Wynonna Judd

Wynonna Judd
a.k.a. Christina Ciminella

JUDD-MENTAL
Wynonna Judd's Back, New and Improved -- Like Before
"I wanna tell you/It's been a long road, difficult times," Wynonna sings on "Can't Nobody Love You (Like I Do)," from her tellingly titled new album, NEW DAY DAWNING. Indeed, during her eight-year solo career, Wy has experienced critical acclaim for her vocal gifts (which have launched 13 Top 10 hits and sales of more than nine million solo albums) and tabloid snooping into her stormy private life. But NEW DAY DAWNING finds her turning a few corners. Singing with electrifying command, she turns in a virtuoso set of vocal performances featuring bluesy wailing and dreamy balladeering, Then there's the Judds reunion tour with her mother, Naomi, who broke up country music's most successful mother-daughter duo in 1991, after being diagnosed with hepatitis C. But Naomi is very much alive and well, and so are the Judds -- following their millennial New Year's Eve reunion show the duo decided to hit the highway through the early spring of 2000. They've also cut four new songs that are being included as a limited-quantity bonus EP in early pressings of NEW DAY DAWNING. Speaking from her home in Franklin, Tennessee, shortly before beginning the Judds tour, Wynonna reflected on her divorce, her new album, her mother-and-child reunion, and music that doesn't miss the heart.

barnesandnoble.com: So how are you?

Wynonna Judd: I said to someone the other day, I feel so great, if I get any better I'll need a twin. I was so full of myself, I was walking around acting as if...not arrogant. But confident as I could possibly be. You know, I've had my 15 minutes, I know it, now I feel like I'm getting away with something I'm not supposed to.

bn.com: Do you really feel that way?

WJ: Oh, totally! Totally! I'll be 36 in May. I've been on the road 18 years -- half my life. So at this point, it's like extra for me. I feel like a dadgum road dog. I feel like I've done everything twice and I'm getting ready to do it again. But I don't feel the pressure because I'm enjoying the heck out of myself. Somebody asked [Naomi] why she was doing this tour and she said, "Because I'm not dead and she's not pregnant." Thanks, Mom! Little too much information there. I know Mom feels set free. She's on a mission and she's driving everybody crazy. But we all love her so much and we're so grateful that she's alive that we're not complaining.

bn.com: How did you decide to go out on tour again?

WJ: Actually it came out of a very normal mother-daughter conversation about...feminine hygiene. No, I'm kidding. It came out of a conversation about where we are. We were approaching the millennium, I was on tour with Michael Bolton -- go figure -- I was in this very melancholy place because I was out on the road with this pop superstar stud, opening for him, going on at 7:30 when the sun's still out. I was very humbled and really checking my ego. So spiritually I was on a mission to find out...okay, am I more than just a mother and a singer and all these things that people want me to be?

And I started talking to Mom about it. We were in Florida, taking a walk on the beach, believe it or not --Hallmark card. ...We have these conversations where we check in with each other and test each other to see where our egos are, and whether we're staying in the realm of reality. And we got into a conversation about it... I think it was more of my prodding than Mom's. I was so in need of a chance to stop the car, get out the map, and see where we're headed. And the show just fell together. It's the darndest thing I've ever been a part of. Because it wasn't like we sat back in a meeting and had a drawing board and got together to think of gimmicks and ideas. It was a real simple conversation between the two of us. And then from there it went straight to you-know-where.

bn.com: Do you stick with Judds songs, or do you incorporate things you've done on your own?

WJ: That was my first question: Where do I begin and where do the Judds end? But you know what? If this had come two years ago, I couldn't have done it. Because I was working at seeking my own identity and seeking my own way. But I've made such peace with this business. This business is such a roller-coaster ride. I've been to the mountain, I've been down in the valley, I know both places. Anywhere in between is fine with me. I feel like this tour gives me a chance -- now you think about this -- gives me a chance to be successful as a solo artist, but also gives me a chance to be successful with something that historically is very much a part of fans' lives out there. It's a win-win for me, anyway. Because I come out onstage with Mom, and we do four Judds songs, then she leaves the stage and I do my thing. Of course she loves that because [whispers conspiratorially] she gets to make a costume change! She comes back out in her little party dress, as prissy as ever. And I get to laugh at her and have fun, and then we go back into the Judds thing. It works because it segues way from the past, to the present, to the future.

bn.com: Regarding your album, you sound revitalized from first note to last. Which is not to suggest the other albums weren't good records...but a NEW DAY DAWNING feels like something else is going on.

