Yungblud, I Think You Are Ready Boy

But for me, my adoration is maybe more innocent than some. I see him not as a sex object, though of course he is handsome; I am old but not blind. Rather, I see him as a growing child of the world pursuing his dreams with fervor and passion while fiercely protecting his childlike wonder of the world and encouraging all of us to do the same.

He makes me think of my children, who are glorious individuals who have not conformed or hidden their identity to be more palatable for others. He makes me think of my childhood, when I endured a time when safety depended on conformity and stifling my uniqueness until my dreams and creativity crumbled into dust.

Thankfully, today, I am the parent I have always needed. This has been a healing journey, five decades in the making, where I can now not only create but share my creations with the world. The criticism didn't change. My sensitivity to rejection hasn't disappeared, although I am becoming a person who can allow the world to think and say what it wants while still being genuinely me.

This man, though, Dominic Harrison, who is transparent and honest about his struggles with self-doubt, imposter syndrome, being bullied, and sleepless nights, seems to have mastered this journey in under three decades. He has done so as the entire world bears witness. Imagine your messiest healing being broadcast across the globe. Imagine sharing the reflections of your growth, and continued grow-ING, on a movie screen at only 27 years old.

He is leading our next generation through his imperfect, highly intuitive, and humble example. As a mother, whenever I see young humans putting themselves out there, I feel compelled to cheer them on. Famous author Glennon Doyle gives me a bit of comfort that I'm not totally insane when she says, "There is no such thing as other people's children."

“Being an artist is 80% bullshit and 20% seeing the face of God,” is one of the first lines in the opening scene of Yungblud, Are You Ready, Boy? These words grabbed me right off the bat.

As a sensitive, neurodivergent soul, 80% of my day is spent being wary of the world, weary, and exhausted from masking. Honestly, I am 50 and I am still wondering what the fuck I am going to be when I grow up.

Oh, but that 20%, when an experience of joy washes over me, maybe from finally getting the writing of that one sentiment exactly right or hearing music that moves me, or hanging with the most beautiful trees I’ve ever seen, or witnessing kindness and authenticity…that shit is the gold of life to me.

The way I interpreted Yungblud's choice of words for him, especially as the movie continued, is that the 20% is akin to the birthing of your purest, most personal imaginations. Your art is your precious baby. Then the dark 80% is the releasing of your baby to the world and feeling the impact of how people handle it. Whether people spew fake love and admiration in an attempt to ride the fame wave or they dump hatred and vitriol.

Look at any comments section of absolutely any feed on any platform and you see a lot of people will drop your baby to the pavement and give it a good roundhouse kick. They would do it in a heartbeat with not even a blink.

Those gut-punches can be so painful that we may begin to resort to hypervigilant mental gymnastics, where we start to beg the world to tell us what kind of baby we should make so that our next baby might face a kinder fate. We fold under the constant barrage of opinion, scrutiny, and people from every corner trying to convince us we should allow them to influence us rather than us being influential. We start the chase of approval and belonging through careful curation of persona, tucking away our truth and choking down our thoughts, dreams, and words.

It took Yungblud four years to complete the album Idols, which has now received accolades from rock legends such as Brian May and Ozzy Osborne. The entire recording is not only a fabulous listen with a breath of fresh air, but it has a classic rock air to it. It's strange because it feels brand new and vintage at the same time.

One online comment I shared about Hello, Heaven, Hello was that it felt like Queen, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, and Radiohead had a baby and I was all for it. That one comment along generated almost 1000 responses with 99% being in agreement. This is the rock album we all didn't know we needed.

So between the ages of 22-27 roughly he worked on bringing this highly personal project to life. A lot of life happens to us between those ages. Our frontal lobe fully develops, we are onto our careers and realizing we are full-time adults now. In that time, for me personally, I got married, graduated from college, got divorced and changed careers completely.

What I understand from his dialogue in the film, by the time this music was released it felt bigger than him. Self-doubt, a touch of imposter syndrome seemed to have set in. What he decided to do was re-record the album live to prove to himself that this was actually his music and he was capable of performing it all and performing it masterfully.

Taking it one step futher he hires acclaimed director Paul Dugdale who has filmed documentaries of Coldplay, Hans Zimmer and the Rolling Stones. Then he decides to hold the recording in Hansa Studios in Berlin where David Bowie, U2 and Depeche Mode have famously made tracks in. Yungblud was all in.

I won't even attempt to describe the music experience of the movie, it really has to be experienced. I listened to Idols on replay for over a week non-stop starting from the moment I walked out of the theatre. The rich context behind each song was not only human and authentic, it was uplifting and inspiring. People who meet Yungblud describe him as beeing very present and mindful with them. The movie highlighted his dedication to building community through genuine connection and not for being perfect, but for being a good human that treats people with real dignity.

The best lesson he shared, in my opinion, was one of homecoming. That no matter what you may get distracted with or pulled into, there is a deep feeling of home inside of us that will never steer us wrong. Home is who we are, what we believe, what we value, and who we share love and energy with. Idols feels like a homecoming, maybe that's why it feels so familiar to many of us, even though it's brand new.

The title of the movie, Are You Ready, Boy, is a question woven into his song Change. It is one he asked himself many times in the making of this album. There is always another growth journey ahead for any of us and all of us. But, seeing what I see in his vulnerability, deep curiosity of self and world, I would sa,y Yungblud, I think you are more than ready, boy. Thank you for letting us into your world.