Superlatives
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
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Hello, sister, Wynonna Judd intones with disarming enthusiasm.
My life is so weird, sometimes I almost cant believe it.
Its like a movie Im watching from the outside.
The response to the tour has been so overwhelming that shes added 15 more dates for 2023.
In the 1980s, the Kentucky-bred Judds revolutionized their genre, notching 14 No.
1 country songs and winning five Grammys.
Im coming up on the 40th anniversary of my career, she says.
I marvel at the highs and the lows because theyre so high and theyre so low.
My grandbaby was born ten days before my mother died.Youtellmewhats goin on.
This is nine months after she left, and Im still grieving, and Im still on tour.
Were going to be on the road for eternity, she says.
As you get older, you realize you dont have to ask peoples permission.
I want to get away with as much as possible.
Thats the end of my interview.
I would say Paul Kennerley.
Yes, I said tape.
Back in the day, we called that the Nashville handshake.
We all connected on such a deep level.
It was about the soul.
These songwriters knew us so well that it was like having an outfit handmade for you.
You put it on and you just walk out going,Oh, hell yeah.
Thats how a great song feels for me.
Hardest song to perform vocally
I dont know if there is one.
Ive got it down, I think, because I work a lot.
So I had to sing every single note, and I think it made me stronger.
Thats how we got the muscle.
We did it differently.
Sometimes it was 20 times in a session that Id be singing the whole song.
So my muscle is still strong and Im grateful for it.
I mean, there are nights when Idontfeel as strong.
Sometimes it just isnt there, and you have to figure out another stance.
So thats what I do I go out onstage, I find another stance, I sing it differently.
Use it or lose it, thats kind of where Im at.
That was a record that I was listening to religiously.
It was my manual of how to operate, just because of the authenticity.
The songs were so honest and real.
I just felt like,Oh my God, I want to be that.
Your most surprising fan
Aretha.
I have a picture with her, and she was like, I love you and your mama.
I think all the time about Mom and I at the 1984 Grammys.
Everyone from Tina Turner to Elton John all these greats were fans.
I felt like I had gotten into a party without an invitation, like I had won the lottery.
I didnt feel like I had earned it.
I didnt have years and years of playing shows or doing bar gigs and making it through all that.
I felt so young and so overwhelmed.
All these people that I grew up with … Johnny Cash comes to mind.
He was a huge fan.
And he became a mentor.
Judds song with the strongest harmonies
Rockin With the Rhythm of the Rain.
I think theyre just so infectious.
Isnt it the corniest?
[Starts singing.]
She was so into that, Im telling you, it was like she was a Judd.
It was so cute.
She kissed me on my cheek.
And I was like, Yep, were bonded for life.
Moment you knew youd be able to proceed with your current tour
My initial decision was no.
I was going through such hell, it felt like I couldnt see anything.
I was blinded by the sadness.
It was like trying to paint a picture with your eyes closed.
Hows that picture gonna turn out?
So I went to people that I really love and trust and got counsel.
I think its important to remember that the music is healing.
I just thought about it.
And I thought,Well, crap.
Thats what I would be doing on tour.
When youre depressed, for anyone reading this, the one thing they tell you to do is move.
Because it makes you feel better.
Its not easy to do, because you want to stay in bed.
Like right now, Im walking around the room.
Because its important for me to move and groove, as they say.
So the tour became my move and groove.
Obviously, those are the two things that Ive seen other artists struggle with.
I get it, I understand it very much.
I would also say rest, rest, rest, rest.
That is whats helped me more than anything.
This tour is kicking my butt.
Twenty-six songs a night, three shows a week.
Thats a lot of working out.
Most intimidating cover to sing
Barracuda.
I sang that with Ann Wilson and I thought,This is outrageous.
She sings flat footed, like shes just standing there talking to you.
Anything that Ann Wilson sings, especially those high ones … Love Hurts almost killed me.
I just think those notes are from another planet.
Those rock songs, people have no idea.
Welcome to the Jungle?
That kicked my ass.
Axl sings his butt off.
Nobody realizes that because he seems like hes screaming.
Heisscreaming, but then hes singing like a freakin jazz artist.
And then hes singing like its an aria.
We now do a fan-club soundcheck we invite a couple hundred fans, we do a Q&A.
Its really an opportunity for me to connect with them on an intimate level thats not about ticket sales.
Its this wonderful fellowship; its turned into like a meeting almost like a 12-step meeting, sometimes.
I just feel so loved and so supported, and I get to talk and listen to their stories.
Its just this communal-love thing.
My husband started laughing.
He said, Honey, its still happening.
It just caught me off guard that was a knee-jerk reaction.
Like, oh, theres my mother.
Im a good girl, I promise.
Ive done my chores.
And then sometimes I just start to weep.
Your peak 80s fashion moment
Spandex, baby!
I wore Spandex and Candies, with the wooden heel, on Austin City Limits.
I thought I was Miss Hot Tamale.
Thankyou, have a nice day.
We wore those outfits onstage at Madison Square Garden.
Moment you realized you could rock out onstage
It was at soundcheck.
I met Ann Wilson when I was 16.
I went to their shows, and I was around all these rock groups, Ratt, Heart …
I knew Bono when I was 17.
I saw a whole different side of her.
Her mom wasnt there, she was just with the band, and she was singing for fun.
It was a whole release of this other sort of freedom that I had not seen.
I knew she was great just from what you hear in the songs of the Judds.
Wynonna:I love what you said, honey, about the Ferrari.
Im gonna go with that.
Is it a red Ferrari?
So I tend to have a struggle with carbs at night because of her.
I think about the comfort of sitting with her up in the front of the bus.
I didnt realize then, and of course I do now, how precious that time was.
Its a very strange dynamic because on one hand, its a million-dollar bus the best of the best.
But its not the same when you were 18 years old.
She always had the back lounge so she could come through my room without knocking.
A little resentment there, as I said that.
Just a little bit.
And yet we sat in the front of the bus together every night.
So yeah, I miss her.
I definitely go through a withdrawal after the show.
I have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel whos an absolute beauty.
Shehas her own Instagram, for Gods sake.
They replaced the Bic lighters now we have our phones with the white light.
Its the same sentiment, but just a different prop.
Thats what Im talking about, being wrapped in a blanket of white light.
Thats how I feel during that song.
That song elevates me to another level of existence.
Life and death experiences bring us to another place of listening.
Im now a grandmother.
So Im dealing with having a grandbaby, and then having my mothers memorial.
So when I go out onstage, Im singing from both places.
The fans are reacting from that same sort of life and death experience place.
The emotion comes, and it knocks me out.
And all of a sudden, the song is different.
I sing it differently.
Its holy in a way that has just increased over the years.
I know that sounds heavy, but its just the way I feel about that song.
