COVER STORY : Here Comes the Judd : After a decade as half of country music’s most famous mother-daughter duo, Wynonna is in the spotlight by herself

Wynonna Judd’s red hair blows in the brisk afternoon wind as she steps from the ’57 Chevy in the parking lot of Dotson’s, her favorite hometown restaurant.

As funky as an aged guitar, Dotson’s has been a favorite hangout for Wynonna ever since her mom, Naomi, drove that same bright red Chevy here from Kentucky about a dozen years ago.

Naomi’s sights at the time were on nearby Nashville and a recording contract, but she thought quiet, suburban Franklin would be a better place to raise her two teen-age daughters.

Wynonna spent hours at Dotson’s, dreaming of someday joining the country music stars whose autographed photos cover one wall of the restaurant. The Judds photo finally did go on the wall in December, 1983, when the mother-daughter team’s first single broke into the country Top 20.

It was followed by a spectacular string of No. 1 singles, songs about old-time values and true love that made the Judds the most successful female team ever in country music. It was a classic partnership: Wynonna’s voice--one of the greatest ever in country music--and Naomi’s drive and showmanship.

But the Cinderella tale came to an end last year when Naomi had to stop touring because she is suffering from chronic active hepatitis.

“I was devastated after the last concert in December,” Wynonna says, sitting in a booth by the kitchen door. “When we were together, I felt like we could conquer the world, but separate I didn’t know.

“Naomi kept saying, ‘Wynonna, you are just as strong as I am . . . you have the same blood running through your veins. You can do it by yourself.’ But I was in shock. I didn’t feel like I had any identity as Wynonna. I didn’t know if there was really a place for me in this business anymore.”

Now, however, it’s time for congratulations again at Dotson’s.

Working with respected Nashville producer Tony Brown, Wynonna finished the solo album early this year and it shapes up as a smash. Advance orders totaled 600,000--almost double the number for the last Judds album--and reviews have been positive, though there have been complaints that the material is too conservative. (See review, Page 84.)

“We just want you to know that we’ve been pullin’ for you darlin’,” a middle-aged customer tells Wynonna in the restaurant. “We heard the new record on the radio and it’s just wonderful.”

Wynonna smiles and shakes the woman’s hand as the waitress arrives with a plate of turnip greens, mashed potatoes and green beans.

At 27, the singer appears in total control--someone who is as able to maneuver her way through the mazes of the music business as easily as she zips around Tennessee back roads on her prized Harley-Davidson.

Not only is the album in the stores, but promoters around the country are gobbling up tour dates. The itinerary includes summer stops in Los Angeles, San Diego and Costa Mesa.

Yet uncertainties remain below the friendly, confident exterior.

One concern involves fan reaction to the Judds’ split. While it seems only natural that Judds fans would embrace her, many recording artists have suffered a major drop in popularity in moving to a solo role.

And there’s the lingering matter of her own post-breakup insecurities.

“There were times (in recent weeks) when I’d be full of optimism and strength, but there were other times when I felt like a scared child--though it was hard to get people to understand that.

“I’m sure that nice woman, for instance, thinks, ‘Oh, she knows what it’s like to be a star and have all that responsibility.’ But people forget I hadn’t been the star. We had been the star.”

For sharing your sweet spirit on this album, I love you Mom.

Most longtime Judds watchers will see those words among the acknowledgments in the new “Wynonna” album as a daughter’s heartfelt salute to her mother, but some may wonder if the sentiment is genuine after all the rumors of backstage fussing and feuding.

There were even reports before Naomi’s illness that Wynonna was tired of sharing the spotlight with her mother and was looking for a way to go solo.

No one around the Judds denies that the squabbles were sometimes fierce.

“They didn’t get along all that well for a while,” says Ken Stilts, who has managed the duo since the early ‘80s and continues to represent Wynonna. “It was a combination of things . . . a mother with a daughter who was real rebellious to start with . . . a lot of career pressures.

“Wynonna just revolted at every turn and Naomi was hard-headed. She wouldn’t give in. At times, I thought there was a chance it couldn’t continue . . . and, to be honest, there were times I thought it might be best if it didn’t continue.

“There were plenty of nights when I was not sure the show was going to happen because they seemed to really lock up 30 minutes before a show, probably because of the tensions of the show. I sent them on stage more than once with sunglasses on from crying.”

