Wynonna Judd opened up about how she still feels the presence of her late mother, Naomi Judd, when she is performing.
The 60-year-old singer and Naomi comprised the Grammy Award-winning mother-daughter country duo The Judds, which they formed in 1980. During a recent interview with Us Weekly, Judd was asked if she still talks to Naomi, who died in April 2022.
“I do. Onstage, I look up a lot because I see angels. Now I do it with Mom. I’m like, ‘What the hell are you doing? Where are you and why are you not here? And why are we not singing together again?’” Judd said.
“She carries a picture of Mama around and a picture of her and her mom,” Judd said of Kaliyah. “I talk to her about them and say, ‘They love you very much.'”
Naomi died by suicide at age 76 on April 30, 2022, the day before she and Judd were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. While speaking with Us Weekly, Judd reflected on how she is coping with the loss of her mother two years after her death.
“I’m in a really good place,” Judd said. “I’ve worked on forgiveness and my anger and frustration with suicide. [At a fan club party] last night, everyone had on Judds T-shirts from the ’80s and ’90s. I thought, ‘I have a choice. I can either be better or bitter.’ My grief comes and goes. I see it as a gift in terms of the healing part.”
