Ozzy Osbourne’s body is barely cold after his July 22 death, but he’s already being subjected to the off-putting AI resurrection trend by fellow musician and contemporary Rod Stewart.
In a now-viral video taken at the Alpharetta, Georgia stop of Stewart’s “One Last Time” tour on August 1, Stewart rolled AI-generated “footage” of the late Black Sabbath frontman smiling and using a selfie stick to snap photos with other deceased musicians, including Prince, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse, Tupac “2Pac” Shakur, and — perhaps most strangely — rapper Jahseh “XXXTentacion” Onfroy, who was accused of horrific violent crimes before his death in 2018.
While the 80-year-old Stewart belted his poppy cover of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young,” an audience member was heard narrating the video’s surprise guests, at one point hollering “no, not 2Pac!” as her fellow concert attendees rocked on.
Bruh what, Rod Stewart’s tour features an AI video of Ozzy Osbourne taking selfies with XXXTentacion, Kurt Cobain, 2Pac, and many other artists in heaven 😭
We truly are in the end timespic.twitter.com/UbaFnVh2Jt
— RileyTaugor 🏴 (@RileyTaugor) August 3, 2025
Originally posted to TikTok, the video made its way across social networks at lightning speed as fans and foes of AI slop alike heaped criticism on the ghoulish display. In an Instagram post of the same clip, the person who appears to have filmed the AI-generated monstrosity joked that they “witnessed man-made horrors beyond my comprehension,” in reference to a quote by inventor Nikola Tesla that has become a common meme.
Unfortunately, it does not appear that Stewart’s disrespectful slop-heaping was a one-time deal.
In a review of another stop of the Stewart tour, Charlotte Observer entertainment reporter Theodon Janes — who, in full disclosure, mentored this reporter many moons ago at her first-ever internship — noted that the video was also played during the concert he attended as well.
“Very sad. A lot of those people died ’cause of drugs,” the Scottish singer bemoaned of the late Osbourne and his heavenly compatriots. “I’m still here, though!”
Because there’s little information about the AI video besides where it was played, who was in it, and what Stewart sang and said while it was broadcast behind him on a massive screen, we know neither the clip’s origins nor why it was chosen for the tour at all. Reports do indicate, however, that prior to the appearance of this AI phantasmagoria, the “Maggie May” singer did show photos of Osbourne on stage following his death at age 76, and that he paid tribute to him in a heartfelt Instagram post as well.
We’ve reached out to Stewart’s publicist to ask what was up with the video and how it ended up being shown on the “One Last Time” tour, and we hope some guys — in this case, we at Futurism — will have “all the luck” of getting a response.
More on weird Ozzy tributes: You Can Now Buy a Sample of Ozzy Osbourne’s DNA in Twelve Easy Payments
