Naomi Judd: Country Music Icon -314

When we first moved to Nashville, we lived in a pitiful apartment, and Wynonna, Ashley, and I slept in one bed. All we had to eat was bologna and crackers. -Naomi Judd The story you are about to hear is a piece of country music history because it is the final full-length interview featuring country music superstar Naomi Judd. Sadly, Naomi took her own life on April 30, 2022, after a long history of mental illness, but her legacy as a brilliant songwriter, captivating live performer, and country music icon remains. This interview was originally part of the Nashville-based series called Country Music Success Stories. For two years, my talented friend Jacy Dawn Valeras and I co-hosted the show, and thanks to the powerful network Jacy built in Music City, famous artists like Naomi agreed to be on the show. Recorded at Naomi’s 500-acre compound in Leipers Fork, Tennessee, in a barn next to her house, this interview is full of stories that will blow your mind and touch your heart. Naomi raised the girls on a mountaintop in Kentucky with only a coal stove for heat. She got the money to buy Wynonna her first guitar by selling her hunting knife and put herself through nursing school to become an ER nurse. From the moment Naomi walked into the room, I knew that I was in the presence of a superstar. Naomi and her daughter, Wynonna, were billed as The Judds, and throughout the '80s and into the '90s, they cemented their standing as country music’s most successful duo of all time with 25 top-ten singles, 14 #1 songs, and 5 Grammies. Naomi’s younger daughter, Ashley, crafted her own success story as an actress and a passionate activist. The road to stardom was long and hard, but in this interview, we learn just what Naomi Judd is made of. Like the little engine that could, she kept telling herself: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. #countrymusic