Latest / The Bob Lefsetz Podcast / Wynonna Judd
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.
- 0:12Speaker 1: My guest today is the one and only why Noona Judd,
- 0:17Speaker 1: which thanks the first question. I always thought it was Winona?
- 0:22Speaker 1: Is it Winona or why Nona? Seriously, it's what okay?
- 0:30Speaker 1: I I heard that the inspiration was the song Rude
- 0:35Speaker 1: sixty six. Is that true? It is true that it's
- 0:39Speaker 1: the Root sixties six. I was named after Whynny Harris Um,
- 0:45Speaker 1: a black blues man, and Ray Benson gave me my
- 0:48Speaker 1: name back when I was twelve or thirteen. Okay, how
- 0:55Speaker 1: did you encounter Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel
- 0:58Speaker 1: at aged twelve or thirteen? Interesting story. I ended up
- 1:02Speaker 1: in Austin, Texas with my mother and she was dating
- 1:06Speaker 1: one of the band members, and we would go every
- 1:09Speaker 1: night and sit and watch Asleep at the Wheel and
- 1:13Speaker 1: the fabulous Thunderbirds. And I grew to love Ray Um
- 1:17Speaker 1: as an elder, and he just took me under his wing,
- 1:22Speaker 1: and he loved me, and he had no idea I
- 1:25Speaker 1: sang by the way. I was very shy, and I
- 1:27Speaker 1: think he was just such a loving person that he
- 1:30Speaker 1: took me under his wing. And he and my mom
- 1:32Speaker 1: both decided that I wanted to change my name anyway
- 1:35Speaker 1: because Christina was just a little too boring. Okay, you
- 1:39Speaker 1: know there are a lot of famous musicians like Elton
- 1:42Speaker 1: John although we legally changed his name Roles Cooper, and
- 1:46Speaker 1: their regular life they go with their given name, in
- 1:48Speaker 1: his case Red or Vince. Do your friends call you
- 1:52Speaker 1: why no? No? Or do they call you Christina? They
- 1:55Speaker 1: call me why um? Christina? Uh is long past. That
- 2:02Speaker 1: was my go to school years high school. I think
- 2:05Speaker 1: I ended in tenth grade Christina and became Winona and
- 2:08Speaker 1: officially when I got my first check, Bob, I um
- 2:13Speaker 1: changed it legally to Winona. And when I got my
- 2:15Speaker 1: first check for twenty dollars singing here in Nashville, and
- 2:19Speaker 1: so I decided, okay, it's time here we go. Okay,
- 2:23Speaker 1: if we looked at your passport, what is the last name,
- 2:29Speaker 1: uh Judd? At this point, you know what, that's an
- 2:32Speaker 1: interesting question. I'm gonna have to go back. Is my
- 2:34Speaker 1: passport Christina Claire Simonela? No, it's why Nona Ellen Judd
- 2:37Speaker 1: because I changed it legally. That's right. I am a Gemini.
- 2:43Speaker 1: So I have two names for two people. Here. Are
- 2:46Speaker 1: you into astrology? I mean I I believe God created everything.
- 2:51Speaker 1: So hey, I'm I can go where you lead me.
- 2:54Speaker 1: I can go where you leave me. I'm not quite
- 2:57Speaker 1: sure where I'm going, but you're going when you better.
- 3:00Speaker 1: You're going to Mexico to the Girls Just Wanna Concert.
- 3:05Speaker 1: How did you get involved in that? That's a great question.
- 3:10Speaker 1: While I have a huge following and people just love music,
- 3:14Speaker 1: and Brandy Carlyle and I are joined forever. She's very,
- 3:19Speaker 1: very dear to me. When Mom died, I went on
- 3:21Speaker 1: tour and Brandy became my right hand and uh literally
- 3:26Speaker 1: my left lung. She became so immersed in the tour,
- 3:31Speaker 1: knew every song, knew every breath, knew everything, and I
- 3:34Speaker 1: just we got really close and I just love her,
- 3:37Speaker 1: and she invited me because she knows I'm really fun.
- 3:41Speaker 1: And I've pretty much done it all at this point, Bob,
- 3:44Speaker 1: at least at least twice. You know, I've done cruises,
- 3:48Speaker 1: I've done Hell's Angels, rallies, I've done the presidential six times,
- 3:52Speaker 1: president singing to and this is going to look good
- 3:56Speaker 1: on the resume because I'm going down to Mexico and
- 3:58Speaker 1: sing my Alma. She's crazy instead of Mama. He's crazy.
- 4:04Speaker 1: So here we go. Okay, so there a couple of questions.
- 4:07Speaker 1: How did you literally meet Brandy Carlisle. Oh, I met her.
- 4:12Speaker 1: Let's see, when was the first time. I'm trying to think, huh, Brandy,
- 4:19Speaker 1: When I met Brandy? What year? I think it was
- 4:22Speaker 1: two years ago. I met Brandy and all of a sudden,
- 4:27Speaker 1: I don't know how to explain it other than two
- 4:29Speaker 1: spirits collide and she's the closest thing to a sister
- 4:33Speaker 1: I've ever had. Okay, occasionally you talk to another person.
- 4:38Speaker 1: This is audio only, just for the people playing the
- 4:41Speaker 1: home game. Who are you talking to? I'm talking to
- 4:44Speaker 1: my right hand Lindsay. Because I don't do well with dates.
- 4:48Speaker 1: I could tell you what you were wearing, and I
- 4:50Speaker 1: could tell you what we were doing, eating and playing
- 4:53Speaker 1: what game. But I have a hard time remembering because
- 4:55Speaker 1: of my history or my my history. I have so
- 4:59Speaker 1: much that happened so fast, and so my brain has
- 5:01Speaker 1: a hard time remembering specific scheduled dates. So let's stay
- 5:06Speaker 1: with Randy for a second. How did you literally get
- 5:09Speaker 1: connected with her? Well? Through music and I she came
- 5:14Speaker 1: to Nashville. Um, I met her with Tanya Tucker as well,
- 5:17Speaker 1: and we just became fast friends. And when Mom died,
- 5:21Speaker 1: she literally stopped what she was doing and flew in
- 5:25Speaker 1: to sing at the memorial, and um, you always remember
- 5:28Speaker 1: who your people are there at moments like that, your
- 5:30Speaker 1: wedding or a funeral. Um. And Brandy became literally the
- 5:35Speaker 1: person that I sat in the um dressing room and
- 5:39Speaker 1: just wept openly because she and I trust her. I
- 5:42Speaker 1: trust her with my life really professionally and personally. She's
- 5:47Speaker 1: been to the farm, We've been on a side by
- 5:49Speaker 1: side together talking about Joni Mitchell and just loving music
- 5:54Speaker 1: and UM, I want I'm working on a song with
- 5:56Speaker 1: her right now. You say you're fun. Can you expand that? Well?
- 6:03Speaker 1: I think I have a little bit of a reputation
- 6:06Speaker 1: for being really serious, and I think it comes from
- 6:09Speaker 1: being stuck on a bus with my mom for ten years. Um,
- 6:14Speaker 1: and I I will say I lost a little bit
- 6:16Speaker 1: of my joy because everything was really strict and specific.
- 6:20Speaker 1: And I was raised She's a tough sum bitch and
- 6:23Speaker 1: I was raised with her, you know, being the boss lady.
- 6:27Speaker 1: And when I became solo, I went out and got
- 6:29Speaker 1: a tattoo and Bota Harley if that tells you anything.
- 6:35Speaker 1: And since then I've been trying to get away with
- 6:37Speaker 1: as much as I can legally, and I just really try,
- 6:43Speaker 1: I try really hard to not take all this so
- 6:45Speaker 1: stinking seriously because it gets really old, really fast. Okay,
- 6:50Speaker 1: so by time this year's because the event and the
- 6:54Speaker 1: plia is literally just a couple of days away. Are
- 6:56Speaker 1: you going to be the type person who's hanging in
- 6:58Speaker 1: your hotel room? Are you gonna be available? You're gonna
- 7:01Speaker 1: be drinking, You're gonna be smoking, and what's why? No,
- 7:04Speaker 1: They're gonna be like down in Mexico. You tell me,
- 7:07Speaker 1: I'm so ready to I bought a wig for eighties night.
- 7:11Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna wear Spandex because you know it's
- 7:12Speaker 1: coming back, and I'm gonna they want me to do
- 7:16Speaker 1: stuff like show up and do bingo and shoot, I'm available.
- 7:22Speaker 1: Let's put it that way. Brand If Brandy were to
- 7:24Speaker 1: call me up and say we're doing um, you know,
- 7:28Speaker 1: a congo line, I would run down and do it
- 7:30Speaker 1: because I'm I think it's really important in this day
- 7:33Speaker 1: and age to connect with people and more intimately, especially
- 7:36Speaker 1: because I think the business is so wacky that I'm
- 7:39Speaker 1: looking to literally meet the girl who says I have
- 7:42Speaker 1: no idea who you are. She's probably twenty something thirty something,
- 7:47Speaker 1: and she has no idea. And the only reason she
- 7:48Speaker 1: knows me is because of Brandy. That's the person I'm
- 7:51Speaker 1: seeking out. So if she calls me and says, hey,
- 7:53Speaker 1: come to the bar, bring it okay. So where do
- 7:59Speaker 1: you live right now? I don't want the address, but
- 8:03Speaker 1: you know, generally you can go on YouTube and find it. Um.
- 8:08Speaker 1: So I live on a farm. I bought land in
- 8:10Speaker 1: ninet for dollars an acre, and I live on a
- 8:14Speaker 1: five acre farm that's next to my mom's farm, and
- 8:18Speaker 1: we have a compound. Ashley lives on the land. I
- 8:21Speaker 1: gave her a house and she lives on the property,
- 8:24Speaker 1: and my mom's right next door her house. I talk
- 8:27Speaker 1: about her still like she's here, which is interesting. Um.
- 8:31Speaker 1: And then I live on the other side. It's sort
- 8:33Speaker 1: of like a v if you were to make a triangle.
- 8:35Speaker 1: That's the strongest force in the universe. And we live
- 8:39Speaker 1: in a triangle and we have a lake that separates us.
- 8:42Speaker 1: And how far is this from so called civilization? Let's
- 8:46Speaker 1: see here. I think the smallest town is about three
- 8:49Speaker 1: or four miles away, and it's tiny. No stoplight, people
- 8:52Speaker 1: walk right, horses, and it's just it's like genteel. It's
- 8:57Speaker 1: just a really cool little town. It's like what Aspen
- 8:59Speaker 1: probably doably was when it first started. And then you
- 9:02Speaker 1: go into town, probably ten miles into Franklin, and that's
- 9:05Speaker 1: our big city. And for those who were not tennessee, uh, connoisseurs,
- 9:11Speaker 1: Franklin is how far from Nashville. Let's see, I would
- 9:14Speaker 1: say Franklin is about forty five minutes to an hour
- 9:17Speaker 1: from downtown Nashville and then music Row. I would say
- 9:21Speaker 1: I could make it there in about forty two minutes.
- 9:24Speaker 1: Sure not it's forty three. But okay. You talk about
- 9:30Speaker 1: having a very strict mother, one would think you wouldn't
- 9:34Speaker 1: live on the same piece of property. Well, there's a fence.
- 9:40Speaker 1: There's a really good fence. Um. You know, that's an
- 9:43Speaker 1: interesting thing because the more I see the story from
- 9:47Speaker 1: where I'm at right now, now that she's gone, as
- 9:50Speaker 1: much as I did to get away from the strict um,
- 9:56Speaker 1: she was really all I had. You know, some people
- 10:00Speaker 1: would say, you know, Stockholm syndrome, you're gonna go crazy
- 10:05Speaker 1: there for a minute. And then some people would say, well,
- 10:08Speaker 1: they just didn't know any better. I think I think
- 10:11Speaker 1: it was the way it was in my life. She
- 10:13Speaker 1: was so centerpiece. In other words, I worked for her. Um.
- 10:17Speaker 1: Everything was about yes ma'am and no ma'am. Okay, you're
- 10:22Speaker 1: on the farm. How social are you, whether seeing people
- 10:26Speaker 1: in person, staying in contact with eye, message or however
- 10:29Speaker 1: you might or you more of a home body doing
- 10:31Speaker 1: your own thing. I'm an I'm an omnivert, which is
- 10:36Speaker 1: both omnivert. Uh. It depends on the day. It depends
- 10:41Speaker 1: on whether or not I have on makeup. I'm a loner.
- 10:44Speaker 1: I walk in the wilderness. I have eleven dogs and
- 10:47Speaker 1: close to forty animals, and so I have my farm life.
- 10:52Speaker 1: We grow a garden. We are home bodies. Yet I'm very,
- 10:57Speaker 1: very used to going into town and how having a
- 11:00Speaker 1: burger at the local diner there and people know me
- 11:04Speaker 1: first name. You know, how's it going? When? When does
- 11:07Speaker 1: your tour start? Would you like a hot dog or
- 11:11Speaker 1: a hamburger? And here's a coke? And it's just small town.
- 11:15Speaker 1: It's awesome because people don't really care because a lot
- 11:18Speaker 1: of us live out there. Just so you know, Bob,
- 11:20Speaker 1: we live in It's sort of an area where next
- 11:23Speaker 1: to me, is Carrie Underwood down the streets Riba. There's
- 11:26Speaker 1: a bunch of people out there that have decided they
- 11:29Speaker 1: want to live out on the land and not be
- 11:31Speaker 1: you know, downtown Nashville. And you see you have a farm.
- 11:35Speaker 1: We talk about a garden. Uh. You know, are you
- 11:39Speaker 1: a gentle person farmer? Do you have horses? You go
- 11:44Speaker 1: out on your a t V? Or you just have
- 11:46Speaker 1: enough land so you don't have to be right up
- 11:48Speaker 1: next to the HOI POI I'm in it to win it.
- 11:52Speaker 1: I'm I'm in the mud. Um. The garden is my life.
- 11:56Speaker 1: When it's planted. I completely cook. I put in a
- 11:59Speaker 1: pro kitchen. I cooked for forty over Thanksgiving, and um, yeah,
- 12:05Speaker 1: you can come to my house and I'll cook for you.
