On May 1, 2022, Wynonna Judd walked onto the stage of the CMA Theater inside the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville to accept the honor she and her mother had been waiting for. Naomi Judd was supposed to be standing beside her. Instead, Wynonna told the room that this was the first place she had gone since saying goodbye to her mother the afternoon before.
The Day Before
Naomi Judd died on Saturday, April 30, 2022, in Tennessee. She was 76. In a statement shared that day, Ashley and Wynonna said they had lost their mother to the disease of mental illness, and that the family was shattered and in unknown territory.
The Judds’ induction had been more than eight months in the making. Reba McEntire announced the Hall of Fame’s new class during a virtual press event on August 16, 2021: The Judds in the Modern Era category, Ray Charles, drummer Eddie Bayers and pedal steel guitarist Pete Drake. Wynonna said at the time that the moment took her back to 1983, when she and her mother were just starting out.
Within hours of Naomi’s death, Hall of Fame CEO Kyle Young said in a statement that the family had asked the museum to continue with the induction, and that it would do so with heavy hearts. The pre-ceremony red carpet was canceled. Outside the museum, a framed photograph of Naomi was placed with white flowers.
Three Weeks Earlier, Outside the Same Building
On April 11, 2022, Naomi and Wynonna had reunited at the CMT Music Awards and sung “Love Can Build a Bridge” on an outdoor stage set up in front of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, backed by a gospel choir. It was their first nationally televised awards-show performance together in more than twenty years.
The same day, they announced The Final Tour, ten arena dates planned for that fall. Naomi had co-written “Love Can Build a Bridge,” and the duo had closed their original 1991 farewell concert with it. Nobody watching that April night knew it would be the last time The Judds sang together in public.
“We’re Not Gonna Be Sad Today”
The Medallion Ceremony went ahead on Sunday evening. Before the Judds’ segment, Kyle Young placed the duo alongside the Carters, the Delmores and the Everlys as the great family acts in country music history. Fellow Kentuckian Ricky Skaggs then came to the stage to induct them. He opened by telling the room they were not going to be sad that day, and quoted Matthew 5:4, the verse promising that those who mourn will be comforted.
Skaggs presented Ashley Judd with the medallion that would have gone to her mother. Ashley congratulated the other inductees first. Then, through tears, she spoke to the crowd about Naomi.
“I’m sorry that she couldn’t hang on until today.”
She said it was the fans’ affection that had kept her mother going in her last years. Then she turned to her sister, reminding everyone that Wynonna was being inducted that night too, and called her the G.O.A.T. Wynonna’s puzzled face, as she tried to work out what the term meant, drew one of the few laughs of the evening.
“Mom Would Probably Talk the Most”
Wynonna spoke for about four minutes. She began by admitting she had not prepared a speech, because she knew her mother would probably do most of the talking. The audience laughed, because everyone in the room knew it was true.
Then she told them what had happened the day before.
“At 2:20, I kissed her on the forehead and I walked away.”
She said she felt broken and blessed at the same time, and that it was a very strange thing to be both at once. She thanked her family, her friends and the songwriters in the room, and said that for her it had always been about the songs.
The 23rd Psalm
Wynonna told the audience that the last thing the family did together at Naomi’s side, with her uncle Mark and the others gathered around, was say the 23rd Psalm. Holding Ashley’s hand at the lectern, she began to recite it again. By the end, the crowd was saying it with her.
“Though my heart is broken, I will continue to sing.”
Before she left the stage, Wynonna blew a kiss toward the sky.
The music that night belonged partly to the Judds. Carly Pearce sang “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Old Days).” Gillian Welch and David Rawlings performed “Young Love.” Tommy Sims sang “Love Can Build a Bridge,” stepping in after Brandi Carlile, who had been scheduled to sing it, withdrew with COVID-19. Marty Stuart closed the evening with “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
The Tour She Kept
Two weeks later, at a public memorial for Naomi at the Ryman Auditorium, Wynonna announced on national television that she would not cancel The Final Tour. She would take it out as a tribute, with friends including Martina McBride, Brandi Carlile, Faith Hill, Little Big Town, Trisha Yearwood and Ashley McBryde joining her on different nights. Naomi’s husband, Larry Strickland, said Wynonna was doing what her mother would have wanted.
The tour opened on September 30, 2022, at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and reached The Judds’ home state of Kentucky at Rupp Arena in Lexington on October 29. In November, Wynonna returned to the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the same arena where she and her mother had played their farewell concert on December 4, 1991, and once again ended the night with “Love Can Build a Bridge.”