Naomi Judd Interview (page: 2 / 5) Country Music Artist and Social Advocate	Print Interview

What was it like when you first opened for the Statler Brothers? You'd never seen that many people in one place before.

Naomi Judd: I know that life is made up of ordinary moments. That's the greatest percentage of our lives, but there are those tens on the emotional Richter scale that just go off the graph, whether it's your graduation or having a child or getting married. I realized how enormously privileged I am, because there are only a few people who ever get to play the London Palladium or headline at the Astrodome or Madison Square Garden.

One of the ultimate joys for me in these experiences -- of getting to perform for the first time in Omaha, Nebraska with the Statler Brothers -- is that I know I'm not special. There's absolutely nothing special or different about Naomi Ellen Judd, and I've always just felt like I am their representative. I just get to be the designated hitter. So, when I would get out on that stage and start twisting and twirling, I was doing it for all the single working moms, for all the women who were lonely and felt like they were just anonymous, just a victim or a face, living a paycheck away from the streets every week, or wondering how you're going to put a jar of chunky peanut butter on the table for the kids tomorrow night. I would be on that stage, or accepting a Grammy at a podium, or sitting on the couch of The Tonight Show, and it was such a humbling experience, because I just felt like I was their representative. I was just the one who got to have the nice dress and got to have the opportunity.
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We're lucky to have you up there.

Naomi Judd: One of the things I've been saying to these kids here at the Academy today is I'm not a magical being. None of us are born with our destiny stamped on our foreheads. And if they start to come up to me and they're crying or shaking and I get this vibe of "Oh, if I can just but touch the hem of her garment, I will be made whole" kind of thing, I just grab them by the shoulders and make eye contact, and I say, "Hey, come on. Let's get real here. I am just like you. You are just like me, and let's talk about what you want to do." We're just dreamers. That's all it is, man. We're just a bunch of dreamers.
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Maybe the adults here at the Academy are the charter members, and the kids are the initiates, but that's all it is. They've got parents. They've got teachers. We're just going to take it to a new level here. "Hey, we've got this club. Come on, we're all in this together."

When you were a kid, was there a particular person who really inspired you?

Naomi Judd: You know, I've been asked a lot the last years, in the career, in interviews, who were my role models and who were my idols and all that, and I suppose, the interviewer would expect me to say Joni Mitchell or Aretha Franklin or whatever. But actually, I have to acknowledge that the people who really just tattooed themselves on my mind and on my memory were people like my Aunt Pauline, who lived on a farm and didn't have running water, who communicated with animals and sort of knew her place in the scheme of things. She was such a gentle soul, and a very childlike spirit actually, who just had this wonderment, this awe about life. And all the patients that I'm taking care of in the hospital who had terminal illnesses, who were so resolute and so brave and so courageous, that it was a privilege to take care of them.
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You had a healing vocation, didn't you? You really saw yourself as somebody who would help people. What drew you to medicine and nursing?

Naomi Judd: You know, when I was a little girl, I could not tolerate human suffering. It wasn't even in the equation. Whether it was taking Barbie Henton her books from school because she had the mumps, I would have to go in and make sure she was okay for myself, and even risk getting it. Something happens, like this little switch gets flipped in my brain when I see someone in pain, whether it is physical or psychic. I have to do something. I have to react, and it's almost like a knee-jerk reaction. I just have to do something. I remember when we signed with RCA Records in 1983 in Nashville, and we were in show business. I was very clear to our manager and the heads of the label and to Wynonna and everyone, and I said, "Okay. I'm going to try this. If it turns out to be phony baloney, I'm out of here. I'm going to go back and catch babies in the woods. I'm going to do home visitation. I'm going to get my M.D."
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But the strangest thing happened. I finally got to be on stage for the first time, and I looked out at the sea of smiling faces in this steel and concrete sterile coliseum, and we were just levitating the building. I could feel that music was this transmitter between our souls. It gave us direct access to the seat of our souls. And when I would join in harmony with Wynonna, we just get zapped, and I thought, "Music is the language of the spirit. It's a healer. It expresses emotions that my words can't adequately define," and I went, "Yes!"
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