WJ: You got it.

bn.com: So what was it? What were you trying to do?

WJ: I was somewhere between Heaven and Hell.

bn.com: Personally or professionally?

WJ: Personally. When you're in a good relationship, everything seems good; when you're in a bad relationship, everything kinda sucks, right? So to me, I was somewhere between really loving life and having to really struggle to get out of bed. I have to live with the truth. And the truth is, professionally I'm doing okay; I'm standing on solid ground. Personally I stand a lot on shaky ground. I sometimes feel like I'm one of these people that's sort of the poster child for what you don't do. I wake up and go, "Dang, I wish I hadn't done that!" And of course it's in the news. I love being an example of real life. It's hard to be in the public eye because I know a lot of people are watching me. But I've really made peace with, after my divorce, living my life in the open. I sort of have finally, finally made peace with it. It's not going to go away, it's not going to change, it's always going to be this weird thing, it's not going to be any different, get used to it and deal with it.

I took a trip by myself -- no road manager, no entourage -- and went and hiked for a week, 60 miles, pretty much by myself. I went to a place in California called The Ashram. I was in the wilderness by myself, with a jug of water and half an apple. Now, if you've ever tried this, you know you get down to some serious reality and truth. Doesn't matter how cute you think you are, doesn't matter how much money you make, you are alone in the wilderness. On that trip, I turned 35, I was in the middle of making the new album, hiking up Bulldog Mountain, which is so straight up you can't even believe it, for like five miles. I thought I was gonna puke; I cried like 16 times on the trek, completely broke down, got down to the nitty-gritty. Coming out of that I felt revitalized. I felt born again. That's part of what did it. And of course going through the divorce, a woman can't help but feel like even though it's the end of something, it's also the beginning of something too. So I'm in all these beginnings of things instead of the endings of things. The new millennium definitely gave me a charge. I was inspired through the holidays this time for some reason. The New Year's Eve show, I thought my head was going to explode. So I'm in a new beginning place in my life&.When you listen to my records, they're very autobiographical. And that's sort of the agony and ecstasy of being me. I'm willing to purge those feelings on the CD, but I want to be sure that people don't think of it as arrogance, but as confidence.

bn.com: But you know, whatever difficulties you've faced that you address through the songs, the album as a whole is optimistic and upbeat -- life-affirming.

WJ: Yes, it is, and that's what gonna feed me through this next year of change&.I'm trying to raise two kids by myself, be a really good daughter to my mother, respect her and not choke her in an interview. I say that lovingly, by the way. Because I do love her, but there are times when I realize, Wait a minute. I'm used to doing things by myself, now I've got to share? It makes me crazy. But then she's my mother, she gave birth to me. So out of respect, I have to sort of submit, which is tough for a Judd woman. [Laughs]

bn.com: But at the end of the day you're still blood.

WJ: You got that right. You know what? We don't fight. I know people think we do. But we don't fight. It's the darndest thing. I keep waiting for it to happen. New Year's Eve. We didn't fight at all. I think we're aware that this is an added bonus. She wasn't even supposed to be here. That's what the doctors say. But she is. We wake up every day and say, "Thank you, God."

bn.com: Come April, when you're finished with the Judds tour, are you going to continue on to promote your new solo album?

WJ: I might go back to college and study to be a brain surgeon. I don't know, I don't have a clue. And that's what's so fun -- I don't have a clue and I'm just being me. I'm just gonna wing it. Also, I may do a gospel record. I'm serious about that. The Dove Awards are interested in me doing something, and I thought, I love it so much I want to do it, big time.

bn.com: The Judds were at the forefront of the New Traditionalist movement in the '80s. You've sold millions of records, had all the public acclaim anyone could imagine, and have been treated well by the music press. Still, I'm not sure the Judds' place in that whole era has been acknowledged as it should.

WJ: The pioneers don't, do they? I will say that in rehearsals I looked over at Mother one day, and tears were streaming from her eyes. And I thought, I get it. I know why she's feeling this way. The Judds' music is timeless. Too much country music today is painfully going for the libido and missing the heart, and Judd music just doesn't do that.

David McGee