- 12:08Speaker 1: I'm known as why Hop. I make a mean breakfast
- 12:14Speaker 1: a brunch. If you will be uh at the table
- 12:17Speaker 1: that seats twelve, and we will sit there and we
- 12:19Speaker 1: will talk about life um on the farm. And then
- 12:23Speaker 1: I'll turn around and put on my sparkles and my
- 12:27Speaker 1: undergarments and go out. And I'm, you know, the queen
- 12:29Speaker 1: of the night. Uh. It's an interesting life. I love
- 12:32Speaker 1: the farm. I love to get dirty. I lived two lives.
- 12:35Speaker 1: In other words, who are the forty people who came
- 12:38Speaker 1: for Thanksgiving? People that I really like. I decided to
- 12:44Speaker 1: go with people that I really like this time. It
- 12:46Speaker 1: was really, really fair and wonderful. These people were as
- 12:49Speaker 1: close to normal as I've ever had in my life.
- 12:52Speaker 1: Normal is just in our family, a cycle on the
- 12:54Speaker 1: washing machine. So I ordered, um, let's see a eat tenderloins,
- 13:02Speaker 1: and I suvied, and I cooked everything from scratch, including
- 13:05Speaker 1: the cornbread for the dressing. And I invited my son
- 13:08Speaker 1: and his wife. My son has been with his girlfriend
- 13:12Speaker 1: since they were fifteen years old. Elijah is my assault
- 13:16Speaker 1: of the earth, and um, he's been married now for
- 13:20Speaker 1: a couple of years. And I invited his whole family,
- 13:22Speaker 1: her whole family. So that was like fifteen right there.
- 13:26Speaker 1: So I I literally ordered enough food for the people
- 13:30Speaker 1: that are the closest to me. We're hillbillies, I'll be
- 13:33Speaker 1: honest with you. We don't do fancy. We do paper plates,
- 13:37Speaker 1: and um, we just hang out, you know. We do
- 13:40Speaker 1: a bonfire and we sit around and some drink whiskey
- 13:43Speaker 1: and some drink you know, kool aid, and the kids
- 13:47Speaker 1: come and the dogs bark, and we're we're dysfunctional, okay,
- 13:53Speaker 1: and it works. Would you cook suvied the tenderloin? It
- 14:00Speaker 1: was to another method. That's a really good question. I
- 14:03Speaker 1: think I did it because I wanted to try something fancy.
- 14:06Speaker 1: I wanted to be like, you know, the chef of
- 14:08Speaker 1: the of the deal. And Thanksgiving for me this year
- 14:12Speaker 1: was really painful. Um My mama has a cookbook, and
- 14:15Speaker 1: I went and got some of the recipes from the cookbook,
- 14:18Speaker 1: and my grandmother and my nana she cooked for about
- 14:21Speaker 1: forty people on a riverboat every night. So we're known
- 14:24Speaker 1: for our Southern cooking. And I just wanted it to
- 14:27Speaker 1: be a little fancier. And I didn't want to do
- 14:29Speaker 1: it Turkey necessarily because we had it on an alternative day.
- 14:32Speaker 1: I'm the alternative parent, just so you know, I'm the
- 14:34Speaker 1: one that says, Okay, Christmas is gonna come on the
- 14:37Speaker 1: twenty one this year, because everybody's got divorced parents, you
- 14:41Speaker 1: know how it is. Families are um split in a
- 14:45Speaker 1: lot of ways, and Thanksgiving as stressful. So I did
- 14:47Speaker 1: it on a day where people just wanted to come
- 14:49Speaker 1: over and hang out, and it was beautiful because it
- 14:52Speaker 1: was an alternative to the stress and the pressure of commercialization.
- 14:57Speaker 1: So how did you learn how to cook suvied which
- 14:59Speaker 1: is cook in water for those who don't know. It's French. Yeah,
- 15:04Speaker 1: I learned it from I had a chef for ten
- 15:06Speaker 1: years and she taught me an awful lot about different things,
- 15:09Speaker 1: and I just thought, you know, it's something that I
- 15:11Speaker 1: want to do because you can put it in the bath,
- 15:13Speaker 1: the hot bath, the water bath, and you can leave
- 15:16Speaker 1: it for four hours in the tech and the tenderloin
- 15:18Speaker 1: stays at the same temperature for all that time, and
- 15:22Speaker 1: then you take it out. It's a reverse seer, and
- 15:25Speaker 1: you take it out and you see her the crap
- 15:27Speaker 1: out of it on your cast iron skillet. I don't
- 15:29Speaker 1: do much without a cast iron skillet, by the way.
- 15:32Speaker 1: And then you just are like, wow, this is exciting.
- 15:36Speaker 1: I can taste it right now. I love good tenderloind
- 15:39Speaker 1: You know you've gone on in your history about your
- 15:41Speaker 1: relationship with food and body image. Where are you at
- 15:44Speaker 1: on that now? Well, I'll be fifty nine in May.
- 15:50Speaker 1: Where am I with body image? That's a really good question.
- 15:53Speaker 1: I don't know how to answer that. I will tell
- 15:55Speaker 1: you I work really hard at acceptance. There's so much
- 15:59Speaker 1: I would change change, And without going into too much detail,
- 16:03Speaker 1: I will tell you this, I don't weigh and I
- 16:06Speaker 1: don't worry as much as I used to. I used
- 16:08Speaker 1: to worry so much about it. I used to fret
- 16:10Speaker 1: and just stay on myself, and I just don't do
- 16:14Speaker 1: that anymore. I have a husband who loves me, who's
- 16:16Speaker 1: been in my life since I was twenty six, and um,
- 16:21Speaker 1: I think I'm okay today, Ask me tomorrow. It may
- 16:24Speaker 1: be different. Okay. And in terms of health and exercise,
- 16:29Speaker 1: you're just doing what feels good or do you have
- 16:31Speaker 1: a regiment or a trainer? Yes, it depends on the tour,
- 16:37Speaker 1: depends on I'm getting ready to go on tour and
- 16:39Speaker 1: do three back to back shows a week, twenty six
- 16:43Speaker 1: songs a night, so I've got to, you know, increase
- 16:46Speaker 1: my cardio. I kind of do it as I need to. Um.
- 16:50Speaker 1: As you know, as you grow older, you lose muscle.
- 16:52Speaker 1: So I'm having to work with a trainer on the
- 16:55Speaker 1: waits part because I'm not really that savvy when it
- 16:59Speaker 1: comes to working out in a gym. So I do
- 17:02Speaker 1: have a trainer and I have somebody who helps me
- 17:03Speaker 1: with that. And then I walk out on the farm,
- 17:06Speaker 1: I do what's called meditative walking. You know, when you
- 17:09Speaker 1: walk out in the wilderness, you whether you cry or
- 17:12Speaker 1: cuss or pray, it's a time to just be in
- 17:15Speaker 1: the woods. And that's my favorite. That's actually my favorite
- 17:19Speaker 1: because I don't realize that I'm exercising. I walk because
- 17:22Speaker 1: it just feels good and I'm going somewhere where I
- 17:24Speaker 1: love the farm. And is the ground relatively flat or hilly?
- 17:30Speaker 1: It's both. It depends on where you go on the farm. Um,
- 17:33Speaker 1: when you get to the lake, it goes up the
- 17:35Speaker 1: hill and it's an amazing piece of land. I can
- 17:39Speaker 1: honestly say that it's in the heart of one of
- 17:41Speaker 1: the most beautiful pieces of land in Tennessee, and so
- 17:45Speaker 1: many people want to live there. It's again like very
- 17:47Speaker 1: much like Aspen. It started out. It's a small town
- 17:50Speaker 1: that turned into an incredible, incredibly popular and everybody wants
- 17:55Speaker 1: to be there. You know, the busses are coming with
- 17:58Speaker 1: the or addresses of all. Yeah, the tourists are coming,
- 18:02Speaker 1: the buses are coming, and people are wanting to come
- 18:05Speaker 1: out there and be a part of our society because
- 18:08Speaker 1: it's just so different. The sun goes down, then what
- 18:12Speaker 1: do you do. Gosh, it depends. Um, I'm making supper tonight.
- 18:17Speaker 1: I make supper pretty much every night. I cook for
- 18:20Speaker 1: my husband. I have a thing about that, and I
- 18:22Speaker 1: think being married to your manager husband, drummer, band member,
- 18:27Speaker 1: we're together all the time, and I try to pick
- 18:29Speaker 1: things to do for him during the daytime that don't
- 18:32Speaker 1: involve business. So we turn off our phones, we sit down,
- 18:37Speaker 1: we have dinner. We've been watching you know, Yellowstone and
- 18:41Speaker 1: all the shows that are on Netflix. I don't watch
- 18:44Speaker 1: a lot of TV unless it's something, and of course
- 18:46Speaker 1: I always say it I tape it because I come
- 18:49Speaker 1: from cassettes. But we record stuff and we watch it. Um,
- 18:53Speaker 1: if it's nice outside, we go sit outside and we
- 18:55Speaker 1: do a lot of fire. I'm a fire maniac. I
- 18:58Speaker 1: love fire. Can't have enough fire places. I do would
- 19:01Speaker 1: fires as many times as I can per week. So
- 19:05Speaker 1: it's it's outside. We live outside as much as we can.
- 19:09Speaker 1: And where does the wood come from the farm? Do
- 19:13Speaker 1: you cut it yourself? And your husband cuts it yourself.
- 19:16Speaker 1: We have a farm manager that cuts it and we
- 19:18Speaker 1: do log on the farm. That's what kept me going
- 19:21Speaker 1: during the pandemic was logging, and we cut down very
- 19:26Speaker 1: few trees, and because we've had tornadoes. We live where
- 19:29Speaker 1: the tornadoes hit us, and so we had three thousand
- 19:32Speaker 1: trees that we took down out of the farm that
- 19:35Speaker 1: we're blown down by the tornadoes. We're a hearty bunch
- 19:40Speaker 1: and we get it done okay. And when you're off,
- 19:44Speaker 1: when you're not on the road and forgetting, as you
- 19:47Speaker 1: put it, the pandemic. Do you travel for sport, whether
- 19:51Speaker 1: it be in America, Europe, whatever, or if you're not
- 19:54Speaker 1: working your home. Absolutely again, I'm a loner. I like
- 19:59Speaker 1: to be on myself. Um. I love to be with
- 20:02Speaker 1: the animals. We have miniature donkeys and pigs and chickens,
- 20:05Speaker 1: and I love to cook and be around people that
- 20:08Speaker 1: I love. My son and his wife are still living
- 20:11Speaker 1: with us until next week when they close on their house,
- 20:13Speaker 1: their very first house, and I like to be at home.
- 20:17Speaker 1: I've designed the house to where I don't have to
- 20:20Speaker 1: leave if I don't want to. We have the studio
- 20:22Speaker 1: there on the property, so Robert Ware came out to
- 20:26Speaker 1: the farm and walked into the studio right there right
- 20:29Speaker 1: behind our house. I have a golf cart and I
- 20:31Speaker 1: go back and forth and we live on the farm.
- 20:34Speaker 1: We live and work on the farm. I had to
- 20:36Speaker 1: come into town today because our WIFEI is out, so
- 20:39Speaker 1: we still live in the country where we have to
- 20:42Speaker 1: deal with the realities. Okay, if you're a loner, how
- 20:46Speaker 1: does that work in relationships? Mm hmm, that's a really
- 20:52Speaker 1: great question. I have what I call the dream team
- 20:58Speaker 1: of people around me, and I'm not really very social.
- 21:01Speaker 1: I don't go out to parties and I don't really
- 21:03Speaker 1: go to events anymore. I used to back when I
- 21:06Speaker 1: was in my twenties. And you know, I think it's
- 21:09Speaker 1: because I'm working on a record right now. I'll talk seasonally.
- 21:13Speaker 1: We're working on a record right now, we're working on
- 21:15Speaker 1: the tour. I'm working on writing a book and doing
- 21:19Speaker 1: a cookbook, and I'm always working on projects. Like you
- 21:22Speaker 1: you know, we're always working. We're always doing something. So
- 21:26Speaker 1: I like to spend time doing that, and then when
- 21:28Speaker 1: I'm not doing that, I like to get away with
- 21:30Speaker 1: us with doing as little as possible because my life
- 21:34Speaker 1: is so um. I just met with my doctor yesterday
- 21:36Speaker 1: and she said, you know, let's talk about your adrenal
- 21:39Speaker 1: glands started laughing and I said, I don't know how
- 21:43Speaker 1: I do it because I have so much energy. Um,
- 21:47Speaker 1: I'm just always doing stuff, man, I'm always looking for
- 21:50Speaker 1: something to do. Okay, So let's just say it's you
- 21:52Speaker 1: and your husband in the house. Does he know to
- 21:55Speaker 1: leave you alone at certain times? You're in your own head,
- 21:58Speaker 1: you're doing your own thing. He's a cowboy, he's a maverick.
- 22:02Speaker 1: He's my king. He's always doing something. And I have
- 22:05Speaker 1: to actually either text him down at the studio and
- 22:08Speaker 1: say supper is ready, or I have to walk where
- 22:11Speaker 1: he is and say, hey, let's go take a walk
- 22:14Speaker 1: or do something. And he Tomorrow night is date night,
- 22:17Speaker 1: so we have date night. And he's really good about
- 22:21Speaker 1: He's very maternal. Yet he is a cowboy and so
- 22:24Speaker 1: he's always eas either riding horses, working on a song,
- 22:29Speaker 1: smoking a cigar and drinking his whiskey, or shooting his gun.
- 22:34Speaker 1: So he's a pretty busy guy. And so we get
- 22:38Speaker 1: together usually after six thirty seven o'clock at night. We
- 22:41Speaker 1: sort of have a date every night for supper. And
- 22:46Speaker 1: he tragically lost his leg, uh in a motorcycle accident.
- 22:51Speaker 1: But you showed me a picture before we started of
- 22:54Speaker 1: him skiing, So how have he and you coped with
- 23:00Speaker 1: the loss of his leg? Well, if you know cactus
- 23:04Speaker 1: mosure um, it's really hard to tell that he doesn't
- 23:09Speaker 1: have a leg. He is the most honestly. I heard
- 23:14Speaker 1: him complain one time when he lost the leg back
- 23:17Speaker 1: three months after we got married, and he said, honey,
- 23:20Speaker 1: I'm different, and I said, I know that, and I
- 23:22Speaker 1: took care of him and that We have a documentary
- 23:25Speaker 1: called The Road Back, and we talked about the entire experience,
- 23:30Speaker 1: which was tragic because he's a drummer, and he's one
- 23:33Speaker 1: of the great drummers um in our industry. How do
- 23:37Speaker 1: we deal with it? He he deals with it like
- 23:40Speaker 1: it didn't happen. Almost, It's like it's the it's the craziest,
- 23:44Speaker 1: most wonderful thing, because he just doesn't talk about it.
