Cledus T. Judd is returning to the spotlight with “My Weight’s Goin’ Up Down,” a spoof on the Morgan Wallen “Up Down” hit. But unlike Wallen’s song, which is referring to alcohol and stars Florida Georgia Line in the video, Judd’s version is all about food, and stars members of his own family.
“It was a lot of fun,” Judd tells PopCulture.com of writing the song and filming the video. “I had been away from it for so long. I kind of hung it up maybe six or seven years ago and just went to Kentucky to be a full-time dad with my daughter, and didn’t think I would ever really do it again. You never get over it once you play. I consider it to be like a sport. Once you play in the big leagues, it’s hard to play in the minors.”
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Judd enjoyed a run of hits with songs like “Did I Shave My Back For This?” and “Shania I’m Broke,” several years ago, before he felt his star power decrease, and decided to leave on his own terms.
“I just kind of backed away from it,” says Judd. “I kind of felt a little bit of the decline. I went from on tour with Brooks & Dunn, and Toby [Keith], and all these people to playing on the back of hay trucks, and so I thought, ‘Oh, I’m not going to be that guy. I can’t do it,’ so I went home. It’s just the only way I know how to do it. I went home to be a dad, and loved every minute of it. I wouldn’t trade the decision for anything in the world.”
Judd acknowledges the decision to walk away was painful, and one he didn’t take lightly – and mourned for years.
“I think the demise came in the maybe 2003, 2004, 2005. That’s when I went down to Florida and started doing morning radio because that’s when I kind of felt like I was starting to walk in quicksand,” Judd recalls. “I could feel I’d been doing it for so long and sold a bunch of records which, thank the good Lord, I got lucky. Almost three million of those or close to it, and this video is the 26th video that I’ve done at CMT. It just felt like I was trudging through mud to keep going, ‘I’m still here.’ I didn’t want to be that guy, and so I really hung it up in 2011 and ’12. That was my last record deal at Warner Brothers, and I just said, ‘I’m done. I’ll never do it again.’ It’s just I didn’t want to be the guy.
“I’ve not told a lot of people this, but every time an award show came on, it would always hurt my belly because I was there,” he continues. “I was there when Alan Jackson did ‘Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?.’ I was there when Tim McGraw sang ‘Live Like You Were Dying.’ I was a part of that, and I never won anything, but I was there. I had a seat beside the greatest of our era, and then when I would watch it, and it would hurt my belly, and sometimes my kids would go to bed, I’d get a little teary-eyed or whatever because I just missed it so much.”
Not that Judd was immune to struggles. The 53-year-old faced plenty of battles even before his success, including drug addiction.
“I think the rock-bottom part was back in 1990,” recalls the comedian. “I was a hairdresser. I’d been touring all over the world. I was in Germany and South America, and I was making a lot of money, and life was good. It was like rock star life. I started using cocaine and meth, and it kind of – I remember the first time I ever did meth, which I call dust off the devil’s coffee table. It’s such a heinous drug.
“The first time I did it, I thought, ‘Man, this is what I’ve been looking for,’” he adds. “I felt like I was walking taller and straighter, and I had more confidence. Then, the next thing you know, cocaine came into the picture, and the next thing you know, it was just one day a week, and then it was two days a week, and then it was six days a week.”
Judd admits he was suicidal, and once spent six hours driving back and forth across a bridge, trying to find the courage to take his own life. Thankfully, he got help instead, but his road back wasn’t easy. It took several more years, including time living in his car, before he had his first hit at radio – and CMT – with “Indian In-Laws,” a spoof on Tim McGraw’s first Top 10 hit, “Indian Outlaw.”
The Georgia native might have struck comedic gold, again, with “My Weight’s Goin’ Up Down,” but deciding to officially make a comeback was far from easy for him. After making the video, Judd sent it to Leslie Fram, Senior Vice-President of Music Strategy for CMT, and waited several painstakingly long days for a reply.
“When I sent the video to Leslie Fram at CMT, it was the most nervous I have been in ten years because I didn’t know the reception,” Judd concedes. “I checked my phone every ten minutes for four days seeing what the response would be from her at CMT, and I never got a response. I was getting to the point where I couldn’t even sleep at night. Then Saturday morning, me, my daughter, my step-kids were up. My wife was up. It was about 10:30, and I clicked on my phone, and there was an email that said, ‘Leslie Fram.’”
Judd was initially too scared to open the email, but it was his wife, Amanda Fizer, who convinced him to read the contents.
“She said, ‘Whatever’s in that email, whatever it says is not going to change our life one bit. Look around you.’ I have a beautiful home. I got beautiful kids. I got a great wife. She said, ‘So don’t worry. It’s all gravy from here.’ I clicked the email, and it said, basically, ‘OMG. Unbelievable video. You’re back. Funnier than ever. You’re a genius. Welcome home, Leslie Fram.’”
Download “My Weight’s Going Up Down” on iTunes.
Photo Credit: Getty images/Rick Diamond
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