“Shockwaves hit the stage as Carrie Underwood stuns the world, honoring Ozzy Osbourne with a ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’ cover that left everyone breathless! ‘No one saw this coming!’ fans screamed. Chills, tears, and jaw-dropping vocals—music history just changed forever. The crowd will never forget this moment!”

Carrie Underwood delivers a powerful tribute performance of “Mama, I’m Coming Home” with raw emotion on The Howard Stern Show.

Carrie Underwood gave Ozzy Osbourne the kind of tribute that hits like a freight train but lands like a prayer.

In May 2023, during a stop on The Howard Stern Show, Carrie Underwood pulled out one of the most unexpected covers of her career and somehow made it sound like it always belonged to her. “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” Ozzy’s 1991 power ballad, already hits hard on its own. But when Underwood took the mic, she didn’t just sing it. She stripped it back to its bones and rebuilt it as a haunting country confession.

For those unfamiliar with the original, this wasn’t one of Ozzy’s bat-biting, devil-horn-throwing anthems. It was softer, but in a way that cut even deeper. Written with Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister and guitarist Zakk Wylde, the song is a gritty love letter about weariness and needing shelter after a life lived on the edge. The Prince of Darkness showing his most human side. Carrie found a way to make it even more personal.

She didn’t try to out-metal the metalhead. Instead, she leaned into what she does best by laying it all out there with a voice that could break glass and hearts in the same breath. The a cappella ending alone felt like it froze time. One fan said it gave them chills. Another admitted to tearing up. Even the diehard rock crowd couldn’t deny the weight of it.

This wasn’t just some off-the-cuff performance. Carrie’s been open for years about her rebellious teenage phase blasting Ozzy in the house while her mom tried to shut it down. She told Stern that her mom thought the music was too dark, but she always believed there was more to it than that. “There’s a lot of love in these songs if you actually listen to them,” she said. And that’s exactly what she brought out in her version.