- 23:47Speaker 1: And the only time I notice it is when he
- 23:49Speaker 1: comes rolling in the kitchen for breakfast without his leg.
- 23:54Speaker 1: Otherwise he puts on that leg and it's like, let's go,
- 23:57Speaker 1: let's kick some ass. And he just doesn't let it
- 24:00Speaker 1: get him down. He just doesn't. And you know, he'll
- 24:03Speaker 1: cuss if it gets you know, if it moves the
- 24:06Speaker 1: wrong way or something every now and then. But I've
- 24:09Speaker 1: never known anybody as positive and as joy filled his
- 24:13Speaker 1: Cactus Mosure. He's um the love of my life. I've
- 24:17Speaker 1: I've loved him since I was twenty six years old,
- 24:19Speaker 1: when I met him on tour with Highway one oh
- 24:21Speaker 1: one opening for the juds. And where does this leave you?
- 24:25Speaker 1: On motorcycles, I haven't sitting in my driveway. I mean
- 24:29Speaker 1: in my driveway in the the garage. I haven't sold
- 24:34Speaker 1: it yet. I haven't ridden since the accident, and I
- 24:36Speaker 1: probably never will. We're sticking to horses. Okay, so you
- 24:48Speaker 1: met Cactus when you were twenty six, but you were
- 24:51Speaker 1: married before, you had relationships before. What you learn about
- 24:56Speaker 1: relationships now, I'm not really good at them. Um. I'm
- 25:03Speaker 1: such a an emotional, impath kind of girl that I
- 25:07Speaker 1: didn't have any boundaries and I didn't have any way of,
- 25:12Speaker 1: um saying no. And I'm such a chronic people pleaser
- 25:16Speaker 1: that I had a really rough time. That's why I
- 25:19Speaker 1: didn't date very much. I think I had one boyfriend
- 25:21Speaker 1: at eighteen, and then I got really really famous, which
- 25:24Speaker 1: is kind of hard to get a date when your
- 25:26Speaker 1: mom's standing right there. And uh, I just didn't date
- 25:30Speaker 1: very often, and when I did, it was usually I
- 25:33Speaker 1: just took a date to the Award show of somebody
- 25:34Speaker 1: that I knew, like Dwight Yoakum. You know, I was
- 25:36Speaker 1: always hanging out with the guys, and yet I was
- 25:41Speaker 1: so very very shy, very painfully shy. And what happened
- 25:44Speaker 1: to me when I wrote about it in my book,
- 25:46Speaker 1: I just didn't trust men, and I didn't hang out
- 25:50Speaker 1: with them romantically. I hung out with them as my
- 25:52Speaker 1: brothers on the road. The crew is always my my brothers.
- 25:55Speaker 1: Those were the people that I grew up with the most.
- 25:57Speaker 1: Those are my memories of having the crew, being with
- 26:00Speaker 1: the crew and there my family. So um. I didn't
- 26:05Speaker 1: have a boyfriend at the time I met Cactus, and
- 26:07Speaker 1: when I did meet him, I was so in love
- 26:09Speaker 1: and my mom knew it, and she and I fought
- 26:11Speaker 1: a lot because she was like, no, hell no, you're
- 26:13Speaker 1: not going to date a musician. Of course, I would say,
- 26:16Speaker 1: he's not a musician, he's a drummer, and then we
- 26:19Speaker 1: would fight until dawn. Okay, you met him at twenty six.
- 26:23Speaker 1: She didn't marry him for a number of years. So
- 26:26Speaker 1: you fought with your mother. Then what happened? Then? Then
- 26:30Speaker 1: I met a guy and I had two children and
- 26:33Speaker 1: I got married The second time, because I got pregnant
- 26:36Speaker 1: without being married, and back then it was like, oh,
- 26:40Speaker 1: that doesn't work. And so I got married and then
- 26:43Speaker 1: I got divorced and spent three years walking in the
- 26:47Speaker 1: wilderness by myself, raising two kids. And then I met
- 26:51Speaker 1: my then husband, who was my bodyguard at the time,
- 26:55Speaker 1: and then uh, yeah, that went to hell. So here
- 27:01Speaker 1: I am. Was it a matter of meeting Cactus? He
- 27:04Speaker 1: was the one your mother wouldn't let you be with him,
- 27:07Speaker 1: and you had to go on this circuitous route to
- 27:09Speaker 1: get back to him. Yes, my mom got sick, just
- 27:13Speaker 1: so you know. We were on tour together for a
- 27:15Speaker 1: year and he kissed me and that was it. I
- 27:18Speaker 1: would have married him, you know then. But Mom got
- 27:21Speaker 1: really sick and she went to the Mayo clinic and
- 27:24Speaker 1: I went with her, and Cactus called me up and
- 27:26Speaker 1: said I'll go with you, and I said, no, I
- 27:28Speaker 1: need to take care of my mom. And so her
- 27:31Speaker 1: illness sort of became, you know, front and center. And
- 27:34Speaker 1: then we went on tour and everything got really chaotic
- 27:37Speaker 1: and crazy, crazy crazy. So he went on to l
- 27:41Speaker 1: A became one of the great session players out there,
- 27:44Speaker 1: and met his wife and got married and they had
- 27:48Speaker 1: three kids, and so I have two and so together
- 27:51Speaker 1: we have five. So how do you reconnect well as
- 27:56Speaker 1: life would have it? Um, I walked into a bar, uh,
- 28:01Speaker 1: sort of one of those speakeasies here in our little
- 28:04Speaker 1: town of Franklin, and he was playing drums and I
- 28:08Speaker 1: saw him and it was like, oh my god. And
- 28:11Speaker 1: it was thirty years after you know, we went on
- 28:14Speaker 1: tour together and my mom was right over there with
- 28:17Speaker 1: me and I told Rus, said, don't you even my fingers?
- 28:21Speaker 1: And we reconnected? He said, um, call me and I
- 28:26Speaker 1: called his cell and he had separated from his wife
- 28:29Speaker 1: and I had separated from my husband, and we went
- 28:33Speaker 1: on a date. And that was it, like thank you
- 28:36Speaker 1: very much. Wow. And then you know, it's very difficult
- 28:44Speaker 1: to raise kids when you're a famous working person. M hm.
- 28:50Speaker 1: And how was that for you? You know, I I
- 28:56Speaker 1: have to say that this is interesting you're asking me
- 28:59Speaker 1: this because I haven't talked to out this a lot.
- 29:01Speaker 1: I wanted to be a mom ever since I was
- 29:03Speaker 1: a teenager, and I knew. I even said I will
- 29:06Speaker 1: have a baby at thirty and I did. Elijah Jed
- 29:10Speaker 1: saved my life and I wrote a book called titled
- 29:14Speaker 1: Coming Home to myself, because when I got pregnant and
- 29:18Speaker 1: I was this you know, super duper working girl out
- 29:22Speaker 1: there on the road and headlining and the pressures of
- 29:25Speaker 1: being yeah and the public eye and touring and all
- 29:28Speaker 1: the stuff that comes with it. When I got pregnant,
- 29:31Speaker 1: it took everything and put it aside because being pregnant
- 29:35Speaker 1: was all I cared about. I traveled with a doppler,
- 29:38Speaker 1: I listened to the heartbeat every day, and I was
- 29:41Speaker 1: in love. And I think it's the first time in
- 29:43Speaker 1: my life, Bob, that I just felt like I was
- 29:47Speaker 1: with myself and I was not just a working person
- 29:50Speaker 1: that I really, you know, had something to look forward
- 29:53Speaker 1: to that was my own that I didn't have to
- 29:56Speaker 1: you know, necessarily put out like product and get you know,
- 30:01Speaker 1: judged for it if you will. Having a baby is
- 30:03Speaker 1: such an intimate process that I became infatuated with the
- 30:07Speaker 1: whole process. And I took a year off. I went
- 30:09Speaker 1: and paid everybody for the year. I had a hundred
- 30:12Speaker 1: date tour and um, I paid everybody and went home
- 30:16Speaker 1: for a year and just had a baby and sat
- 30:19Speaker 1: home and made homemade baby food and sat by the
- 30:24Speaker 1: fire and just had a baby. And it was one
- 30:26Speaker 1: of the most glorious experiences of my life. So you
- 30:30Speaker 1: talked about Elijah has this storybook relationship with a girl
- 30:35Speaker 1: that he met at a young age. To what degree
- 30:38Speaker 1: is he independent? Now? To what degree is he on
- 30:40Speaker 1: the payroll? Oh, he's not in the payroll. As a
- 30:43Speaker 1: matter of fact. He won't let me pay for stuff.
- 30:46Speaker 1: He's very, very independent as a matter of fact. Um,
- 30:52Speaker 1: we argue sometimes about, you know what, let me do it.
- 30:55Speaker 1: Because he's a canine officer, he's a first responder, so
- 30:58Speaker 1: he has three job abs. He met his girlfriend at
- 31:01Speaker 1: a football game when they were fifteen. They're now married.
- 31:04Speaker 1: They just bought their first house. They closed next week,
- 31:07Speaker 1: and I offered to help him with something and he said, nope, Mom,
- 31:12Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it myself and he'll come out on
- 31:16Speaker 1: the road with me and I'll have him work a
- 31:18Speaker 1: few dates as security and I'll pay him through Wine
- 31:22Speaker 1: on It Incorporated. But he will not let me pay
- 31:24Speaker 1: for stuff. And he's adamant about it. Wow, that's a rare.
- 31:30Speaker 1: It's very rare, and I know it, and yet I
- 31:32Speaker 1: continue to try to push and give and give and give,
- 31:35Speaker 1: and he's just like, Mom, you know what, last year, Bob,
- 31:38Speaker 1: I gave him some land on the farm, and that
- 31:40Speaker 1: to him is everything, and that's enough, and he won't
- 31:44Speaker 1: let me do more. So that's sort of like the
- 31:47Speaker 1: creme de la creme. That's pretty amazing. Um, let's talk
- 31:53Speaker 1: about your mother. You know, not only did your mother die,
- 31:57Speaker 1: she took her own life. My best friend of the
- 32:00Speaker 1: same thing. It's a very strange experience of mental health
- 32:04Speaker 1: issues once again, but it's a very public thing for you.
- 32:09Speaker 1: And she's your mother. My mother died two years ago
- 32:13Speaker 1: like that a Rolling Stone song, and my mother certainly
- 32:16Speaker 1: was not famous. I have mixed emotions, and there's a
- 32:20Speaker 1: famous book out right now someone wrote about that they're
- 32:24Speaker 1: glad their mother died. So you know, what's it like
- 32:30Speaker 1: coping with all this. Well, I just wrote a line
- 32:39Speaker 1: in a song with my husband that said, I'm somewhere
- 32:42Speaker 1: between hell and Hallelujah. Yeah, I I thought of it
- 32:50Speaker 1: just because of my experience. Um, the pain has stopped, hallelujah.
- 32:57Speaker 1: The pain has stopped. The hell is going over to
- 33:02Speaker 1: her house and seeing all her stuff and she's gone,
- 33:05Speaker 1: And that's just not something you can talk about without crying.
- 33:08Speaker 1: Or I have three people that I call um that
- 33:12Speaker 1: I literally did work this morning on why is it
- 33:16Speaker 1: that I'm still so angry? Why can't I seem to
- 33:18Speaker 1: get past the anger piece? And it's because grieving is
- 33:22Speaker 1: a crazy mother trucker. There's no way you can say, well,
- 33:27Speaker 1: in five months, I'll do this and tomorrow I'll do that. Um.
- 33:32Speaker 1: My mother struggled and I knew it, and I always
- 33:35Speaker 1: kept I felt like I was keeping a secret. So
- 33:39Speaker 1: I'm grateful that the secret is no longer because secrets
- 33:43Speaker 1: keep you sick. And we all know about that one
- 33:46Speaker 1: who we've had experiences with, and my mother took her
- 33:51Speaker 1: own life is devastating because that's not how the story
- 33:54Speaker 1: is supposed to end. And so I'm really really frustrated
- 33:58Speaker 1: with the whole thing of having to talk about it
- 34:01Speaker 1: in interviews and explain it to people where I'm at,
- 34:04Speaker 1: because I know people are curious and I understand that,
- 34:07Speaker 1: and as we all know, online lots of buttholes and opinions,
- 34:12Speaker 1: and um, I just try to live as honestly as
- 34:14Speaker 1: I can. I struggle a lot at night. That's when
- 34:19Speaker 1: the noise is really really really loud, and so I
- 34:23Speaker 1: walk the halls and I pray, and sometimes I cry
- 34:25Speaker 1: and sometimes I write, and UM, I have a granddaughter
- 34:29Speaker 1: who gives me an incredible amount of hope. You know,
- 34:34Speaker 1: both of my parents are dead at this point, which
- 34:36Speaker 1: is kind of weird to say, but as I say,
- 34:41Speaker 1: it's very sad when they passed. But there's also a
- 34:43Speaker 1: certain freedom involved. Remember when my father died, and died
- 34:47Speaker 1: at a relatively young age by today's standards, at seventy
- 34:51Speaker 1: of cancer, and my mother had a car accident. If
- 34:53Speaker 1: you had a dent in the car with my father,
- 34:55Speaker 1: he would go berserk, and she realized, well, she could
- 34:58Speaker 1: just take the car and get it fit. It wasn't
- 35:00Speaker 1: like the biggest crisis. And my mother was both my
- 35:04Speaker 1: inspiration and my nemesis. So has there been any relief
- 35:12Speaker 1: amongst the tragedy? That is a really interesting word. I
- 35:20Speaker 1: wouldn't say relief. I think I feel a sense of
- 35:23Speaker 1: a new season starting of independence. So I don't know
- 35:28Speaker 1: if the word relief fits me. I know that I feel. Um,
- 35:34Speaker 1: I'll give you an example of a story, because I
- 35:36Speaker 1: love telling stories, because I think that's how people learn
- 35:38Speaker 1: the best. Um. I was on stage. I was at
- 35:41Speaker 1: sound check and they were playing the video behind me
- 35:43Speaker 1: of mom and I don't know, it just it caught
- 35:47Speaker 1: me really out of nowhere. It just caught me, and
- 35:50Speaker 1: I turned right around and looked at the at the
- 35:54Speaker 1: screen and I said, um, I've lost ten pounds mom,
- 35:59Speaker 1: and ever I started laughing, and I just kind of
- 36:01Speaker 1: caught myself, like I'm still doing it. You know. I
- 36:04Speaker 1: still feel the the tug of war sometimes with her,
- 36:08Speaker 1: the love and the not so much, and I still
- 36:12Speaker 1: feel it. I still feel so mad at her because
- 36:15Speaker 1: I wanted to come back so I can argue with her.
