Jim Wright
Wynonna Judd isn’t afraid to go deep.
The Grammy-award winning, multi- platinum artist has been a global superstar—both alongside her mother Naomi in the legendary duo The Judds and in her mega-watt solo career—for four decades. She’s no stranger to public interest, having survived the tabloid heavy era of the 1980s and ’90s and, now, the digital age of constant online chatter. With all that outside noise, Judd has found refuge within. And lucky for us, she’s happy to share her personal philosophies.
“I’m into 25 years of recovery and the introspective is my favorite thing,” she says. “I wanted to be a psychologist and I feel like I kind of am because of all the work I’ve done, from Onsite [mental wellness program and retreats] to all the AA meetings to Bible studies.”
Throughout the course of this interview no topic was off limits, from growing up in the public eye to the tragic loss of her mother and musical partner to suicide in 2022. Wynonna may take joy from going deep, but audiences can take comfort in knowing that she is both the book and its cover. The goddess (the word she prefers over diva) lives up to every fan’s expectations by being unapologetically herself and keeping it real—onstage and off.
Broken and Blessed: My mom was an intellect and she loved words. She’s very similar to Oprah and Dolly. She was a leader and she shared a lot of what she learned with the written word. Yet growing up I got what’s called emotional IQ, and that was because I had two addict parents and a lifetime of trying to soothe myself. I learned very early how to say things to myself when my parents were not at their best and that’s why I am the way I am.I wish I could say it was because of the success and winning Grammys and having money in the bank, but no. What gets me going is my mistakes and my lessons from learning about suicide or learning about somebody’s experience with cancer and hearing their story and it affecting me and helping me write a song. I just wrote a song called “Broken and Blessed.”There’s a line in there that absolutely defines me: “I’m somewhere between hell and hallelujah.” Every time I sing that I can see people vibrating. It helps me to know that other people get it.
The Secret to Her Success: It takes a lot of failure. Failure is just going from event to event without losing enthusiasm. I live between failure and success on a regular basis, and I’ve learned more from my failures. I’ve learned more about letting go and living in the moment as much as I can. I breathe in and I say, “Thank you God,” and I exhale and I say, “Out with the pain.” I constantly do that because of my mother’s experience on earth. Her transition was absolutely traumatic, and I have to live in the space that’s between heaven and hell. Sometimes I have to just hold on to right now because I don’t have a clue about tomorrow—none of us do—and there’s nothing I can do about yesterday. Today is all I’ve got. I live by that. If I had to only say one thing in this interview, that would be it. Nothing about yesterday has helped me. I failed. But tomorrow is an opportunity that is constant. Even if you’re successful. I’ve been [working] for 40 years, it still is in my think tank: How can I make this moment the best? I’ll be 60 in May. I think you get to a point where you’re like, “You know what? I’m going to give myself a break here.” God’s grace is sufficient. It doesn’t say anything about you have to earn it. So I live in a place where I’m just constantly aware of God’s grace. I named my daughter Grace because of that—because it’s given freely. That’s the way I was taught, and I believe it.
Rex Perry/The Tennessean
The Judds at the 1980 CMA Awards.
Love of the Craft: The live concert is what gets me going because it’s in the moment and I live so much in the moment. I work really hard at it. Everything that’s in the moment is where God is. The success that I feel is when I know that someone in the front row has received my message and is getting it, and they’re getting their quarter back on the call, which means this call costs [them] nothing.That’s absolutely why I love the live thing. I had a guy in the crowd the other night that just looked like someone who would never be at a show of mine. He must have come with somebody. I said something and sure enough, he raised his hand. He had never seen me in concert before. By the end of that show I was determined to make him smile. It was like he was the only person in the audience almost. You hone in on that one person, and I honed in on him and thought, “I’m not going to leave this stage until I know I’ve made a connection.” That is what grooves me. My mother was a great performer. I’m an artist. There’s a difference. I’m not defined by celebrity, I’m defined by my music.
Taking a New Stage: The moment I stepped on stage in front of thousands of people on The Judds Tour [alone], I was absolutely crushed with anxiety and just so overwhelmed because mom, her presence, is onstage behind me on a video screen and we’re singing “Love Can Build a Bridge.” It gets really heavy. And I’m coming from soundcheck where she’s behind me singing and I’m just in a state of absolute shutdown almost like, “How am I going to do this? How in the world am I going to go out there in front of thousands of people with just a guitar and how can I do this?” I take my shoes off, I’m barefoot, I spread my toes, and I am in the dark rising through the stage on a hydraulic system that’s like an elevator. It’s going to push me up through the floor and I’m standing there with a guitar in the middle of the concert arena by myself. No band. Nobody’s saying,“You’re cute.You’re the greatest.”There’s nothingness. And I have to stand there on that hydraulic circle, which is just big enough to hold me and get through the hole. I’m looking around going, “Oh my goodness, how in the world am I going to do this night after night?” I’ll be honest, there were a couple of nights where I didn’t think I could do it. And one night we didn’t do it because it was too much. But that [tour] was huge. That was a big accomplishment going and getting on that circle and going up through the hole. It’s like being reborn. It was heavy.
