Wynonna Judd Honors Late Mom Naomi at People’s Choice Country Awards

Wynonna Judd paid tribute to her late mother, Naomi Judd, while accepting the Country Champion Award at the 2023 People’s Choice Country Awards Thursday. Wynonna recalled the start of her country career with her mother, with whom she formed The Judds in 1983 before going on to record six studio albums between 1984 and 1990.

“So I graduated high school in 1982 and [in] 1983 got a record deal with RCA records and I got on a silver eagle bus with my mama and did her hair every night for 10 years for free,” Wynonna remembered during her acceptance speech. “I started there, 10 years later she would have to retire and I would go on to make country music ‘herstory.’”

Wynonna also opened up about losing her mom in April 2022 to suicide. “I went to her house, and she died there, but we followed the ambulance anyway to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. And I walked into the room and I held her in my arms and I kissed her on the forehead, shut her eyes and said, ‘I love you, Mom,’” she recalled. “And I walked out of that room, went home, got up the next morning and showed up at the Country Music Hall of Fame to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. You know why? Because that’s how much we love music regardless of what has happened to me and who I show up and I show out. …The highs are high and the lows are low, baby, but don’t ever let them tell you who you are.”

After Naomi’s passing, Wynonna and her sister, Ashley Judd, issued a joint statement. “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness,” they said at the time. “We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”

In a September 2022 episode of CBS Sunday Mornings, Wynonna said she didn’t know her mother’s struggle with mental illness had gotten to the point it had. “I did not know that she was at the place she was at when she ended it, because she had had episodes before and she got better,” the country star said at the time. “And that’s what I live in, is like, ‘Was there anything I should have looked for or should I have known?’ I didn’t.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The previous Lifeline phone number (1-800-273-8255) will always remain available.