Wynonna Judd

(Are The Judds really only in it for the money this time out with their tour and new album?)

Wy-No.

(Is Wy finally “her own person”? Will her reunion with her mother overshadow her own solo career?)

Wy-I’ve made peace with all that. I’ve been on the road for 18 years and I’ll be thirty-six soon, so that’s half of my life. I’m at a place where, no matter if anybody believes me, I’m a place in my life where I’m at peace with myself. I don’t think one year ahead from now, I don’t even think three years ahead from now. I think right now, in the present moment. That’s where I am right now and that’s where I’m supposed to be. Now do I have moments where I go,’ Wow! I’m finding this is all hard to believe!’ Yes, I’m completely overwhelmed at times by trying to be independent and working once again with mom. But I struggle only for a moment, because once the music starts I go,’Wow!’ I don’t have to worry about all of that stuff because that’s worldly stuff. I don’t have to worry about all that worldly stuff that’s out there that’s not anything that I have any control over. What I do have control over is my heart and my peace of mind.

I don’t know that people won’t really believe me, because there’s so many jaded, skeptical people living in this world out there who think,’That Judds reunion tour is all premeditated. They planned this out ten years ago and now they’re going out to cash in. This has been all planned out.’ But it’s not, we’ve been just like any other family in the world. We’ve struggled, we’ve succeeded. I have worked 8 long year sat being my own person.

I’ve made peace with the goals I’ve set. I haven’t met some of my goals and I’ve exceeded some of my goals. I’m just like you or anybody else. So, I walked into rehearsals yesterday and when I heard the band playing “Love Will Build A Bridge”, I got chills. Now what does that say? That says that I’m still there with my mother and with the music that we’ve made and will make together. Spiritually, I heard the music, I feel the music and I believe it. So, I don’t feel like I’m taking a back seat anymore.

I look at mom and she asks me for advice, if you can believe that. She is in the studio, I’m co-producing both my new record and the four new songs that will be on the Judds new record. So, talk about role reversal, I’m talking to my mom in the studio and telling her what to do with the music and advising her about the production of our new album. Now, some people may believe that since we’ve been together we’re like we were ten years ago, but that’s not true. I refuse to go back ten years, it just will not happen, we are two very different people now then we were some ten years ago. But the music, when you hear it, you’re going to say,’Wow! That’s the Judds!’ There’s something new about the music both the Judds are making and my music. There’s more moxie on my behalf and there’s more mellow. It’s a good balance right now. I do my stuff on-stage on this upcoming tour as well as we’ll be doing the Judds stuff on this tour as well.

(Why is Wy so much stronger as an individual and a woman this time out working with her mother?)

Wy- I’m enjoying this, I don’t have any pressures, I don’t have to worry about, “Is this going to sell a million records?’ I’ have to be this, I have to be that, so I have to sell a million records. When I’m with mom, I’ safe and comfortable. That’s important to me. When I’m with mom, it’s safe and it’s good. I feel really safe. Yesterday when we were singing “Love Can Build A Bridge, I looked over and mom was crying. And thought to myself, I remember ten years ago, crying to myself because mom was so sick she couldn’t get out of bed. I would have to go down to her room and talk to her and try and talk her out of it so we could go on-stage and get on with it. And, here I am ten years later and mom is crying tears of joy, because she’s hearing me sing that same song again and she’s well. And she looked at me after that song was over and she said, ‘Everything is so different.’ And I walked over and I held her. Now I know that people probably don’t understand that, because not everybody has that same relationship with their mother, but at that moment I held her hand and we both realized just how much we’ve been through together. So this is a time for me to step aside from all of my agendas and be thankful with my mother for her healing and for the gift we both have of song and love. We’ve both come so far as mother and daughter and as individuals since that moment when we both walked off that stage for the last show of the tour. You know what some people aren’t going to get it, but we don’t care because the people who do get it, those are the people who we’re interested in communicating with.