The Meaning of Empowerment: I can tell you right now, it has nothing to do with success or money. I used to think it would be really important to have that, but I have that and that’s not what gets me going. What gets me going are the notes. When I hear somebody sing “Amazing Grace,” when I heard Aretha in the church sing something spiritual, I go to a place that gets me going so much that I could run around the room. I live in a really musical realm. People laugh at me, but I don’t think of myself as living in reality. I’m constantly in a state of bliss because I believe in heaven, and I believe in the Holy Spirit. I get the Holy Spirit when I go on stage. When I tell women what empowers me it is knowing that I can do anything with my gift. There are times when I don’t feel very happy about being here, whether it’s something I’ve read or hearing something about somebody and going, “Oh my gosh, this is really hard and life is really strange and it’s not getting any easier.” What continues to propel me is the art form of music. I can’t say enough about it. I go down to the studio at night, I’m tired. I’ve had a couple of negative things happen—a lot of positive, but some negative. I go in there and I’m absolutely in the moment and all I care about is in the song that I’m singing. Pick something you love so much that you would do it for free but get so good at it that you get paid really well.
Dolly: She’s got Rockstar and this new cake baking product out and I continue to laugh and think, “How in the world does this woman get away with everything that she gets away with [at 78]?” When I’m that age I just hope that I can get out of bed and dress myself. There is nothing that I haven’t seen her do. I’ve known her since I was a teenager and she’s always Dolly. She never conforms or says, “Hey, I’m going to be somebody else.” She is who she is. There are very few women that go, “Okay, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” They just are who they are, and they have that it thing, whatever that is. I’m teaching my granddaughter who Dolly Parton is, and I’m thinking to myself, “she’s the next generation.” Everybody knows who Dolly is. She’s like Mickey Mouse. She’s an American treasure. And I never hear her say anything that I don’t trust. I want to be that. I want to be an artist that people trust and know that I’m authentic and that my integrity is not being questioned. They don’t have to agree with what I’m doing, they don’t even have to like the song, but they know it’s me. You’re going to make mistakes, and I still do. As a businesswoman, I mistakes and I learn from them and I say all the time, by the time I’m 60, I’ll have it figured out, and I’m sure when I get to be 60, it’ll be 70.
Unapologetically Wy: I did a thing the other night for mental health, and I said, “I attempted suicide at 17 and then at 18 I got a record deal.” There wasn’t a sound in the room. It was like the air got sucked out and I felt like, “Uh oh, have I spoken too much?” But that’s who I am and that’s my experience, and I do talk about my experience. It is heavy at times just like anybody else’s. I saw my mother’s body and then I got in the car, came home, and made lunch. I know that’s heavy, but that’s part of my story. If people don’t understand, then they haven’t been through shit yet where they can say, “Oh my God, this is almost too much.” Because it is. But when it’s too much, I do my best.
Advice to Her Younger Self: Give myself a freaking break. I don’t ever remember saying, “Great job.” Or when somebody said, “That was a great performance on the Grammys” there was always a comeback of some kind that said, “I could have done a little better” because my mother raised me to be a perfectionist. And there’s quite a cost to that. The challenge of not critiquing and being judgmental and, “Oh my God, you need to lose weight” or you need to be as successful as this person sitting next to me that I’m up against for an award. I mean, come on. It’s all crazy.
Imparting Life Lessons: Get a good lawyer. Save your money. I mean a savings account. Get a good life coach— someone who is not on your payroll. You can pay them for the therapy sessions certainly, but they don’t work for the incorporated version of yourself. I’ve gotten more information and more help from my life coach. I’m also a public figure and I have to watch myself because I can get in serious trouble, and nobody else needs to hear it. My crap needs to go into his ears and let it go. Let it go, let go. I would also say don’t let men define you. I had a boyfriend when I was about 18 or 19 that was very much about weight and size. I’ve always been critical of myself enough that I don’t need you to help me define myself by my size. Be really, really careful about people defining you by looks and the outward appearance, and who you choose to be around because that’s your tribe. Surround yourself with people that you trust, and I mean people who have proven it. I now have the best group of people I’ve ever had, and it took me 30 years. The biggest thing I teach women is to thine own self be true. Follow your gut because your gut gets it before your head does.
Enjoy the Ride: I didn’t enjoy the first couple of years of my success. My parents were perfectionist addicts and they always wanted me to be the absolute best I could be, but the way they went about it was spiritually life sucking and it cost me so much. The best advice anyone ever gave me was Bonnie Raitt. She said, “Enjoy the ride.” Until I was in my forties, I think when I had children, I never really got what she meant: It’s a roller coaster ride. There are scary moments; there are moments you want to go faster; there are moments you want to stop and get off. Just ride the ride and try to enjoy it. It’s a journey, not a destination, and I always thought it was a destination. I thought that big time in my thirties. I thought it was all about getting there, succeeding, blowing everybody’s mind, and being the greatest. And I was so worried about my performance that I didn’t enjoy myself. I thought it was about what I did, not about who I am. Now I get it, thank God, but it took me a lot of money and a lot of time. I lost my fortune twice on this journey. I’ve worked years for free because of being in debt. And you know what? It sucked. But I learned so much that now I can enjoy myself and I’m just so grateful for that.