Having been cleared earlier in the year in another lawsuit concerning the supposedly suicide-inducing subject matter of his music,
Ozzy Osbourne reinvigorated his sound and expanded his following with his sixth studio album,
No More Tears, in the fall of 1991. Finding more sympathetic producers in
Duane Baron and
John Purdell to replace
Roy Thomas Baker (who had helmed his last effort, 1988's
No Rest for the Wicked), collaborating with
Lemmy Kilmister of
Motörhead on four songs, and retaining the services of guitarist
Zakk Wylde,
Osbourne brought his music into the '90s. Songs like "Desire" and "S.I.N." had an energetic, contemporary metal sound, and
Osbourne effectively changed gears to turn out gentle ballads like "Mama, I'm Coming Home," which gave him his first U.S. Top 40 hit on his own. Not cowed by his court cases, he wrote songs about child abuse ("Mr. Tinkertrain") and serial murder ("No More Tears") from the point of view of the criminals. But he also considered his own place in the general scheme of things in the tribute to the rock & roll lifestyle "Hellraiser" and the reflective "Road to Nowhere." It all made for an unusually broad range of material, and the album returned him to the Top Ten and multi-platinum status. ~ William Ruhlmann