- 36:17Speaker 1: And the last fight we ever had, I told her
- 36:20Speaker 1: that if she didn't stop talking that I was going
- 36:23Speaker 1: to pull her wig off and hit her with it.
- 36:25Speaker 1: And she looked at me, like, you are crazy, And
- 36:32Speaker 1: I started laughing because I have to. You know, it's
- 36:36Speaker 1: just sometimes too intense. But I don't know if the
- 36:38Speaker 1: word is relief. I think I just feel a little
- 36:40Speaker 1: bit more independent because you're right, we were or orphans.
- 36:44Speaker 1: We don't have our parents here anymore. We're not defined
- 36:46Speaker 1: or we're not waiting for approval or a comment. It's
- 36:51Speaker 1: just us. So there is that independence to you and me, God,
- 36:55Speaker 1: and that's kind of where I'm at. And what about
- 36:57Speaker 1: your father. I never knew my father. It's a matter
- 37:02Speaker 1: of fact. I found out about him in a tabloid. Um,
- 37:06Speaker 1: And by the time I got it together to go
- 37:08Speaker 1: meet him, he died very tragically and suddenly, and um,
- 37:13Speaker 1: I never got to know him. And I just met
- 37:15Speaker 1: my brother two years ago. So that's been a whole
- 37:18Speaker 1: chapter of Wow. That's all I can say about it.
- 37:22Speaker 1: It's just wow. It's like, oh my god, all these
- 37:26Speaker 1: years since finding out in the tablet a tabloid, why
- 37:29Speaker 1: did you just meet him? And was there an instinct connection?
- 37:33Speaker 1: How did you ultimately meet No? I didn't. I didn't
- 37:35Speaker 1: meet him, That's what I was saying. Two weeks I
- 37:37Speaker 1: had planned to go meet him in two weeks before
- 37:39Speaker 1: the date that I had chosen, he died. So I
- 37:42Speaker 1: never did. I meant, I meant you you met my brother. Um.
- 37:47Speaker 1: He drove down to the farm, he walked in the door,
- 37:51Speaker 1: and it's as if and I'm not exaggerating because I'm
- 37:53Speaker 1: not that way, God forbid. Um, he and I picked
- 37:58Speaker 1: up right where we we're supposed to. I guess it
- 38:04Speaker 1: was like, Oh my god, we're so alike. He's just
- 38:06Speaker 1: like Elijah, and Elijah is just like him, and we're
- 38:09Speaker 1: just so connected. It's crazy, it's crazy good, and it's
- 38:14Speaker 1: the most delightful piece of information I have to give personally,
- 38:18Speaker 1: is that I finally, finally now know more about who
- 38:22Speaker 1: I am because I never knew my father, and there's
- 38:25Speaker 1: a question mark there for anybody who doesn't know their parents.
- 38:30Speaker 1: So your mother was a babe, living a babe life
- 38:35Speaker 1: seemingly always. What was that like as a little kid
- 38:39Speaker 1: with her being your mother? Horrible men would follow her home.
- 38:45Speaker 1: She was quite the baby, right. If you look at pictures,
- 38:47Speaker 1: it's like, to me, she's as gorgeous as any any
- 38:52Speaker 1: Hollywood actress I've ever seen. And it was a problem.
- 38:57Speaker 1: It was a real problem. And some of my trauma
- 38:59Speaker 1: comes from all of the experiences that I witnessed of
- 39:04Speaker 1: her living in Holly Weird, her being such a gypsy
- 39:08Speaker 1: spirit and having so many different boyfriends, and yeah, she
- 39:12Speaker 1: was quite quite the babe. You're right, so you're growing up.
- 39:19Speaker 1: She's your mother. To what degree is she hands on
- 39:23Speaker 1: or to what we you're a free range child, boy,
- 39:25Speaker 1: that's a well. I walked to school by myself. I
- 39:28Speaker 1: was a latchkey kid, so it was very lonely and
- 39:31Speaker 1: we always lived for the most part besides Hollyward. We
- 39:36Speaker 1: lived in the country, so I was always by myself.
- 39:38Speaker 1: And that's why I became so infatuated and enamored by animals,
- 39:43Speaker 1: because they were my neighbors and my friends. And I
- 39:46Speaker 1: wasn't popular in school. I was the moody musician, dreamer,
- 39:50Speaker 1: you know, that just didn't fit in anywhere. But people
- 39:52Speaker 1: liked me because I was polite and I was a
- 39:55Speaker 1: good kid. I didn't get into trouble, and I was
- 39:57Speaker 1: always um wanting love and affection, and um my mom
- 40:02Speaker 1: was always working. So I kind of raised Ashley. We
- 40:07Speaker 1: kind of raised each other really, and we still talk
- 40:10Speaker 1: about that because mom was always gone working And what
- 40:14Speaker 1: do you say when you talk about that, how painful
- 40:18Speaker 1: it was. Um, I did not have a hands on parent,
- 40:21Speaker 1: and I parented myself as well as Ashley, and and
- 40:25Speaker 1: we grew up together. We were four years apart, so
- 40:27Speaker 1: I was the ten year old making dinner and I
- 40:32Speaker 1: was driving on the road at twelve thirteen. I was
- 40:34Speaker 1: driving on the road at thirteen, and my mom let
- 40:37Speaker 1: me because I guess she was always you know, working
- 40:39Speaker 1: as a nurse, and I I did all the chores
- 40:42Speaker 1: and so I was the kid who was responsible for
- 40:46Speaker 1: just about everything. I never remember doing a spring break.
- 40:48Speaker 1: I never remember going anywhere and having fun with friends,
- 40:51Speaker 1: not really. So it was a weird. It was a
- 40:54Speaker 1: weird life, I have to say. And where did music
- 41:01Speaker 1: come in? Oh, thank you Lord. It came in around
- 41:06Speaker 1: eight years of age. I discovered the piano, and I
- 41:10Speaker 1: discovered my voice before that, but I discovered an instrument
- 41:13Speaker 1: with my voice, and I just thought that was the
- 41:16Speaker 1: greatest thing in my life. And um it was third
- 41:19Speaker 1: grade and Joni Mitchell was it because there was a
- 41:23Speaker 1: woman in my life, a young woman who just worshiped
- 41:26Speaker 1: Joni Mitchell and played me every song Joanie ever recorded.
- 41:30Speaker 1: And I learned every nuance of every song and still
- 41:33Speaker 1: to this day, I can do the best harmony in
- 41:36Speaker 1: the world besides Brandy Um. And I learned Joni mitchell
- 41:40Speaker 1: songs and I became Joni Mitchell's absolute, you know, backup singer.
- 41:46Speaker 1: I could have gone on the road with her at
- 41:47Speaker 1: any given time, and it saved my life. Honestly, if
- 41:52Speaker 1: it hadn't been for Joanie, I probably would have tried
- 41:54Speaker 1: suicide before I did at eighteen. But the music kept
- 41:58Speaker 1: me alive early. Okay, you dropped that I gotta go
- 42:04Speaker 1: there attempting suicide at eight team, I sure did. I
- 42:08Speaker 1: got kicked out of the house and I went to
- 42:10Speaker 1: live with Ashley's biological father, and he was going to
- 42:13Speaker 1: send me to college and I was going to get
- 42:16Speaker 1: a job, and he cut off all my hair and
- 42:18Speaker 1: I was no longer who I was supposed to be
- 42:21Speaker 1: in my book, So why stick around? Because I was
- 42:24Speaker 1: no longer going to do music and be able to
- 42:26Speaker 1: be you know, Winona, which I had big plans, by
- 42:31Speaker 1: the way, big plans, and I was going to go
- 42:33Speaker 1: to college, and I just I couldn't take it. I
- 42:36Speaker 1: was just it was like somebody cut my wings off
- 42:39Speaker 1: and I attempted suicide at eighteen, and then what six
- 42:42Speaker 1: months later, I got a record deal. Okay, let's go back.
- 42:47Speaker 1: So the interest in music was yours independently, not your mother's.
- 42:56Speaker 1: It seems your mother was a driven woman men, and
- 43:00Speaker 1: if you look from outside, she needed more. She needed
- 43:05Speaker 1: to make it. Was it music or it just needed
- 43:09Speaker 1: to be something. Yes, I think she really was born
- 43:16Speaker 1: to be. My grandmother said to me when I was little,
- 43:19Speaker 1: your mother should have been a soap opera star. Now.
- 43:24Speaker 1: I don't know what that tells anybody else, but to me,
- 43:28Speaker 1: that tells me everything. And my mother has always been
- 43:32Speaker 1: the parade waiver. I mean, she's she's the Barbie doll,
- 43:37Speaker 1: She's all the cliches, you know. She was always up
- 43:40Speaker 1: for a good time. And I was so shy and
- 43:44Speaker 1: so backwards that I felt like Nell in the movie. Um.
- 43:49Speaker 1: I felt like this little hillbilly girl that I literally
- 43:53Speaker 1: wore overalls and hiking boots to to school. Bob. I mean,
- 43:57Speaker 1: it's it's weird. It's like, who are We live in
- 44:00Speaker 1: apple Hia. We go to a third world country pretty much,
- 44:04Speaker 1: and we live on this little acre of land, and
- 44:08Speaker 1: I'm by myself and I discovered Joni Mitchell, and all
- 44:12Speaker 1: of a sudden, I'm learning all the open tunings and
- 44:14Speaker 1: I'm playing all the songs, and I'm ready to just
- 44:18Speaker 1: evolved into the greatest um poet singer. You know, I
- 44:24Speaker 1: was ready, and my mom saw it. And I think
- 44:27Speaker 1: my mom saw that I was so immersed in music
- 44:31Speaker 1: and such a dreamer that I think she just naturally
- 44:33Speaker 1: was like, Okay, this is it, and she started harmonizing
- 44:40Speaker 1: with me. And I didn't like it at first. At all,
- 44:44Speaker 1: And for a summer we learned a couple of songs
- 44:48Speaker 1: together and the next thing I know, we're singing to
- 44:50Speaker 1: people and here we are. Who wah, let's start. Let's
- 44:56Speaker 1: start from the reading. You talked about open tunings. How
- 44:59Speaker 1: did you learn? I don't know. I don't know. To
- 45:02Speaker 1: this day, I have one person in my life who
- 45:04Speaker 1: was teaching me E, A and D. And the next
- 45:08Speaker 1: thing I know, I'm just doing it note by note
- 45:11Speaker 1: and I'm figuring it out. And nobody really taught me.
- 45:14Speaker 1: My self taught, And to this day I think about it.
- 45:17Speaker 1: Sonia bird Yancy was a woman in my life who
- 45:20Speaker 1: played guitar and I would sit and listen to her
- 45:22Speaker 1: play and just try to figure it out. And I
- 45:25Speaker 1: spent my life learning every Joni song. Where did the
- 45:30Speaker 1: guitar come from? Someone gave it to my mom when
- 45:33Speaker 1: we moved from California back to Kentucky. Someone gave her
- 45:37Speaker 1: a guitar. And it's one of those stories that it
- 45:41Speaker 1: was not a good guitar and I learned to play
- 45:44Speaker 1: on it and it was my very first guitar, which, yeah,
- 45:48Speaker 1: I think about that. If someone hadn't given my mom
- 45:50Speaker 1: that guitar I don't know where i'd be today. Okay,
- 46:00Speaker 1: you're you know, you're independent. You're playing the guitar. Your
- 46:03Speaker 1: mother starts to harmonize. Then how does it turn into
- 46:07Speaker 1: a gig? That's a really good question. We just started
- 46:11Speaker 1: playing for all the things we could play for, Like, um,
- 46:16Speaker 1: what is it when you like get some kind of
- 46:18Speaker 1: an award for civil you know, like those those places
- 46:21Speaker 1: where people gather together and you win the award for
- 46:24Speaker 1: the community, were like the Rotary Club exactly exactly. We
- 46:29Speaker 1: started doing stuff like that, and next thing I know,
- 46:32Speaker 1: we're doing this little show here in Nashville, Tennessee. The
- 46:36Speaker 1: Ralph Emory Show comes on at like three four o'clock
- 46:41Speaker 1: in the morning and they have the farm Report and
- 46:46Speaker 1: they do commercials and there's a guy on there that
- 46:48Speaker 1: sings with the band. And somehow Mom and I showed
- 46:53Speaker 1: up there and sang on that show so that I
- 46:56Speaker 1: could sing and then go to school. Pretty wild. Actually, okay,
- 47:02Speaker 1: what how was it presented to you? Let's go back
- 47:05Speaker 1: to Kentucky. You know, you're really good at this. I'm
- 47:10Speaker 1: gonna try to make it something more. You come home
- 47:12Speaker 1: from school one day and your mother says, oh, we're
- 47:14Speaker 1: playing at the Rotary Club. That's kind of how it was.
- 47:18Speaker 1: I can tell you right now. I had no ambition.
- 47:22Speaker 1: I was not the one to say, Hey, I'm gonna
- 47:24Speaker 1: go down and join a band and I'm gonna start
- 47:26Speaker 1: doing gigs. That was not how it happened. As a
- 47:29Speaker 1: matter of fact, it's the opposite. I was, if anything,
- 47:32Speaker 1: I was too shy to do it. And it was
- 47:34Speaker 1: Mom who said we are going to do this. And
- 47:39Speaker 1: that's the way it is. Man. It's like she had
- 47:42Speaker 1: all the ambition and I had all the you know,
- 47:44Speaker 1: the talent in terms of guitar and vocal, and she
- 47:47Speaker 1: was the harmony singer, and together it was this magical,
- 47:50Speaker 1: little weird thing like are they mother and daughter or sisters?
