year,' says Yungblud.
'This year we've got Rachel Chinouriri playing, and I'm excited about her, too. There's so much music I love right now.
" Sam Fender — he's a new classic artist, someone who'll still be playing when he's 70. Same with Lewis Capaldi and Fontaines D.C. I love what the Fontaines are doing.
"They are really cool. And I'm a big fan of Amyl And The Sniffers. There's a new, exciting culture of rock music happening at the minute and I'm buzzing about it.'
Idols is out on June 20 and Bludfest takes place on Saturday, June 21 at The National Bowl in Milton Keynes.
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