Did You Know This Famous Heavy Metal Bassist Wrote One of Ozzy Osbourne’s Biggest Hits?

Ozzy Osbourne had a good year in 1991 with the release of his sixth studio record, No More Tears. The legendary song “Mama, I’m Coming Home” was released from that very album, as well as the Grammy-winning song “I Don’t Want To Change The World”. It’s no surprise that this album is one of Osbourne’s best-selling solo releases in the US.

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Let’s go back to “Mama, I’m Coming Home”, though. While this song isn’t the one that scored a Grammy Award, it’s definitely one of Osbourne’s most memorable songs, namely because of how emotional it is. There’s no heavy metal camp to be found here; just an emotional power ballad that has been traced back to Osbourne’s wife, Sharon. The titular lyrics “Mama, I’m coming home” are a reference to one of the nicknames Osbourne had for his wife.

And, oddly enough, he didn’t write those lyrics. While Osbourne (and Zakk Wylde) have songwriting credits on “Mama, I’m Coming Home”, the lyrics of the song were actually written by someone else.

The Lyrics of “Mama, I’m Coming Home” Were Written by Motörhead Frontman Lemmy Kilmister

If you’re not a diehard Ozzy or Lemmy fan, this factoid might just surprise you. The lyrics of Ozzy Osbourne’s famed power ballad were written by Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead.

According to Zakk Wylde, Osbourne came up with the melody of “Mama, I’m Coming Home” on the piano in the former’s apartment. Wylde then applied the melody to the guitar.

So, how did Lemmy get involved? According to lore, Lemmy met up with Osbourne in Japan. Osbourne admitted that he was struggling to write lyrics for the song. He gave Lemmy the demo, and Lemmy came back with the legendary song we know and love today. According to Lemmy, he only needed about two hours to write it.

While Lemmy wrote the lyrics, the words are very much inspired by Osbourne’s life at the time. Around the time the song was written, Osbourne realized that he would probably be dead if he hadn’t gotten sober. “Mama, I’m Coming Home” is an ode to Sharon for sticking with him despite his darker days.

Lemmy had somehow managed to capture the beautiful relationship between Ozzy and Sharon from outside the relationship in a way that only a true poet can.

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