Ozzy’s No More Tears is Getting an Expanded 30th Anniversary Edition

Ozzy Osbourne’s 1991 classic, No More Tears, will get a super-duper-extra-special-limited-edition thirtieth anniversary reissue in September. Kinda like what Metallica are doing with The Black Album, only it won’t be 78,000 discs long and, fingers crossed, there won’t be near-daily reminders that it’s coming out.

Specifically, More Tears (which, tragically, is not the official title of the reissue) will come out on September 17… which actually is the thirtieth anniversary of No More Tears‘ original release. So that worked out pretty well.

No More Tears, I shouldn’t have to tell you, was a massive hit when it was first released. It debuted #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, spawned four top ten singles on the Billboard Rock Tracks chart (“Mama, I’m Coming Home,” “Road To Nowhere,” “Time After Time,” and the title track), and ultimately went 4x platinum.

Says Ozzy of No More Tears:

“I have a lot of great memories of making the album. We worked hard on the record with John Purdell and Duane Baron, who became extra two members of the band. Before we went into the studio, we discussed what we were going to do–everything was planned. It’s so nice when you get a producer who’s more like a part of the band than them saying, ’nah, you do it this way.’ Because we write them and when you write the songs, you have a mental picture of how you think you want it to sound. Sometimes you’re surprised for the better, but other times you’re disappointed, but John and Duane did an extraordinary job on the album. It was really, really well done. Every song was worked on for a long time and we spent extra time trying to get things right. But there was also lots of goofing around and we had a good time making it. And Zakk’s playing on it is spectacular.”

Elaborates guitarist Zakk Wylde:

“On the first record, ‘It was like I can’t believe I’m here. I had definitely crawled into the fire and kept thinking. ‘You gotta produce. You got to come up with some cool stuff.’ On NO MORE TEARS, I guess I was more relaxed. With Ozzy, whenever we’re playing riffs, he would be like ‘keep playing that riff.’ Pretty much every time he just gets up there and starts singing what comes to him naturally, he knocks it out of the park all the time. I mean, there’s very, very few times where he’s actually said, ‘No, let me come back to that. I don’t like what I’m singing. I’ll come up with something better.’ Whatever you’re hearing on the record is pretty much first thing he started singing that naturally came out of him, that he started hearing in his head. Which is amazing. My love for him and admiration for him has just gotten even stronger and bigger over the years. It’s bigger than the music. It’s always a good time whenever we’re together, it’s always like it’s a laugh fest, and then making the records is beyond hilarious as well.”

Speaking specifically about “Mama, I’m Coming Home” — which was one of several songs on the album co-written with Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister –Ozzy adds:

“At that time, a lot of people were going to Iraq war. We heard that the GIs were sending that song to their wives. Soldiers still love that song.”

Discussing the same song, Wylde concludes:

“I remember when we were working on the album, I originally wrote ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’ on a piano. I had the music, and then when we got to the studio, I transposed it to the 12-string guitar. I was like ‘oh let me try it on the 12-string and see what it sounds like.’ That’s how it evolved into the song, originally it was just me and Ozz noodling on the piano.”

The expanded version of the album will be available digitally and in two special editions — a 2LP black vinyl version, and a special yellow and red 2LP vinyl version with a specially created booklet. The former edition can be pre-ordered here; the latter edition is a Tower Records exclusive, and can be pre-ordered here.

More Tears Tracklising:

1. “Mr. Tinkertrain”
2. “I Don’t Want to Change the World”
3. “Mama, I’m Coming Home”
4. “Desire”
5. “No More Tears”
6. “Won’t Be Coming Home (S.I.N)”
7. “Hellraiser”
8. “Time After Time”
9. “Zombie Stomp”
10. “A.V.H.
11. “Road to Nowhere”
12. “Don’t Blame Me”*
13. “Party With the Animals”*
14. “I Don’t Want To Change The World” (demo)**
15. “Mama, I’m Coming Home” (demo)**
16. “Desire” (demo)**
17. “Time After Time” (demo)**
18. “Won’t Be Coming Home (S.I.N)” (demo)**
19. “Mrs  J.” (demo)**
20. “I Don’t Want to Change the World” (live)†
21. “Road to Nowhere” (live)†
22. “No More Tears” (live)†
23. “Desire” (live)†
24. “Mama, I’m Coming Home” (live)††

* bonus tracks currently on the digital album at DSP’s
** demos from the 1991 promo CD The No More Tears Demo Sessions (also the Prince of Darkness box set), not currently at DSP’s
† live audio from Memoirs of a Madman DVD, San Diego 1992, not currently at DSP’s
†† live audio from Memoirs of a Madman DVD, MTV 1992, not currently at DSP’s