Carrie Underwood reveals her Ozzy Osbourne fandom with this stunning cover

The country artist, a proud heavy metal enthusiast, played “Mama, I’m Coming Home” during an interview on Howard Stern.

Ozzy Osbourne was laid to rest on Wednesday during a funeral in his hometown of Birmingham, England, allowing fans one more chance to pay farewell to the heavy metal pioneer. Osbourne, 76, died last week, prompting condolences across the music world. Green Day performed a sample of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” onstage, Alice Cooper and his band sung Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” and bands ranging from Pearl Jam to Metallica tweeted remembrances.

Carrie Underwood was a fan of Osbourne and heavy metal music in general. The country singer is known for her love of heavy rock, having played with Axl Rose from Guns N’ Roses and covering songs by Mötley Crüe and Motörhead at concerts. She has also been known to perform “Mama, I’m Comin’ Home,” Osbourne’s 1991 power ballad. In 2023, Underwood sang “No More Tears” again on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show.” The Nashville diva, backed by her entire band, emphasised the sonically and lyrically similarity between mainstream country and old-school metal.

It’s a connection that lasts to this day. Earlier this summer, Dolly Parton collaborated with Mötley Crüe on a new version of classic power ballad “Home Sweet Home,” which debuted at number one on Mediabase’s Classic Rock chart. (She also sent a video message to Osbourne during Black Sabbath’s final concert on July 5th.)

Alex Williams, an outlaw country musician, has released Space Brain, a collection of hair metal tunes remade as stone-cold country music. Among the tracks? Ozzy Osbourne and Cody Jinks, a former metalhead, collaborated on the song “Flying High Again” for Space Brain.