The country star, a proud heavy-metal fan, performed “Mama, I’m Coming Home” during an appearance on Howard Stern
Ozzy Osbourne was laid to rest on Wednesday during a funeral in his native Birmingham, England, giving fans one last chance to bid farewell to the heavy-metal pioneer. Osbourne died last week at the age of 76, sparking tributes from throughout the music world: Green Day played a snippet of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” onstage to thank Osbourne, Alice Cooper and his band sang Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” and artists from Pearl Jam to Metallica posted remembrances.
Carrie Underwood was also a fan of Osbourne, and of heavy metal music in general. The powerhouse country vocalist has talked often about her love of hard rock, performed with Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose numerous times, and covered songs by fellow umlaut bands Mötley Crüe and Motörhead in concert. She’s also been known to slay “Mama, I’m Comin’ Home,” Osbourne’s 1991 power ballad. In 2023, Underwood appeared on The Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM and delivered yet another version of the No More Tears standout. Backed by her full band, the Nashville star underscored the connection, both sonically and lyrically, between mainstream country and old-school metal.
It’s a connection that continues to this day. Earlier this summer, Dolly Parton joined Mötley Crüe on a new version of their own power ballad “Home Sweet Home,” which debuted at Number One on Mediabase’s Classic Rock chart. (She also delivered a video message to Osbourne during the July 5th farewell concert by Black Sabbath.)
Elsewhere, outlaw country singer Alex Williams released Space Brain, a collection of hair metal songs reinvented as stone-cold country music. Among the tracks? Osbourne’s “Flying High Again,” rendered on Space Brain as a duet with Cody Jinks, another former metalhead.
