Wynonna Judd Shares How She's 'Turning Into My Mother,' Naomi Judd

Wynonna Judd delved into how she finds hope amid hardship, the importance of her family and traditions, and the connection she shares with her fans during the latest episode of Biscuits & Jam, hosted by Southern Living Editor-in-Chief Sid Evans. The podcast interview featuring powerhouse singer-songwriter, who was one half of beloved mother-daughter duo The Judds in addition to her solo career, is available Tuesday (October 31).

Judd spoke about her late mother, Naomi Judd, whom she lost unexpectedly in April 2022. She was 76. The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame one day later. Now, Judd has ways of honoring her mother’s memory and shared how she’s “turning into my mother.”

“I'm turning into my mother, I'll be honest,” Judd said on Biscuits & Jam. “One of my memories of Mother is she used to take us out in the wilderness when we bought the farms…And she would take us out in the middle of the frickin' forest, wilderness, and we would sit there with our candles and she would read the Christmas story…we would sit there and we would just let her ramble on because that's what mamas do. And we would go back to the house just frozen. And I'm gonna do the same thing to my granddaughter,” who calls her “Nonni.” “I’m gonna make her go with me out in the woods, and I'm gonna do crazy, eccentric things like my mother did…So I wanna be remembered for doin' the fun stuff that maybe her mom wouldn't let her do.”

Judd has previously opened up about her grief after losing Naomi, and how she finds peace in difficult moments. That includes finding peace with family, in music and with her fans, including when she continued The Judds tour in her mother’s honor.

“I can give you a little snippet of one song I wrote after Mom left,” Judd said. “And I was so brokenhearted, I could barely catch a deep breath. And I'm serious. I had to go through some real instruction from vocal coaches and life coaches and grief counselors to breathe. That was my biggest challenge, was to get enough breath to make it through the day, 'cause I was just so brokenhearted. And I sat down one day in the studio. And Cactus is my producer and my husband, and we together wrote this song: ‘This is me, I’m broken and blessed, in this I am distressed, but I’m at the end of my rope, but I keep holding on.’ …’I’m somewhere between hell and hallelujah.’

“And that's where I find myself a lot, I'll be honest, whether it's personally or professionally,” she continued. “Is this a hell moment or a hallelujah moment? And I think we all experience so many of them in the same day that it's like a ping pong game between good and evil. It's all happenin' at once, and you just gotta look outside and see something good…Because in this moment, I've got my granddaughter coming at 1:00. I have what I need. I'm blessed. My heart is broken, but I'm still here and I'm still able to sing. And I'm gonna keep doing so until I can't anymore.”