Sitting in the booth at Dotson’s, Wynonna nods at the mention of the fights with her mother.

“True, true, true,” she says.

“I’m sure Mom went through times when she thought, ‘Do I want to be on the road with this kid?’ and I’d think, ‘Do I want to be on the road with this mom? She is going to (smother) me,’ ” the singer says, rolling her eyes at the memories of the battles.

“But you can’t go on indefinitely the way we were. We were stuck on that bus and it got to a point where you either kill each other or you sit down and figure out a way to change things, and that’s what we eventually did.

“In fact, most of the problems were the first two years, but the rumors continued. It got to the point where I would make a point of sitting right next to her when we were in public so that people could see we really did get along.”

Wynonna’s face tenses at the mention of talk about her reported longing for a solo career.

“Now, that’s not true,” she says, firmly. “Why would I want to go on my own? I had it made. My life was so good the last few years that I felt like I had won the lottery or something. You have to remember I was 18 years old when I started and I never had to pay my dues in bars.

“When everything started to happen, I used to think, ‘This is the biggest scam in the whole world. . . . I get to go around the country singing and they pay me for it.’ And that’s really all I had to do . . . sing. Naomi took care of all the rest. Every once in a while, someone would mention a solo career to me and I’d think, ‘Yes, that’s something I should do one day.’ But I was always thinking it’s something that was five years away or something.”

She pauses, reflecting for a moment on the memories.

“We had so much fun together the last few years,” she says, finally. “That’s another reason the ending has hit me so hard. It was like a vacation every day . . . the memories I have . . . getting to play for the President, traveling to Europe, waking up at 3 in the morning, going into a truck stop with your pajamas and overcoat on. But our whole life--if you erase a few bad times--has been like that. In some ways, it has been like a movie.”

Miniseries might be more like it--which is just what is planned for the fall of 1993.

Naomi was born Diana Ellen Judd in 1946 in Ashland, Ky., where, contrary to the rural-poverty stereotype associated with most country singers, she grew up in a relatively comfortable neighborhood where her father owned a gas station.

An attractive girl who made straight A’s in school, Naomi (a name she wouldn’t adopt until years later) was 17 when she eloped with boyfriend Michael Ciminella after discovering she was pregnant. One week before her high school class was to graduate, she gave birth to Wynonna, whose real name is Christina Claire Ciminella.

After the baby’s birth, the mother moved with her husband to Lexington, where he studied business management in college. After graduation, he and the family moved to Los Angeles. A second daughter (Ashley, an actress who appears in the “Sisters” TV series) was born in California in 1968.

But the marriage ended in 1972 when Wynonna was 8. Naomi, who lived with the girls in an apartment within sight of Tower Records in West Hollywood, worked at various jobs, including as a clerk in a health-food restaurant.

Despite the bouts of insecurity, Wynonna is refreshingly open during the interview at Dotson’s. She exhibits a youthful energy and excitement when she talks about the matters that comfort her--family, music and success--and there is no sense of self-pity when she talks about the darker moments in her past.

One of the darker moments involves her parents’ divorce.

“I think every kid who goes through a divorce is affected by it,” Wynonna says. “You have to remember I was born in a very troubled time in Mom’s life. Her brother died (of cancer) soon after I was born. Besides, I always felt I was the reason they got married and I was the reason that they got divorced.

“Kids always blame themselves when their parents break apart I guess. I had asthma and was very emotional after their divorce. Music was my saving grace. When I sang, I just felt a sense of peace. I think to this day when I am singing, I am the happiest--period.”

Indeed, Wynonna began developing her interest in music after Naomi and the girls moved back to Kentucky a few years after the divorce. Naomi was apparently worried that the children would lose touch with her own homespun rural values.

It was during these years, which included a brief move back to California, that the Judds’ future began taking shape. It’s when Naomi, who had gone through nursing training, dropped the name Diana, picking her new one from a biblical character who also exhibited restless tendencies. Seeing her mother adopt a new name, Wynonna--who had always gone by Christina--also took a new name from Wynona, Okla., a town she heard cited in the pop song “Route 66.”

Wynonna’s interest in music continued to expand during her teen years--and she wasn’t just listening to country music, but the records of such varied artists as Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Rickie Lee Jones and Emmylou Harris.