- 47:54Speaker 1: You know? And just everywhere we went we got more
- 47:56Speaker 1: and more attention, and next thing I know, we're here
- 47:59Speaker 1: in Nashville, Tennessee. Are you kidding me? So she was determined, Bob,
- 48:04Speaker 1: she was on her She was on a mission to
- 48:07Speaker 1: make it. Okay, needless to say, you became uber successful.
- 48:13Speaker 1: Do you think she was ever fulfilled or she was
- 48:15Speaker 1: still looking for more. I think she was so fulfilled
- 48:19Speaker 1: being the queen of the parade. I think she was
- 48:22Speaker 1: more fulfilled than she could ever be. I mean, come on,
- 48:24Speaker 1: we did the Super Bowl, for God's sake, you know,
- 48:27Speaker 1: we got to go to the White House. We uh.
- 48:30Speaker 1: We have a street named after us in Ashland, Kentucky. Uh.
- 48:34Speaker 1: And we were the parade waivers of all times. Just bizarre.
- 48:38Speaker 1: It's it's such a weird story still to me today,
- 48:41Speaker 1: and when I tell it, I'm just like, how in
- 48:43Speaker 1: the world are these two Kentucky girls managed to make
- 48:46Speaker 1: it in country music? I still I can't quite wrap
- 48:50Speaker 1: my head around it because I was so backwards in
- 48:52Speaker 1: so many ways, and yet I would go out on stage.
- 48:54Speaker 1: If you look at the videos, I seem so sure
- 48:57Speaker 1: of myself and I just can't even believe it. When
- 48:59Speaker 1: I look at it, I'm like, that's me. And then
- 49:02Speaker 1: there's my mom, who's, you know, shimmying and swaying, and
- 49:05Speaker 1: she's doing the harmony, and she's the beautiful mother who
- 49:08Speaker 1: looks young enough to be my sister. I mean, come on,
- 49:12Speaker 1: I don't think it gets any better than that. So
- 49:16Speaker 1: how hard for her was it when she became ill
- 49:19Speaker 1: and couldn't do it. I think that's where the end began,
- 49:24Speaker 1: I really do. I think it. I think the depression
- 49:26Speaker 1: was so debilitating. I think it was. I think it's
- 49:30Speaker 1: where it started. I think that the end was when
- 49:33Speaker 1: she had to give up the road because I took
- 49:35Speaker 1: her home on the bus. I helped her get all
- 49:37Speaker 1: her stuff off the bus, and she stood on the
- 49:40Speaker 1: porch waving to me as I pulled the bus out
- 49:42Speaker 1: of the driveway, and I remember thinking, this is it.
- 49:45Speaker 1: You know, it's like separating Siamese twins. I just, uh,
- 49:51Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know any other way to
- 49:53Speaker 1: say it. She fell into a deep depression and from there,
- 49:56Speaker 1: you know, it started. And she's written a lot of
- 49:58Speaker 1: books and done a lot of speak engagements around it.
- 50:01Speaker 1: But I think it. I think it cut off her life. Supply,
- 50:05Speaker 1: her lifeline was absolutely you know that was it. Well,
- 50:09Speaker 1: let's go back before she had to retire. My friend
- 50:12Speaker 1: who ended his life took his own life in retrospect,
- 50:16Speaker 1: he was bipolar. I mean, it really hits every note
- 50:20Speaker 1: on the scale prior to retiring. I hate to use
- 50:25Speaker 1: this word, but I will anyway. Would you call your
- 50:28Speaker 1: mother normal or was there evidence of other mental health
- 50:33Speaker 1: issues in retrospect? Wow, that's quite a packed question. I
- 50:42Speaker 1: don't know the answer to that question. But I can
- 50:44Speaker 1: tell you what I know, which is my mother was
- 50:48Speaker 1: incredibly charismatic, incredibly determined, one of the most determined. She
- 50:55Speaker 1: was as determined to die as she was determined to live.
- 51:00Speaker 1: That's my mother. That's one of the quotes that I
- 51:02Speaker 1: have used a couple of times when I'm not sure
- 51:04Speaker 1: quite what to say. Uh, my mother was incredibly um willful,
- 51:12Speaker 1: and you did not argue with her. I was not
- 51:15Speaker 1: allowed to really have a voice. Ironically, I'm the lead singer,
- 51:19Speaker 1: but I did not have a voice. I still think
- 51:21Speaker 1: about having to share a bus with her, and I
- 51:23Speaker 1: look back on that and I go, God, if I
- 51:24Speaker 1: had known then what I know now, I would have
- 51:26Speaker 1: gotten my own bus. What the heck? You know? Why
- 51:29Speaker 1: did I have to share a hotel room with her?
- 51:31Speaker 1: Why did I have to share a dressing room with her?
- 51:33Speaker 1: I'm the lead singer. Why couldn't I have my own stuff?
- 51:36Speaker 1: And there's part of me that thinks it was God's
- 51:38Speaker 1: way of saying, you're going to be accountable to something
- 51:40Speaker 1: bigger than yourself. Well, it was her, and I think
- 51:44Speaker 1: she took full advantage of it. Many times. Um, we
- 51:47Speaker 1: would be in Vegas and we would be sold out
- 51:50Speaker 1: and she would come down to my room and tell me,
- 51:53Speaker 1: you know, if you're late tonight, I'm going to tell
- 51:56Speaker 1: everybody you know in front of you and embarrass me.
- 52:00Speaker 1: She was tough, and um I think she was incredibly
- 52:08Speaker 1: driven to the point of it separated us an awful lot. Emotionally,
- 52:15Speaker 1: it separated us an awful lot. I think that's pretty clear.
- 52:22Speaker 1: But in retrospect, would you say that was just her
- 52:25Speaker 1: personality or was she really crazy on some level? I
- 52:30Speaker 1: don't know the word crazy. I know, well, I do
- 52:33Speaker 1: know the word crazy. That's not true. I don't know
- 52:35Speaker 1: crazy like some people have their identity there, you know,
- 52:40Speaker 1: understanding of what crazy is. I think my mother was
- 52:43Speaker 1: so colorful, and this is the only way I know
- 52:45Speaker 1: to describe it, because I don't know enough about the
- 52:47Speaker 1: mental health part. I just know that she was colorful.
- 52:51Speaker 1: She taught my children. One of the first things she's
- 52:54Speaker 1: proud of doing as a grandmother was teaching my kids
- 52:57Speaker 1: how to poop in the woods. Okay, that's crazy, that's
- 53:01Speaker 1: not normal. That's crazy. But you live on a farm
- 53:04Speaker 1: and it seems really practical, doesn't it. So you tell me,
- 53:08Speaker 1: is it practical or is it crazy? Well, I guess
- 53:12Speaker 1: you know. I'll leave it at this. Um, what you
- 53:15Speaker 1: know was this? You know? Was her tragic death preordained
- 53:21Speaker 1: because of certain organic elements or was it based on
- 53:26Speaker 1: events like leaving the road. But let's forget all that.
- 53:28Speaker 1: So your mother is driven, she's booking you these gigs.
- 53:32Speaker 1: Are you all in from the beginning or do you
- 53:36Speaker 1: ever at times say hey, well tell me how you felt. Nope.
- 53:39Speaker 1: The very first thing I ever said to her before
- 53:41Speaker 1: we went out in front of ten thousand people was
- 53:43Speaker 1: the first time I was ever on stage. I looked
- 53:46Speaker 1: at her and I said, I want to go home,
- 53:49Speaker 1: and she looked at me. She was a snapper. That
- 53:52Speaker 1: sound right there will send me into an absolute tantrum. Um,
- 53:57Speaker 1: it's I could feel it. It's just one of those things.
- 54:02Speaker 1: My mother was a snapper, and she would snap at
- 54:05Speaker 1: me and say do it girl, you know. And I
- 54:08Speaker 1: looked at her and I was like, uh, next thing
- 54:11Speaker 1: I know, we're in front of ten thousand people and
- 54:13Speaker 1: we have a hit song and we're running awards and
- 54:16Speaker 1: the rest is history. I was so mortified at being
- 54:22Speaker 1: with my mother on so many levels. It just didn't
- 54:24Speaker 1: make sense to me, why would somebody do this to me?
- 54:27Speaker 1: Why would somebody put me on a bus at eighteen
- 54:30Speaker 1: years of age? Why would they do that to me?
- 54:32Speaker 1: And by the way, and I talked about this a lot,
- 54:34Speaker 1: but I can't get over it. I did her hair,
- 54:37Speaker 1: for God's sake. Oh, I did her hair like I
- 54:41Speaker 1: literally was responsible for zipping up the back of her
- 54:43Speaker 1: dress and doing her hair. And that's just those you know,
- 54:46Speaker 1: people say you didn't really pay your dues and by
- 54:49Speaker 1: playing clubs. I'm like, okay, you share a bus with
- 54:51Speaker 1: your mother for ten years and we'll talk because it
- 54:54Speaker 1: was the strictest, most unbelievable thing that I did in
- 54:58Speaker 1: my life. And I don't know else to say other
- 55:00Speaker 1: than why why would somebody do that? Because we were
- 55:04Speaker 1: so freaking famous, she did all the talking. By the way,
- 55:07Speaker 1: they had to send me to media school, Bob. They
- 55:09Speaker 1: had to sit me down and say, okay, so when
- 55:12Speaker 1: your mom tells that story and you're really not happy
- 55:15Speaker 1: with her and you roll your eyes, you look like
- 55:17Speaker 1: a little brat. And they had to walk me through
- 55:20Speaker 1: how to do interviews because I was so not interested
- 55:25Speaker 1: in all the fame stuff. She loved every minute of
- 55:28Speaker 1: it okay, breaking a few things down. Do you think
- 55:34Speaker 1: she was so strict because she didn't want her success
- 55:39Speaker 1: fucked up or because she didn't want you to follow
- 55:43Speaker 1: in her footsteps? What was driving this strictness. I am
- 55:48Speaker 1: known that there's three of us, Ashley, Mom and me,
- 55:52Speaker 1: and if you put us in a room, the two
- 55:54Speaker 1: of them are so alike in so many ways. I
- 55:57Speaker 1: was always the odd ball, odd man out, whatever you
- 56:00Speaker 1: want to call it, and I'm so free in spirit.
- 56:03Speaker 1: I drove my mother in saying I think that I
- 56:06Speaker 1: was single handedly one of the most challenging parts of
- 56:09Speaker 1: her success because I was so you know, I think
- 56:13Speaker 1: I'll go and get a Harley. No, you won't. And
- 56:16Speaker 1: she wouldn't talk to me for two weeks after I
- 56:18Speaker 1: got the tattoo and I was on my own. I
- 56:21Speaker 1: was like selling records and stuff and she wouldn't speak
- 56:24Speaker 1: to me. So I had to get one of them
- 56:25Speaker 1: raised because it had Mom on it. It was traumatic.
- 56:28Speaker 1: So my mom was pretty darn instrumental in making sure
- 56:33Speaker 1: that everything was a certain way, and I would just
- 56:35Speaker 1: come into the fold and sing and get the heck
- 56:38Speaker 1: out of Dodge. So it wasn't like, oh, everything is great.
- 56:43Speaker 1: We didn't fight a lot, but it was just very
- 56:45Speaker 1: like business because she ran it. It should have been
- 56:50Speaker 1: Naomi Judd and her daughter Winona, because it was definitely
- 56:55Speaker 1: she ran things. Her and the manager ran things. I
- 56:58Speaker 1: was just the chick singer and I would get a
- 57:01Speaker 1: memo member back when we facted. I would. I would
- 57:04Speaker 1: get a memo and it would say, Monday, you're doing this. Tuesday,
- 57:07Speaker 1: you're doing this. And I didn't have a say so
- 57:09Speaker 1: we would go down to our c A and do
- 57:10Speaker 1: two days worth of interviews because everybody wanted to talk
- 57:13Speaker 1: to us. I didn't have a say so about all that.
- 57:18Speaker 1: Zero was she as strict with Ashley? No, because Ashley
- 57:25Speaker 1: behaved well, or she just wasn't. Ashley got the good
- 57:29Speaker 1: end of the deal an awful lot. Ashley didn't get
- 57:32Speaker 1: what I got because I was the oldest. I think
- 57:35Speaker 1: my mom really was nervous that I would get pregnant
- 57:37Speaker 1: and meet a boy and go get married and then
- 57:39Speaker 1: it would be ruined. You know, I still do this day. Um.
- 57:43Speaker 1: Ashley was the one that finally told me about my
- 57:45Speaker 1: real father. Mom never did, and I always always really
- 57:48Speaker 1: angry about that because it was almost like maybe she
- 57:51Speaker 1: thought maybe I would go running off into the wild
- 57:54Speaker 1: blue yonder and not get on the bus and go
- 57:57Speaker 1: do shows. I was just really convinced that she had
- 58:01Speaker 1: to keep everything going um, and I think she felt
- 58:05Speaker 1: responsible for me, keeping me in line because I had
- 58:09Speaker 1: so much talent, that I was so free willed that
- 58:13Speaker 1: it terrified her. Literally, like I would go, hey, Mom,
- 58:17Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna go build a house, and she'd go,
- 58:19Speaker 1: what No. And then I ended up getting a condo
- 58:23Speaker 1: near her because you know, I just can't be near
- 58:27Speaker 1: her enough. Ah, bless my heart. So you too go
- 58:33Speaker 1: on the road. What happens to Ashley? She gets left behind?
- 58:38Speaker 1: So how does she go from being left behind becoming
- 58:41Speaker 1: a movie star? Good question. She went out to Hollywood
- 58:46Speaker 1: and the only job I ever remember her having out
- 58:51Speaker 1: there was she worked as a hostess at the Ivy
- 58:53Speaker 1: on Robertson. And next thing, she's in an independent movie
- 58:59Speaker 1: called be in Paradise and the rest is history, a
- 59:03Speaker 1: great movie, and she's great in it. She's awesome. She's awesome.
- 59:07Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite movies she's ever done. And
- 59:10Speaker 1: I remember literally walking three ft behind her because she
- 59:13Speaker 1: was quite the star. And I thought, well, she's arrived,
- 59:16Speaker 1: here we go. So did she had that seem driven
- 59:21Speaker 1: element in her that your mother had? Yes, very much.
- 59:26Speaker 1: So do you think she just learned it from your
- 59:29Speaker 1: mother or she was left behind so much that she
- 59:32Speaker 1: wanted to do Hey, I gotta find my own way
- 59:34Speaker 1: to my own thing. I believe with everything in me
- 59:37Speaker 1: that it's nature and nurture. I think there's a nature there.
