Wynonna Judd says touring right after her mom Naomi’s tragic death helped her cope with her grief.
The 60-year-old country musician rose to fame in the 1980s alongside her mother in their mother-daughter country music duo, The Judds, and after she took her own life in April 2022, at the age of 76, Wynonna decided to still complete ‘The Judds: The Final Tour’, because she didn’t want to be “defined” by her death, or let their fans down.
Appearing on ‘Talking in Circles’ with Clint Black to promote her ‘Wynonna Judd: The Greatest Hits Tour’, she explained: “Here’s the deal, y’all. We have to celebrate the past because it’s where we come from but not be defined by it.
“So I’m trying to go back and stop the car, read the map and see where I’m going because I’m making a record right now. But I’m also living in the past, I’m in the present, and singing in the future.”
Ultimately, Wynonna came away feeling “better, not bitter” after finishing the jaunt.
She continued: “I got through it. I’m better, not bitter, for all the c*** that’s happened to me. That’s the key.
“I think you have to get to a place in your life where you realise you’re not a victim. And all this c*** has happened to me with mom committing suicide last year I had a choice to make.
“I could either let that define me or give me permission to show everybody and myself that I could do it even in spite of the hellish time period that I went through, that I could still sing. And so I went on tour because those fans bought the tickets and they were there for me.”
Wynonna insisted there was no way she was going to “stay home and complain”.
Wynonna – who had a fraught relationship with her late mother – predicted that the tour would “heal” her.
She told PEOPLE at the time: “This is my opportunity to step into a situation that I don’t know that I am ready to do what I’m about to do, but I think it’s going to heal me.
“Am I going to go home and just get depressed and down, and stay stuck in that?
“I signed on for this tour because it’s like, ‘I gotta do something.'”