By the end of the decade, Naomi--whose own interest in music followed her daughter’s--headed for Nashville to try to get a foothold in the record business.

“I can’t tell you how much I admire her for what she did . . . for having the courage to go to Nashville,” Wynonna says now. “Her daddy just couldn’t believe she was going to take her girls and move to Nashville with the idea of actually being stars. People were telling her, ‘Oh sure, you and who else?’

“They didn’t understand that people can have dreams and work for them. They thought Dolly Parton was just born a star. They didn’t understand she was born like everybody else and had to sacrifice and work for what she got.”

It wasn’t easy in Nashville in the early ‘80s.

Like every other hopeful, Naomi ran into countless rejections. By this time, the plan had already evolved into a duo--though it was Wynonna who remained the central voice in the team. Naomi sang harmony.

“I’ve tried to piece that together myself lots of time . . . and I still can’t quite tell just how it all came together,” Wynonna says, when asked about the birth of the Judds duo. “It was so gradual that it was just there one day. I thought it was cool. I remember singing ‘Coat of Many Colors’ for her dad on Father’s Day one time. She sang harmony, and we just kept doing it.

“I was never resentful of her being with me. I also never saw her as a stage mother, never felt she pushed me. If anything, I think she tried to hold me back by not letting me get a band together or play in bars because she didn’t want me to make mistakes and get caught up with the wrong crowd.”

The breaks started when Naomi--always looking for an angle--learned that the father of a patient at the hospital where she was working was a record producer. She gave a demo tape to the girl, a classmate of Wynonna’s, and asked her to pass it on. The producer, Brent Maher, was impressed and he helped open doors. One of the doors led to manager Ken Stilts.

“I still remember when they came into the office and sang a song,” recalls Stilts. “Wynonna may talk about being nervous going out on stage on her own, but people forget that Wynonna was the one who pretty much had command of the stage in the beginning.

“Naomi was the one that was real unsure of herself on stage, very laid-back. As Wynonna saw her mother more comfortable, she began pulling back and just concentrated on singing. But I remember the impression Wynonna made on me that first day. I got home that night and told my wife, ‘You’re not going to believe this but I’ve just seen the female Elvis Presley.’ ”

Tony Brown, who produced Wynonna’s solo album, was working at RCA in 1983 when Stilts brought the duo to the label for an audition.

“Naomi gave her little spiel about being from this small town and all and she was real charming, but then Wy (her nickname) strapped on this guitar and she just knocked me out. Her voice blew me away and it has just gotten better.

“That’s why I couldn’t understand it when a lot of people around town seemed to have thought that Wynonna’s career was all over after Naomi’s illness. I felt bad for Naomi and was worried about her health, but career-wise all I see is that it is a sooner beginning for what was going to be anyway--Wynonna’s solo career.

“In country music, the emphasis now is definitely on new artists. Established artists have to be a little worried. To me, here was a new artist with a platinum base. How could you beat it?”

MCA Records executives may have had confidence in Wynonna, but they were also aware that some people in the industry wondered if Wynonna would be able to hold on to the Judds’ audience on her own. To challenge any doubts head on, the company launched an aggressive marketing and promotion campaign.

“We wanted to pull out all the stops to show we really were behind the record,” said Bruce Hinton, president of MCA Records--Nashville, sitting in his office near the Country Music Hall of Fame. “We wanted to send out a message that she’s still a superstar, even on her own . . . that nothing has changed.”

Hinton loved the first single, “She Is His Only Need,” and ordered his country promotion staff to play the record that day to the program director of every country music station in their area. He didn’t mean mail the record or drive it to the stations, but to play the record to the program directors over special, high-grade phone hook-ups.

The idea was to pre-sell the record by having every radio executive looking for the record when it arrived at the station.

The result was that the single received more first-week “adds”--or plays--than any other single ever by a female artist in country music: 180 of a possible 200 stations. The single has since gone to No. 1 on the Radio & Records national airplay chart.

“The impact of the record was initially huge because there was such a tremendous, pent-up interest among the programmers in whatever Wynonna did,” said Lon Helton, bureau chief of the trade publication’s Nashville office. “But then the record kept building because the public reaction was strong. Now we’re seeing the same type of response to the album.”

MCA didn’t just stop with radio. The staff also arranged for Wynonna to showcase the songs from the album in a private concert in Minneapolis for record retailers from around the country. Hinton said the retailers were so impressed that many of them went back and doubled their advance orders for the album.