- 59:42Speaker 1: And I think because she was nurtured to be so
- 59:44Speaker 1: independent and make it on her own that she literally
- 59:47Speaker 1: packed up an U haul it trailer to her car
- 59:50Speaker 1: in Tennessee and drove out to l A by herself.
- 59:56Speaker 1: That's actually okay. Going back to the beginning of the story,
- 1:00:01Speaker 1: before you're on stage with ten thousand people blocking, before
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: you hit the stage along the way, were you always
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: in or something? Were you saying I don't want to
- 1:00:11Speaker 1: show up or I want to have a normal life
- 1:00:13Speaker 1: for Were you saying, wow, this is great, Wow, this
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: is great. I would do anything to be in a band.
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: I have a band now, why not in the big noise?
- 1:00:23Speaker 1: And everything is about the big noise. I don't want
- 1:00:26Speaker 1: to be by myself. I love love, love love team.
- 1:00:29Speaker 1: I do better with team. I don't want to be
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: a solo artist anymore, and uh so I absolutely would
- 1:00:35Speaker 1: do anything to jam with my guys. That was when
- 1:00:39Speaker 1: my magical time began. When I hit the stage, not
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: because of performance, but because of art. Did I love
- 1:00:46Speaker 1: every single minute. Robert Ware and I have talked about
- 1:00:49Speaker 1: this an awful lot, because for me, it's about the
- 1:00:53Speaker 1: musical experience of running. What is it when they go
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: to the edge of the stage and you jump off.
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: That's me stage diving. Yes, I just I mean not literally,
- 1:01:01Speaker 1: but I would go to the edge of the stage
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: and want to just free fall into the fans because
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: I love music that much that I would. I mean,
- 1:01:09Speaker 1: I've I've flown to Australia just to do one show
- 1:01:12Speaker 1: because that's how determined I am to have the live
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: musical experience with the fans. Um So, yeah, I walk
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: into the stage. You got let me add it. I'll
- 1:01:23Speaker 1: do anything and I'll wait, you know, twenty hours if
- 1:01:26Speaker 1: I have to. I was very patient because all I
- 1:01:29Speaker 1: ever wanted to do was being a band. That's it.
- 1:01:33Speaker 1: That's what drove me. Okay, you talk about Rob Weir,
- 1:01:37Speaker 1: who is Bob We're of the Grateful Dead. How do
- 1:01:40Speaker 1: you meet Bob Weir. That's a really good question. UM.
- 1:01:48Speaker 1: More importantly, UM, when I met him, I did not
- 1:01:52Speaker 1: know a lot about Robert were and I called him
- 1:01:54Speaker 1: Robert because I could not bring myself to call him Bobby.
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: I just thought, that's like call and your teacher by
- 1:02:00Speaker 1: her first name. And I fell in love with this character.
- 1:02:06Speaker 1: He's like the Civil War general, you know, He's just
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: such a character. And when I met him, I thought, well,
- 1:02:15Speaker 1: I have nothing in common with this person. And next
- 1:02:18Speaker 1: thing I know, we're sitting in the studio. He came
- 1:02:21Speaker 1: to the farm, he drove to the farm, got out
- 1:02:25Speaker 1: of the car, walked into the studio and we did
- 1:02:28Speaker 1: Ramble on Rose. And we have been so connected ever since.
- 1:02:32Speaker 1: He came and performed at my mother's memorial. That's pretty crazy, right,
- 1:02:39Speaker 1: And so he's been there for me, both personally and professionally.
- 1:02:43Speaker 1: We played of course, we've played the film more and
- 1:02:45Speaker 1: there's all the good stuff, you know, and the fans
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: love it and Deadhead judd Head were mingling. Everybody's getting along.
- 1:02:52Speaker 1: But it's just one of those wacky stories where you go,
- 1:02:54Speaker 1: how in the world did I end up being friends
- 1:02:57Speaker 1: with him and his wife? What's the what's the connection.
- 1:03:02Speaker 1: How did you meet him? That's you know what the
- 1:03:04Speaker 1: connection is the music. I was invited to do stuff,
- 1:03:07Speaker 1: and it's like he did one of my songs and
- 1:03:11Speaker 1: I did one of his songs. Kind of thing at
- 1:03:13Speaker 1: the film More. That was actually after we my husband,
- 1:03:16Speaker 1: thank you, my husband, Cactus Moser said I want you
- 1:03:19Speaker 1: to learn some grateful Dead songs and I said, why
- 1:03:22Speaker 1: why would I do that? I don't understand the history
- 1:03:25Speaker 1: of all the you know stuff that you know. And
- 1:03:30Speaker 1: I ended up calling him. I think I got his
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: number from Dwight Yoakum or somebody. I'm trying to remember
- 1:03:35Speaker 1: the details, and I just called him and next thing
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: I know, he's at the farm. I think it was
- 1:03:40Speaker 1: just us connecting on the level of, Hey, it's nice
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: to meet you. Hey, nice to meet you too. But
- 1:03:47Speaker 1: I called him on the phone and I said, I
- 1:03:48Speaker 1: really want you to come and be on my record. Okay,
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: going back to the original origin of the story, Um,
- 1:03:57Speaker 1: you make a deal with Curb Record. Mike Curb, Republican
- 1:04:03Speaker 1: who had made it in the music business then was
- 1:04:06Speaker 1: Lieutenant governor of California, ultimately had a lot of success
- 1:04:10Speaker 1: in Nashville. UM his company and relationships been fraught with
- 1:04:16Speaker 1: the negative history. People signed a deal and they can't
- 1:04:19Speaker 1: get out of it, and what was your experience? Well,
- 1:04:26Speaker 1: I know more now than I did, and I didn't
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: know all that crap, and nobody ever really sat me
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: down and said, hey, by the way, this is this
- 1:04:40Speaker 1: or this is that, and what do you want to
- 1:04:42Speaker 1: do about it? And it wasn't until I had a
- 1:04:45Speaker 1: few experiences with managers who said this is nuts, we
- 1:04:49Speaker 1: gotta do this, we gotta make this move. I really
- 1:04:52Speaker 1: didn't understand and I was so trusting. I'm one of
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: those stories honestly that you go, oh, bless her heart,
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: she just doesn't know any better because I was too
- 1:05:01Speaker 1: busy working, too busy doing, and too busy recording and
- 1:05:04Speaker 1: traveling and doing tours. And it wasn't until probably the
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: last I would say, five to seven years, do I
- 1:05:13Speaker 1: really know what the heck is going on. And that's
- 1:05:16Speaker 1: not something I'm proud of. It's just sort of the
- 1:05:18Speaker 1: way it worked out for me because I'm so trusting
- 1:05:20Speaker 1: and I tend to not micromanage, and I think it's
- 1:05:25Speaker 1: gotten me in a lot of trouble. But I still
- 1:05:27Speaker 1: get a Christmas present from him every year, and I
- 1:05:30Speaker 1: haven't seen him in years. And how about the money,
- 1:05:37Speaker 1: good question, I'll let you know. So you're still working
- 1:05:43Speaker 1: on the money. Yep. It's one of those things where
- 1:05:47Speaker 1: maybe when I'm sixty, it's not that far away. One
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: can dream. Okay, you did not write the songs you're saying,
- 1:06:08Speaker 1: which in many cases are the generator of profits. So
- 1:06:13Speaker 1: how are you doing financially? I'm land rich in cash poor.
- 1:06:19Speaker 1: I owe some of the greatest land in the history
- 1:06:21Speaker 1: of mankind. And uh, you know, of course, a lot
- 1:06:24Speaker 1: of people take out loans to do business. That's kind
- 1:06:27Speaker 1: of the way it works in America, right, And so, um,
- 1:06:30Speaker 1: I'm good, I'm good, I'm settled, I have what I need.
- 1:06:35Speaker 1: I'll tell you what's really exciting about me and my
- 1:06:38Speaker 1: husband is during the pandemic, we were able to keep
- 1:06:40Speaker 1: payroll because of logging. So thank you for that opportunity
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: because it kept everybody afloat. And I'm grateful for that
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: because it was a devastating blow to the music industry
- 1:06:54Speaker 1: and a lot of my guys in the band, you know,
- 1:06:57Speaker 1: went on unemployment. So I'm really grateful that the land
- 1:07:01Speaker 1: provided and that's why we have land. Um, it's been
- 1:07:05Speaker 1: a blessing. Did you get any loans from the government?
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: Let me think here, I did, I did? Okay, you
- 1:07:16Speaker 1: bought the land for fifteen hundred dollars an acre in
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: what year? How much land? And what did your mother
- 1:07:23Speaker 1: say about that? Oh? She thought it was awesome as
- 1:07:26Speaker 1: one of the things we agreed on because I was
- 1:07:28Speaker 1: right next to her. Together we had a thousand acres,
- 1:07:30Speaker 1: so it was like a compound. Um, I bought it
- 1:07:34Speaker 1: in acre it goes for two d thousand an acre, now,
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: so that was a really good investment. Oh yeah, my
- 1:07:44Speaker 1: father would be proud of you. Yes, and that's my
- 1:07:47Speaker 1: great my great great grandfather would be too. That was
- 1:07:49Speaker 1: what it was all about, Ogden Judd was all about
- 1:07:51Speaker 1: buying land. My family. I come from a family of farmers,
- 1:07:55Speaker 1: so they would all be very proud. Like the song
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: Guardian Angels, Um, they're so proud of me. Fanny and
- 1:08:02Speaker 1: Elijah and all my ancestors are looking down going. You
- 1:08:06Speaker 1: know what you go, girl? The logging kept you alive.
- 1:08:12Speaker 1: Going more detail. You hire a company that cuts up
- 1:08:15Speaker 1: the trees. How do you generate the money? We hired
- 1:08:18Speaker 1: two guys, best friends. One's a preacher, one is a
- 1:08:22Speaker 1: good old boy who wears overalls and no t shirt
- 1:08:25Speaker 1: even if it's winter. It's awesome actually, And they come
- 1:08:30Speaker 1: and it's just the two of them because I don't
- 1:08:32Speaker 1: want them to mess up the land. And they did
- 1:08:34Speaker 1: it old fashioned and uh, I mean compared to what's
- 1:08:37Speaker 1: done today. And we only did trees that were down,
- 1:08:41Speaker 1: and we had when you have five acres, you know
- 1:08:46Speaker 1: how it works. And they just went where the trees
- 1:08:49Speaker 1: were down and it worked, and I'm so grateful to them.
- 1:08:52Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, it saved us. Actually, So
- 1:08:56Speaker 1: how many people are on the payroll personally or professionally?
- 1:09:02Speaker 1: Professionally well, personally too, well the last the last tour
- 1:09:06Speaker 1: we did, it was what how many people on the
- 1:09:09Speaker 1: road last tour? I don't know, eight nine something like that.
- 1:09:13Speaker 1: And then I'd say personally five. Okay. When you say
- 1:09:19Speaker 1: the logging kept your who were the people you were paying?
- 1:09:24Speaker 1: What do you mean people I was paying? No? No, no,
- 1:09:27Speaker 1: you said the general the money from the logging allowed
- 1:09:30Speaker 1: you to pay your people. How many people was that?
- 1:09:33Speaker 1: I would say about five people, five to seven? Okay.
- 1:09:39Speaker 1: So going back to the story, you go on on stage,
- 1:09:43Speaker 1: you have ten thousand people, and once you're pushed. I
- 1:09:46Speaker 1: assumed you actually loved performing, because you say you love
- 1:09:50Speaker 1: performing now. And what was it like suddenly becoming the
- 1:09:56Speaker 1: biggest star in country music? What was it like? Oh
- 1:10:01Speaker 1: my gosh, that's a really good question. I think I
- 1:10:04Speaker 1: looked like a deer in the headlights, an awful lot
- 1:10:07Speaker 1: because I was still so so young, and Mom did
- 1:10:15Speaker 1: all the talking, so I would sit there and kind
- 1:10:17Speaker 1: of look around, like when are we going to be
- 1:10:21Speaker 1: done so I can go hang out with my friends.
- 1:10:24Speaker 1: So but I also loved, loved, love the the love
- 1:10:28Speaker 1: from the fans. I still have fans that were there
- 1:10:31Speaker 1: the very first concert in night march Um concert that
- 1:10:36Speaker 1: we did, and they're still there and there they're still
- 1:10:39Speaker 1: around and it's like they remember me and I remember
- 1:10:42Speaker 1: them and we grew up together. So I love the
- 1:10:45Speaker 1: one on one. I'm not really good at the fame
- 1:10:47Speaker 1: stuff unless it's a good seat in a restaurant. I
- 1:10:50Speaker 1: don't really thrive on that actually, And um, I mean
- 1:10:54Speaker 1: if you kind of look at me, I don't. I
- 1:10:56Speaker 1: don't do the whole makeup and hair thing all the time.
- 1:10:58Speaker 1: I'm not a TikTok sensation at I don't really care
- 1:11:01Speaker 1: about all that. I care about the human experience. I
- 1:11:04Speaker 1: care about the music. I care about going out on
- 1:11:07Speaker 1: stage and making a connection with somebody who has no
- 1:11:09Speaker 1: idea what they've gotten themselves into. And that is what
- 1:11:13Speaker 1: grews me more than anything in this world. Well, you're
- 1:11:17Speaker 1: a very recognizable person, so uh, you know, it's one
- 1:11:23Speaker 1: thing if you're sitting at home. I would think almost
- 1:11:25Speaker 1: anywhere you go, people immediately know who you are. Yes,
- 1:11:28Speaker 1: they do. I've become a little bit more and more
- 1:11:31Speaker 1: like Dolly in terms of the hair and the you know,
- 1:11:35Speaker 1: the the tada I call it the tada um. Brandy
- 1:11:40Speaker 1: Carlile said, I'm a queer icon and I said, can
- 1:11:43Speaker 1: you explain to me what that means? She said, it's
- 1:11:45Speaker 1: really really good and I said okay. I said, okay, awesome.
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: I love people. I love love love people. A person
- 1:11:56Speaker 1: walks up to me and says, I'm an atheist, and
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: I said, okay, I mean that's the way I am.
