On October 19, 2024, Ozzy Osbourne will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a solo artist – joining an exclusive club of two-time inductees, 18 years after he first gained entry as a member of Black Sabbath.
To mark this momentous occasion, the brand new issue of Metal Hammer features a rundown of the Double O’s greatest songs as picked by his fellow musicians, from current Metallica (and former Ozzy) bassist Rob Trujillo and Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello to members of Slayer, Halestorm, Killswitch Engage and Green Lung.
We also collared Ozzy himself and asked him to pick his own favourite Ozzy Osbourne song. Given his iconic career with Sabbath and as a solo star, there are plenty he could have chosen, from 70s classics such as Paranoid, War Pigs and Iron Man to post-Sabs anthems like Crazy Train, Bark At The Moon or Shot In The Dark.
But the song he picked came from an album which steadied his career after a couple of less than stellar records and period of personal drama that saw him jailed for attempting to strangle his wife Sharon during a drunken blackout.
Released in September 1991, just one week before Nirvana’s Nevermind reshaped the musical landscape, Ozzy’s fifth solo album No More Tears proved to be one of the few albums released by a hard rock artist that weathered the storm of grunge, reaching the US Top 10 and going on to sell more than four million copies.
But rather than pick No More Tears’ iconic title track, Ozzy went with something completely different – a single that shows off his more introspective side.
“I’ve got a real soft spot for Mama, I’m Coming Home. I didn’t write the lyrics – Lemmy did – but I told him exactly what I wanted to say. But I tell you what, I don’t really have a personal favourite. People always ask what my favourite album I’ve done is – I don’t have one! They are records of fun, chaos or when I’ve been having a miserable fucking time. Each one is a reflection of me at the time.”
Mama, I’m Coming Home was released as the second single from No More Tears in late November 1991. It was one of two collaborations with Lemmy on the album, the other being the more raucous Hellraiser.
Speaking to Classic Rock in 2013, Lemmy recalled how he came up with the song’s lyrics. “I just wrote a song,” the late Motörhead mainman said. “He sent me a tape of the song with where he wanted the lyrics, and I think he gave me the title, but that was it. I’m good at that because that’s how I write our songs – I come up with a title and then write the song around it. Later, Ozzy and me were doing interviews in the same tent at this festival and this guy says, ‘The song Mama I’m Coming Home is the most personal thing you have written. Was it a big wrench?’ And Ozzy just goes, ‘He wrote it!’”
You can read the full list of the greatest Ozzy Osbourne songs as picked by the stars in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer, on sale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your doorstep.
