Despite becoming one of the more wholesome characters in rock and roll when everyone saw him on The Osbournes, you couldn’t find anyone more sinister for parents to scream in terror of when they heard tunes like ‘Suicide Solution’ or ‘Crazy Train’ back in the day. But if you look at Osbourne’s track record, he had a lot more heartfelt moments in his career than most people are willing to admit.Sure, Black Sabbath have the imagery of upside-down crosses and more than a few songs that reference the occult, but never once did they actually claim to preach about those beliefs. If anything, they were there to warn people of the dangers of the world and maybe observe what happens when someone pushes themselves to the brink, and judging by songs like ‘Children of the Grave’, it’s not like they weren’t willing to dig a little bit deeper than the average sex-and-drugs tunes.

Even when ‘The Prince of Darkness’ started working on his solo records, there was already great material under his belt with Randy Rhoads. There were always going to be parents who immediately took a look at a song title like ‘Mr Crowley’ and forbid their children from even looking at Osbourne, but if they actually bothered to pick it up, ‘Goodbye to Romance’ is the kind of Beatles pastiche that no one would have ever guessed Osbourne had in him.And even if he had his fair share of moments in the 1980s that could be downright funny to look at today, getting Zakk Wylde in his band managed to give back a little bit of his edge. Wylde was far from the player that Rhoads was, but given how heavy his riffs could be on tracks like ‘Miracle Man’, he could practically take anything and turn it into one of the tastiest guitar parts you’ve ever heard.

But by the time of No More Tears, neither Wylde nor Osbourne scored the killing blow of the record. Osbourne was no stranger to working with outside songwriters at that point, but while Lemmy gave him a decent rocker called ‘Hellraiser’, the real tear-jerker came when listening to ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’.

No one expected a song this heartfelt to come out of Osbourne’s mouth, let alone be penned by the same guy who wrote ‘Ace of Spades’, but when Osbourne first heard it, he knew that there was nothing else on the record that even came close to it, saying, “It was the most amazing thing. I couldn’t have written it better myself, because it was just so perfectly me. He knew what I was trying to say perfectly. I could never be serious around him because we’d always have great fun. It was a true rock’n’roll lifestyle he lived, and I miss him terribly, you know.”It was a strange fit, but looking at the lyrics, this is the kind of tune that people like Osbourne always wish they could say to their families when they go out on the road. Since the album’s accompanying tour was intended as Osbourne’s farewell, hearing him talk about the time he’s spent away from his family and how he wants to find a way to be a better person is enough to stab people in the heart every single time they hear it.

And since this was one of the final songs Osbourne played as a solo artist at the ‘Back to the Beginning’ concerts, it’s almost poetic to see him take the stage, weeks away from his death, belting his way through the tune. He had devoted his life to rock and roll, and even if his time at home was fleeting, here’s hoping he finally feels at home on the other side with all of his fellow legends.