- 1:12:01Speaker 1: I just um, I'm a judge, not a judge. I
- 1:12:05Speaker 1: mean that's my absolute go to. When people come up
- 1:12:07Speaker 1: to me and say, well, you need to lose weight,
- 1:12:10Speaker 1: and I go, yeah, and you need to get a haircut,
- 1:12:13Speaker 1: and uh, I I just you know what I'm I'm
- 1:12:17Speaker 1: I'm real because I grew up in such a weird world,
- 1:12:20Speaker 1: you know, being eighteen and being on the cover of
- 1:12:24Speaker 1: all the magazines and doing Johnny Carson, I'm dating myself
- 1:12:28Speaker 1: and opening for all the greats of country music, Merle Haggard,
- 1:12:32Speaker 1: George Jones. I mean, I've worked with a highwayman. I
- 1:12:35Speaker 1: knew Johnny Cash. He was a mentor. When you grow
- 1:12:38Speaker 1: up with all these people in your life and Tammy
- 1:12:40Speaker 1: Wynette takes you on her bus to cook breakfast for you,
- 1:12:44Speaker 1: that's just not normal, that's you know. And so I
- 1:12:48Speaker 1: grew up with all these characters around me in my movie,
- 1:12:52Speaker 1: and I went over to George Jones's house at Christmas
- 1:12:54Speaker 1: time and played his kids, played his grandkids, played with
- 1:12:57Speaker 1: my kids. And it's just so crazy, but yet it
- 1:13:02Speaker 1: was my life and I'm still living it, and it's
- 1:13:07Speaker 1: so bizarre at times. But I can't get away from
- 1:13:10Speaker 1: the music part of it. I just can't. As broken
- 1:13:13Speaker 1: hearted as my heart is an awful lot, I can't
- 1:13:16Speaker 1: stop myself from being on stage having that moment with
- 1:13:20Speaker 1: the fan when they sing into the microphone the words
- 1:13:22Speaker 1: to my song. There's just something about that that just
- 1:13:27Speaker 1: heals me every single day. Because I almost gave up
- 1:13:31Speaker 1: on doing the tour. You know, when mom died. I said, Okay,
- 1:13:34Speaker 1: I don't know if I can I don't know if
- 1:13:36Speaker 1: I can do this. I really don't physically know if
- 1:13:38Speaker 1: I can do this. And the people spoke and they said,
- 1:13:42Speaker 1: yes you can, and I showed up. How much live
- 1:13:45Speaker 1: is the music and how much is the adoration and
- 1:13:48Speaker 1: love from the fans. I do not sing, and I
- 1:13:50Speaker 1: will not sing. The only time I've ever lip SYNCD
- 1:13:53Speaker 1: is at the super Bowl. I'm adamant about that. Um,
- 1:13:58Speaker 1: there are no tracks. There's one loop that Cactus hits
- 1:14:02Speaker 1: for a loop on a rhythm thing. But everything is live.
- 1:14:06Speaker 1: I'm adamant about that. If there's one thing that I
- 1:14:08Speaker 1: will say that, I'm gonna be like you. I'm sure
- 1:14:11Speaker 1: you have your opinion about things I can imagine. Um,
- 1:14:15Speaker 1: it will be live and it will be imperfect or
- 1:14:18Speaker 1: it won't be real and I just have to have
- 1:14:20Speaker 1: that or else the rest of his bs. So everything
- 1:14:24Speaker 1: is live to the point where I can do a
- 1:14:27Speaker 1: song on a dime. You watch me, okay, so you're
- 1:14:31Speaker 1: you're alive, But how much of the satisfaction is the
- 1:14:37Speaker 1: love from the audience? It's so live? What do you mean?
- 1:14:42Speaker 1: Can you explain a little bit better what I'm trying
- 1:14:44Speaker 1: to I'll give you a different example. A friend of
- 1:14:47Speaker 1: mine used to book Oprah open played arenas for a while,
- 1:14:51Speaker 1: and the obvious question here is why does Oprah need
- 1:14:55Speaker 1: to play arenas? She's got all the money in the
- 1:14:58Speaker 1: world whereas is David Letterman said, you know, she literally
- 1:15:02Speaker 1: has all the money, but he said, where else is
- 1:15:06Speaker 1: she going to get that? Yes? Yes, the adrenaline is
- 1:15:10Speaker 1: part of my my fix every single night when I
- 1:15:14Speaker 1: go and I get off the bus and I'm walking
- 1:15:17Speaker 1: to the stage and I hear the roar of the crowd,
- 1:15:20Speaker 1: my energy gets up and I get the adrenaline and
- 1:15:23Speaker 1: it's like the quarterback of the Super Bowl. I get very,
- 1:15:26Speaker 1: very activated. And that is better than any drug in life.
- 1:15:32Speaker 1: And that's probably why so many people do drugs, because
- 1:15:35Speaker 1: it is the greatest It is the greatest thing on
- 1:15:39Speaker 1: this light, in this life, on this planet. To stand
- 1:15:42Speaker 1: there and watch fourteen thousand people with their phones and
- 1:15:45Speaker 1: their lights on. We don't do the big lighter anymore.
- 1:15:49Speaker 1: Saying love is alive back to me. It is the
- 1:15:52Speaker 1: greatest thing. I feel suspended. I'm writing a song with
- 1:15:56Speaker 1: Brandy Carlile right now called from Here to Heaven, and
- 1:15:59Speaker 1: that's where I am. I'm literally suspended off the ground
- 1:16:04Speaker 1: and I can feel myself levitate. It is the greatest
- 1:16:10Speaker 1: drip of love, life and support and healing that there
- 1:16:15Speaker 1: is in this life. Wow, did you do drugs and
- 1:16:22Speaker 1: drink or what was your experience with substances? No, my
- 1:16:26Speaker 1: mom did. She was the party or I was the
- 1:16:29Speaker 1: stay in the room. And wonder if she's coming back. Um,
- 1:16:33Speaker 1: she's talked about it. When she got to be seventies something.
- 1:16:36Speaker 1: She just let it go and said, yeah, I smoked
- 1:16:39Speaker 1: weed on the day we did our live audition at
- 1:16:40Speaker 1: r c A. And I'm like, wow, okay, here we go.
- 1:16:45Speaker 1: Uh No, I wasn't and I didn't. I didn't have
- 1:16:49Speaker 1: my my trip with alcohol until I was twenty seven
- 1:16:52Speaker 1: to twenty nine, and then I got pregnant at thirty
- 1:16:54Speaker 1: and that changed my entire world. So I had my
- 1:16:57Speaker 1: experience with alcohol and that's it. I never did drugs.
- 1:17:00Speaker 1: Tried it when I was little. A couple of times
- 1:17:02Speaker 1: I'd try my mom's blunt. Is that the word blunt? Yeah,
- 1:17:05Speaker 1: that's one of them. Is that one of them? Okay?
- 1:17:09Speaker 1: And I tried her blunt and I was like thirteen
- 1:17:11Speaker 1: years old, and I don't know how anybody does it.
- 1:17:13Speaker 1: I didn't didn't work for me because it made me
- 1:17:15Speaker 1: even more dreamy and not want to go get a job.
- 1:17:19Speaker 1: And that's not probably the best idea for me. So
- 1:17:23Speaker 1: your mother becomes ill, she retires from the road, she
- 1:17:27Speaker 1: becomes depressed. What's going through your mind? What the hell?
- 1:17:35Speaker 1: I don't understand it. It's the mystery of life for me.
- 1:17:39Speaker 1: I'm doing a lot of trauma work right now around
- 1:17:42Speaker 1: that because I don't have any answers, and I don't
- 1:17:45Speaker 1: understand because she had so much. She's the kind of
- 1:17:49Speaker 1: person that would literally get out of the car, go
- 1:17:52Speaker 1: into Walgreens, speak to every single person in there, call
- 1:17:57Speaker 1: somebody's mother on the phone, and literally walk out of there,
- 1:18:01Speaker 1: getting the car, and go home and lay on the
- 1:18:02Speaker 1: couch for the next That's why it's so so hard
- 1:18:11Speaker 1: to understand. And I'm still in the moment of what
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: the hell am I supposed to do with this information.
- 1:18:19Speaker 1: I'm trying to file it away neatly, but it's not
- 1:18:21Speaker 1: that simple, and it's going to take a lifetime for
- 1:18:24Speaker 1: me to get there. But she was the most charismatic,
- 1:18:27Speaker 1: colorful character out in public. And then she would go
- 1:18:31Speaker 1: lay on the couch for weeks at a time and
- 1:18:33Speaker 1: I would call her and she would cry, and I
- 1:18:36Speaker 1: would think, Wow, this is not the way it's supposed
- 1:18:39Speaker 1: to be. And was she getting professional Hell? Yes. I
- 1:18:45Speaker 1: will be honest with you, and I've never spoken about
- 1:18:47Speaker 1: this before. I will tell you that I feel like
- 1:18:49Speaker 1: the mental health community let her down because, um, there
- 1:18:54Speaker 1: was a lot of medication and I don't know that.
- 1:18:57Speaker 1: I just don't think she got the help she needed.
- 1:19:00Speaker 1: I really don't. And that's my two cents worth. Um,
- 1:19:03Speaker 1: Ashley certainly has hers and I'll let her speak for herself.
- 1:19:07Speaker 1: For me, watching mom um, you know she's an r N.
- 1:19:11Speaker 1: She tended to look at doctors and other people as peers,
- 1:19:15Speaker 1: and I wish someone had gone in and said no, Naomi, no,
- 1:19:20Speaker 1: So what's your relationship with Ashley these days? We are
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: so different, and yet I have such a tenderness for
- 1:19:28Speaker 1: her from raising her that I feel very motherly towards her.
- 1:19:32Speaker 1: She calls me sister, mommy, and we're working more on
- 1:19:35Speaker 1: the sister part, which is very painful because we were
- 1:19:40Speaker 1: apart so much of the time. We were geographically in
- 1:19:43Speaker 1: different worlds, and Um, I missed her prom and I
- 1:19:46Speaker 1: missed her first experience with a boy, and there's just
- 1:19:50Speaker 1: so much loss there that we're still trying to mend.
- 1:19:53Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I was supposed to call
- 1:19:55Speaker 1: her after this interview, and UM, she wants me to
- 1:19:58Speaker 1: come over to the house. We're are both just so
- 1:20:01Speaker 1: in different worlds, and yet we're trying to figure out
- 1:20:04Speaker 1: a language that we can both speak well. How much
- 1:20:09Speaker 1: contact do you have with her? A lot more than
- 1:20:13Speaker 1: since mother died, A lot more, as a matter of fact,
- 1:20:15Speaker 1: almost on a daily basis. We text, we face time
- 1:20:18Speaker 1: a lot, and I've been going over to her house. Um,
- 1:20:21Speaker 1: last time I went over, ear candled her ears because
- 1:20:25Speaker 1: she had a cold, and I just I try to
- 1:20:29Speaker 1: go over and I take her soup. I'm the I'm
- 1:20:31Speaker 1: the big sister. You know. That's kind of the way
- 1:20:33Speaker 1: it's always gonna be. She's always going to be my
- 1:20:34Speaker 1: little sister. I don't care how smart she is or
- 1:20:37Speaker 1: how fabulous she looks in her Valentino dress. Um, I'm
- 1:20:41Speaker 1: still her sister, and I do things to her that
- 1:20:43Speaker 1: make her really uncomfortable. And that's my job. Give me
- 1:20:47Speaker 1: an example of one thing. Well, I like to say
- 1:20:51Speaker 1: things that are inappropriate because she's so good with words,
- 1:20:55Speaker 1: and she'll say a word and I don't know what
- 1:20:57Speaker 1: the word is, and I'm like, what the hell does
- 1:20:58Speaker 1: that word mean? I don't understand a word? Oh is
- 1:21:01Speaker 1: that like? And then I'll use a word that's really
- 1:21:02Speaker 1: not okay with her because she's such an activist. Sometimes
- 1:21:06Speaker 1: it's like, hey, Ashley, snap out of it. You know,
- 1:21:09Speaker 1: I'm your sister. I'm not I'm not here to challenge
- 1:21:12Speaker 1: you in any capacity other than the fact that I'm
- 1:21:14Speaker 1: bigger than you and I can sit on you until
- 1:21:15Speaker 1: you p So you're just gonna have to deal with
- 1:21:18Speaker 1: the fact that I'm here. And sometimes I apologize. Sometimes
- 1:21:21Speaker 1: I don't, but I do it just keep her alive
- 1:21:26Speaker 1: in the conversation because she's so smart, that she's so
- 1:21:29Speaker 1: intellectual that sometimes I just have to say, let's not
- 1:21:32Speaker 1: be so individually over here, separately smart. Let's be together
- 1:21:37Speaker 1: and be silly and dumb, and let's try to find
- 1:21:40Speaker 1: a place that we can maneuver naturally and authentically. If
- 1:21:45Speaker 1: that makes any sense. Yeah, sure it does. When your
- 1:21:49Speaker 1: mother gets hepatitis C and retires from the road. So
- 1:21:54Speaker 1: this is decades back. What do you think about going
- 1:21:59Speaker 1: forward in your career? Ye, I'm both um devastated and
- 1:22:05Speaker 1: inspired to see what's next. I think I'm always looking
- 1:22:09Speaker 1: forward to I've always been that way, and I think
- 1:22:12Speaker 1: that's a thing that you're born with. Um, I try
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: not to. Mom was a lot more of the rear
- 1:22:17Speaker 1: view mirror, and I'm more of the looking out the windshield.
- 1:22:21Speaker 1: I could not wait until I saw a cactus mosure
- 1:22:24Speaker 1: that night with Mom behind me and looking at her, like,
- 1:22:28Speaker 1: see that guy right there, I'm going to marry him,
- 1:22:30Speaker 1: and we're going to, you know, right off into the
- 1:22:33Speaker 1: sunset together. And that's what we're doing right now with
- 1:22:35Speaker 1: the band. We're making a record, we're writing most of it,
- 1:22:39Speaker 1: and we are determined to go to the next chapter.
- 1:22:43Speaker 1: I'm on a label which I love the name Anti Records,
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: but there's just something about that that just thrills me.
- 1:22:50Speaker 1: Um Andy is interested in the musical experience as well.
- 1:22:53Speaker 1: So I found finally a home where I feel like
- 1:22:56Speaker 1: I can be as authentic and strange as I want
- 1:22:59Speaker 1: to be without feeling the tug towards being popular, um,
- 1:23:04Speaker 1: which we all want to be to a certain degree,
- 1:23:06Speaker 1: but I also want the music to speak for itself.