“The feedback was tremendous,” Hinton said. “People kept calling saying, ‘What an incredible singer’ . . . ‘What a set of chops’ . . . ‘I had no idea she had this kind of feel and range.’ ”

Everything has been happening so fast that it’s only natural that Wynonna Judd likes to take the turquoise Harley out for a ride, just to escape from all the commotion. She would have ridden it to Dotson’s, but the sky is dark with rain clouds. So, the Harley was back in the barn on the 22-acre spread she owns about 10 miles away.

She has owned the land--with its reconditioned, picture-book farmhouse and cadre of animals, including dachshund Elvis with his own custom leather jacket--for four years, but she was so busy touring that she was unable to really settle in until she got off the road in December.

It’s a modest house by pop-star standards--the only sign of flash being the game room with its neon jukebox and colorful pool table.

Naomi lives eight miles down the road with her second husband, Larry Stickland, a singer who toured with a gospel group that backed Elvis Presley. Naomi has had lots of acting offers since announcing her retirement and she may explore acting if her health permits. She has been feeling good in recent weeks and is busy writing an autobiography.

Wynonna, meanwhile, explores her own future.

“It took me a while to understand that it was OK to go on my own,” she says, in the soft, tentative tone of a woman who is still exploring the changes in her life. “Even after I started recording my album, I would be home listening to tapes and I’d put them away when I heard Mom pull up in the driveway.

“I didn’t want her to feel I was disloyal or anything by just making the record. But eventually she sensed what I was going through and she helped me understand that it was OK, that I could leave the nest.”

Suddenly, Wynonna points to a television set across the room.

“Look,” she says, excitedly. “That’s my boyfriend (singer Tony King of the group Matthew, Wright & King) in the video . . . isn’t he cute?”

It’s the first time during the almost two-hour talk she has spoken about her personal life, a sign perhaps of how consuming her career has been over the last 10 years.

“It’s kinda funny,” she says when the video ends, “but despite all the places I’ve been and all the people I’ve met, I’ve still been pretty sheltered. It was hard meeting boys because I lived at home and my mom let me know right away if she didn’t like somebody. I met Tony in church. Mom likes him, everybody likes him.

“But, quite frankly, I haven’t had a lot of romance in my life. Instead of a date every Friday night, I was singing, living out my fantasies that way. I’d guess you’d say music was my first love.”

Given her wide range of influences, however, it is surprising to some observers that the material and arrangements tend to be so conservative.

Isn’t she tempted to incorporate in her music more of the rock or blues elements that she admires so much in the work of such favorite singers as Aretha Franklin, U2’s Bono and Bonnie Raitt?

No one is suggesting she compromise her country music foundation in a desperate grab for a “crossover pop” audience, but some look to her to stretch her horizons the way one of her idols, country-based Emmylou Harris, has been doing for years.

“She’s got the potential to be as good as anybody in country music since Patsy Cline,” said an executive at a rival record company.

“But she’s only going to reach it if she is willing to test herself and take some chances. It probably took all her time and energy just making the transition to a solo role, so we’ll probably have to wait until the next album to see where she’s really headed.”

Without trying to put any added pressure on the young singer, Al Teller, chairman of MCA Music Entertainment Group, is a big fan and sees her as someone like Garth Brooks who can appeal to a wide audience without compromising her style.

“I don’t think she just has a spectacular country music voice, but one of the most spectacular voices in music today--period,” he said. “I think there is an opportunity to carve out a major, major superstar career here. It’s a top priority for the whole company.”

Does Wynonna have that kind of strong career ambition?

Manager Ken Stilts sees a lot of it in his client. “Wynonna may have doubts at times, but she’s so competitive,” he says. “I think she is just beginning to realize what she can really do.”

On the topic of ambition, Wynonna pauses at Dotson’s to reflect on the question.

“I used to worry about that,” she says, finally. “The truth is I’ve never really had to test it. I’ve always had Mom to say, ‘At 3 o’clock we’re doing this, at 4 we are going to do that.’

“I’m just starting to find out what it’s like to have to make the decisions myself . . . and to find out who I am and what I can do and what I want to do. In a way, it seems like I’ve been in this business all my life, but in another way, it seems like I’m just starting.”