THE JUDDS   "Mama, He's Crazy" performed live on CNN's "Showbiz Today" [480k MPEG-3] or [704k WAV]

January 12, 2000
Web posted at: 5:40 p.m. EST (2240 GMT)

From Laurin Sydney
CNN Entertainment News Correspondent

NEW YORK (CNN) -- They've been through a lot, this mother-daughter pair. As The Judds, they saw 14 singles rise to No. 1 on the country music charts during a stellar run in the 1980s.

Then, like a classic country-western tune, heartbreak struck. Naomi Judd's battle with chronic hepatitis forced her to retire from the music circuit in 1991; although she and daughter Wynonna continued recording, they haven't been on tour since then.

Wynonna has seen her share of trouble, too, divorcing Arch Kelley, father of her two children, last June.

But now The Judds are back and, by all appearances, tickled to be in the public eye together again. February 4 marks the start of The Judds' new "Power To Change" tour, which Naomi says was inspired by their fans. After performing a New Year's Eve date in Phoenix, says Naomi, fans "kept saying, we want more, we want more."

Thus was born the tour, with its name intended to remind people that "they have the power to make choices and change," Naomi says.

Wynonna agrees: "You can reinvent yourself at 54. You can get a bus, follow your daughter around, and do a lot of shows." The pair are no longer on the same bus during tours; Wynonna says hers has become "a day-care center" to her children.

Wynonna Judd

In a sense, both Wynonna and her mother had already reinvented themselves well before this reunion tour. Wynonna has a successful career as a solo artist: She's currently debuting her newest single, "Can't Nobody Love You (Like I Do)."

Naomi, who says doctors haven't been able to find any signs of the hepatitis C virus for two years now, wrote a children's book called "Love Can Build a Bridge," which was published last spring by HarperCollins. And she hosts a weekly syndicated radio show, "Heart to Heart with Naomi Judd."

Concertgoers, the two say, can expect both contemporary and old-fashioned Judd grooves. "I think the production, technology-wise, is with the times," Wynonna says, "yet we have the family values. ... It's sort of like, it's OK to be hip and spiritual, and it's OK to be weird."

Naomi puts it more succinctly: "We're spirited and spiritual ... and fun follows us around."

Naomi Judd

Did Naomi Judd ever expect to be back on the touring circuit? "Yes," she answers without hesitation. "Not that I actually planned or wanted it to happen, but I used it as one of the psychological tools, because when you have an incurable illness and the doctors give up on you, you have to step out and say ... I'm a child of the most high God and I'm claiming my healing, my birthright.

"And I studied holistic medicine and I just kept doing imaging. And part of that whole process was imagining the fans again."

But, Naomi says, she hasn't yet visualized the end of the tour -- and being apart from her singing daughter. "You know what? We live in the moment. I can't even imagine the first show (of the tour), because that's going to be official, that's when it's going to sink in. It's kind of like your wedding day.

"We had the (New Year's Eve show in Phoenix) and I felt like I wasn't even there almost. It was surreal. I think when we hit Denver February 4 it's going to really hit me, and then we'll live in the moment and then it'll be like the day after Christmas, I guess."