Judds to reunite at Stagecoach

Saying that “life is short and precious,” Wynonna Judd confirmed this week that she and her mother, Naomi Judd, will reunite on stage for the first time in seven years as the headliners of the 2008 Stagecoach Festival next May in Indio.

The Judds will perform the first night of the May 3-4 festival. This year’s lineup also features Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts and Gretchen Wilson. Tickets go on sale Nov. 16 for the show, in its second year at the Empire Polo Fields in the low desert city near Palm Springs.

“We’ve heard such amazing things about the festival,” the younger Judd said. “So it felt like the perfect time and place to honor the Judd history.”

The Judds were one of the signature country acts of the 1980s with 14 No. 1 hits on the country charts, among them “Mama He’s Crazy,” “Girls Night Out,” “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Old Days).” In 1991, after selling 20 million albums and winning five Grammys, the duo split as Naomi grappled with the debilitating effects of a hepatitis C infection. The Judds said goodbye in a big way with a 116-city road run that was highest-grossing tour in the U.S. in 1991 and climaxed in December of that year with a pay-per-view farewell show that broke records for viewership.

Naomi Judd became an author as well as a spokeswoman for the American Liver Foundation while Wynonna Judd went on to shape a solo career. (A second Judd daughter, Ashley, is a well-known actress.)

They did work together sporadically -- such as appearing in a high-profile Kmart commercial in the mid-1990s -- and then went on tour, which yielded the concert album “Reunion Live” in 2000.

Naomi Judd, 61, is cured of the hepatitis infection and in 2005 began her own talk show on the Hallmark Channel. Now it’s time to add a new chapter to one of the most successful family acts in recent decades, Wynonna said this week. But she was vague about the extent of the new collaboration.

“Although there are no immediate plans for Judd music aside from our show at the Stagecoach Festival, the door remains open,” the 43-year-old Kentucky native said. “I’ve often said that the future really is based on God’s timing, not our own. We’ll both know in our hearts when it’s time.”

The 2008 Stagecoach lineup also includes Dwight Yoakam, George Jones, Big & Rich, Dierks Bentley, Taylor Swift, Trace Adkins, Earl Scruggs, Shooter Jennings and Ralph Stanley.

The inaugural edition of the Stagecoach Festival last May brought in 25,000 fans its first day and 27,000 on Day 2. That was considered an especially strong showing for a start-up “country cousin” to the well-established Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, which launched in 1999 and has established itself as the marquee rock festival in California.

Rock promoter Paul Tollett, who runs both festivals with partner AEG Live, anticipates the country festival will quickly catch up to Coachella, which last year pulled in about 60,000 fans each of three days. The festivals are on successive weekends, so the Stagecoach announcement will likely spur a rush on hotel reservations in Indio for April 25-27.

Coachella has a tradition of reunion -- the Pixies, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Bauhaus -- and the Judds will give Stagecoach ( www.stagecoachfestival.com) its biggest “event” booking to date. Wynonna Judd said that she is as excited about the booking as the group’s fans.

“Our history is so deep and we have such an amazing connection that I know the minute we walk on stage, it’ll be as if we had sung together in a show the night before,” the singer said. “It’ll be that familiar feeling of picking up right where we left off.”

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geoff.boucher@latimes.com