- 1:23:09Speaker 1: So Cactus and I are always talking about what's next,
- 1:23:13Speaker 1: if that makes any sense, Like I'm already on the
- 1:23:14Speaker 1: Judge tour talking about what we're gonna do after that.
- 1:23:20Speaker 1: If that makes sense. Yeah, I'd end up on Anti
- 1:23:23Speaker 1: Records because Andy gets me, and it's a it's a
- 1:23:27Speaker 1: record label where you've got Um May have his Staples.
- 1:23:33Speaker 1: You've got these characters that are just at the in
- 1:23:36Speaker 1: the in the twilight, some of them and then others.
- 1:23:38Speaker 1: You know, there's just this you know, Tom Waite. You
- 1:23:41Speaker 1: have people that are on there that are able to
- 1:23:43Speaker 1: be themselves and there's no pressure to try to be
- 1:23:47Speaker 1: younger and faster and fit in with all the you know,
- 1:23:50Speaker 1: Tik Talker's. It's just this great place to belong where
- 1:23:54Speaker 1: you feel like you can just be yourself and yeah,
- 1:23:57Speaker 1: if you get paid for it, that's really cool. And
- 1:23:59Speaker 1: yet I did a show with May of the Staples
- 1:24:01Speaker 1: here at the Rhyman Auditorium and I just looked around like,
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: is this really happening, like this is really my life.
- 1:24:07Speaker 1: I don't know how I got here, but boy am
- 1:24:10Speaker 1: I really grateful that I don't have to worry about Well,
- 1:24:14Speaker 1: let's try to be the comeback kid, you know, Okay,
- 1:24:18Speaker 1: staying there, you have this unbelievable run with your mother,
- 1:24:22Speaker 1: then you have a run solo and the number one
- 1:24:26Speaker 1: hit stopped coming. What's that like? Emotionally? Mm hmm. I
- 1:24:35Speaker 1: loved the songs so much and it's gonna sound really
- 1:24:37Speaker 1: corny and maybe even a little cliche, but they're like
- 1:24:39Speaker 1: my children. I love them so much. I just was
- 1:24:43Speaker 1: sad that other people didn't respond to them. And the label,
- 1:24:47Speaker 1: of course, certainly has their responsibility part of it. I
- 1:24:51Speaker 1: love the song so much I continued, like every night
- 1:24:55Speaker 1: to sing them regardless of whether they were number ten
- 1:24:58Speaker 1: or number one. D I didn't care about that part
- 1:25:01Speaker 1: of it. The emotional part came because I wanted the
- 1:25:04Speaker 1: fans to hear the music, and that was the frustration
- 1:25:08Speaker 1: part for me, was the numbers um more so than anything,
- 1:25:11Speaker 1: because I wanted people to hear only Love, which I
- 1:25:14Speaker 1: still sing to this day as if it's you know,
- 1:25:17Speaker 1: the most important, top five important songs of my career
- 1:25:21Speaker 1: and my life because my music, to me is more
- 1:25:25Speaker 1: than just a career. Now, I've been doing it almost
- 1:25:27Speaker 1: forty years and it's just so part of me. Um.
- 1:25:32Speaker 1: It was difficult because I want to I really want
- 1:25:34Speaker 1: to please my producer. When I go in the studio.
- 1:25:37Speaker 1: I'm known for singing it twenty times, even though we
- 1:25:40Speaker 1: can fly vocals in, because I want it to be different,
- 1:25:43Speaker 1: each verse to be different. If you listen to my records,
- 1:25:45Speaker 1: I'm really proud of the fact that we didn't fix
- 1:25:48Speaker 1: a lot of vocals because I wanted people to love
- 1:25:51Speaker 1: me live. I wanted to be able to copy it live.
- 1:25:54Speaker 1: And I come from the era of when you have
- 1:25:57Speaker 1: singers like Ann Wilson singing the way she does live,
- 1:26:00Speaker 1: You're like, well, hell yeah, that's the way it's supposed
- 1:26:03Speaker 1: to be. You know, it's supposed to sound like the record,
- 1:26:05Speaker 1: but it's also supposed to sound real. So I had
- 1:26:09Speaker 1: my moments of being feeling tearful because I wanted the
- 1:26:12Speaker 1: producer to be successful and be successful myself. Absolutely, but
- 1:26:16Speaker 1: I'm still tied to the music today that I was
- 1:26:19Speaker 1: even back in the eighties and nineties, talking about the
- 1:26:28Speaker 1: number and not the music. Itself. You talk about being
- 1:26:32Speaker 1: on Johnny Carson, being on the super Bowl, those opportunities
- 1:26:37Speaker 1: are not as frequent. Not to mention the fact other
- 1:26:39Speaker 1: than the super Bowl, does none of those things mean
- 1:26:41Speaker 1: what they once did? Um, but are you looking out
- 1:26:46Speaker 1: of the front window enough to say, well, I did that,
- 1:26:49Speaker 1: then other peaks will commode. Is it bother you a
- 1:26:52Speaker 1: little bit that the opportunities or peaks are not as
- 1:26:55Speaker 1: plentiful as they once were. It depends on if I
- 1:26:59Speaker 1: go on social media. If and when I go on
- 1:27:01Speaker 1: social media and I see what's going on out there,
- 1:27:03Speaker 1: I feel like I'm missing prom. You know, I don't
- 1:27:07Speaker 1: have a date for the prom. Oh and then if
- 1:27:10Speaker 1: you take that away from me, which I try to
- 1:27:12Speaker 1: stay away from it as much as possible in terms
- 1:27:16Speaker 1: of just staying in the music, staying authentic, staying authentic.
- 1:27:19Speaker 1: I think about Susan Tadeshi and I think about all
- 1:27:21Speaker 1: these great musicians, and um, you know, she and Derek
- 1:27:25Speaker 1: Trucks are important to me. They're very important to me.
- 1:27:27Speaker 1: They're on my record, and I'm like, yes, this is
- 1:27:29Speaker 1: what I want to do for a living. Um, I'm
- 1:27:32Speaker 1: getting ready to a show. Uh that I'm really proud
- 1:27:34Speaker 1: of that. I just feel like the music matters more
- 1:27:38Speaker 1: than the TikTok numbers. So it depends on the day. Um,
- 1:27:43Speaker 1: there are days when I'm not worried about it at
- 1:27:46Speaker 1: all because i have such a great fan base, Bob.
- 1:27:48Speaker 1: I have such tremendously loyal fans that come to every
- 1:27:53Speaker 1: stinking show, whether it's Green Hall or it's Bridgestone here
- 1:27:56Speaker 1: in Nashville, Tennessee. I literally have those fans, and I've
- 1:27:59Speaker 1: earned them. I've worked really hard gaining their loyalty. And
- 1:28:04Speaker 1: then there are other days when I realize I'm getting
- 1:28:06Speaker 1: ready to sing with Kelsey Ballerini and she's the next,
- 1:28:09Speaker 1: you know, big thing, and I'm passing the torch to her. Well,
- 1:28:13Speaker 1: that's what I'm supposed to do, because that's what Lauretta
- 1:28:15Speaker 1: ll ended to me for me, and that's what women
- 1:28:18Speaker 1: in country music do for one another. Ashley McBride really
- 1:28:21Speaker 1: good example of the next generation of greatness. She comes
- 1:28:25Speaker 1: on stage and sings rock Bottom, and I look at
- 1:28:27Speaker 1: her like, well, you go on with your bad self,
- 1:28:29Speaker 1: because I'm fifty eight years old and I can still
- 1:28:32Speaker 1: get it if I have to, But you know what,
- 1:28:34Speaker 1: you go on ahead, girl, and They get it. They
- 1:28:37Speaker 1: know that I mean well, but yeah, I have my
- 1:28:40Speaker 1: moments of looking on and seeing what everybody else is doing,
- 1:28:43Speaker 1: and that's just not good for any of us. Do
- 1:28:47Speaker 1: you feel confident in your talent and success or were
- 1:28:52Speaker 1: you in the past, even now haunted by impostor syndrome? Oh?
- 1:28:59Speaker 1: I I told Oprah this. I did her show by
- 1:29:03Speaker 1: the Way, eighteen times more than anybody else because I
- 1:29:06Speaker 1: was telling my story and giving my testimony. I told
- 1:29:09Speaker 1: her that it took me years to feel like I
- 1:29:11Speaker 1: earned my success because I felt like I won the
- 1:29:16Speaker 1: freaking lottery in nineteen eight four when I got a
- 1:29:19Speaker 1: record deal. Next thing I know, we're on tour, and
- 1:29:23Speaker 1: I felt like I hadn't played bars, I hadn't gone
- 1:29:26Speaker 1: through the stuff that we hear about with all the
- 1:29:28Speaker 1: other legendary performers and artists so that I have struggled
- 1:29:33Speaker 1: with in the past. Now I don't at all. I
- 1:29:36Speaker 1: just don't. I just don't think that way. I think
- 1:29:40Speaker 1: sometimes I'm missing out on things like when the Grammys
- 1:29:42Speaker 1: come and go. I think, oh man, I should have
- 1:29:45Speaker 1: gone to the Grammys this year. But I'm okay because
- 1:29:48Speaker 1: I live on the farm. I sing when I need to,
- 1:29:51Speaker 1: and I go home when I can. And what about
- 1:29:54Speaker 1: therapy for you? If you had therapy? I do it
- 1:29:56Speaker 1: every day almost I've been in recovery and out for
- 1:30:01Speaker 1: since two thousand and three. Healing and recovery my middle name,
- 1:30:05Speaker 1: and I'm known for it. But I don't flaunt it
- 1:30:07Speaker 1: and I don't talk about it a lot because it's
- 1:30:09Speaker 1: not nobody's business. I just think it's important to continue
- 1:30:12Speaker 1: to tell people I'm in a process. I was in
- 1:30:14Speaker 1: one today, yesterday and two days before, because I think
- 1:30:18Speaker 1: if you don't reach out, that's the problem. I think
- 1:30:21Speaker 1: too many people like me think they have the answers,
- 1:30:23Speaker 1: and I know better. So this morning, when I called
- 1:30:27Speaker 1: my life coach, who has walked through a lot of
- 1:30:30Speaker 1: crap in my life, he was the one that called
- 1:30:32Speaker 1: me and said come to your mom's right away. He
- 1:30:34Speaker 1: was there when it happened. Ted was there and he's
- 1:30:37Speaker 1: our life coach since two thousand three, so we're all
- 1:30:40Speaker 1: very connected. And yet I'm in a process all the time.
- 1:30:44Speaker 1: I'm working with David Kessler, a wonderful grief counselor, who
- 1:30:47Speaker 1: is helping me understand that suicide is a mystery and
- 1:30:50Speaker 1: there's no way to neatly wrap it up, so you're
- 1:30:53Speaker 1: gonna have to just walk through it, not around it.
- 1:30:56Speaker 1: So yeah, heck yeah, I'm part yeah. And going back
- 1:31:01Speaker 1: to the music, where do you get the songs from? Well,
- 1:31:05Speaker 1: right now, Cactus Mosier and I are writing them because
- 1:31:08Speaker 1: when I say I'm somewhere between hell and the Halloween,
- 1:31:10Speaker 1: it's so intimate and so personal. A lot of hit
- 1:31:14Speaker 1: makers hit me up for Hey, let's check out this song.
- 1:31:17Speaker 1: Check out this song like only Love came to me
- 1:31:19Speaker 1: directly from the writer who had just finished writing it.
- 1:31:22Speaker 1: I recorded it that very same day that he brought
- 1:31:25Speaker 1: it to the studio. He knew I was recording, and
- 1:31:27Speaker 1: he brought it to the studio. And that's that cheeseus
- 1:31:29Speaker 1: only need same thing. Songwriter shows up at the studio,
- 1:31:32Speaker 1: says I want to play this for Wynona, sings it
- 1:31:34Speaker 1: to me live and re recorded within the next twenty
- 1:31:37Speaker 1: four hours. Right now, it's coming from my guts. I
- 1:31:41Speaker 1: just finished the song I'm Broken and Blessed in this um,
- 1:31:46Speaker 1: I can attest that I'm at the end of my rope,
- 1:31:50Speaker 1: but I keep hold and all this is me. I'm
- 1:31:54Speaker 1: broken and blessed and this um it's coming from the gut.
- 1:32:00Speaker 1: It's coming from the deepest part of my being. So
- 1:32:03Speaker 1: look forward to sharing that. Well, this is a transition,
- 1:32:06Speaker 1: because certainly in the Judge you're known for cover songs.
- 1:32:10Speaker 1: How did you make the transition to writing yourself. I
- 1:32:14Speaker 1: started to trust myself more. I think after you have
- 1:32:17Speaker 1: grown children and you've had as much failure as I've had.
- 1:32:22Speaker 1: I thought, literally, when I started songwriting, what is the
- 1:32:24Speaker 1: absolute worst that can happen? They can suck and I
- 1:32:29Speaker 1: can just keep on trying um And I trust other songwriters,
- 1:32:33Speaker 1: Brandy other people who have talked to me, Robert were
- 1:32:35Speaker 1: and I talked an awful lot about being in a
- 1:32:38Speaker 1: band at a very young age and not knowing any better.
- 1:32:41Speaker 1: And I just listened to people. You know, I meet
- 1:32:44Speaker 1: all these young cats that come through and I just
- 1:32:48Speaker 1: trust them because they're doing it. And I'm like, you
- 1:32:50Speaker 1: know what, if Taylor Swift can do it. You know,
- 1:32:53Speaker 1: she was such a young girl when I met her,
- 1:32:55Speaker 1: and I thought I had no idea that she would
- 1:32:58Speaker 1: become you know this since station, and I just think
- 1:33:01Speaker 1: I trust myself now because I'm like, you know what,
- 1:33:05Speaker 1: I'm going to talk to these people in the front
- 1:33:07Speaker 1: row like they're my next door neighbor. And that's what
- 1:33:09Speaker 1: we do in country music especially, we tell stories. And
- 1:33:13Speaker 1: I can tell a story just like anybody else. Um.
- 1:33:16Speaker 1: I want to write a song about sisters, and I
- 1:33:18Speaker 1: want to write a song about my mother. I'm working
- 1:33:20Speaker 1: on that, and I'm writing a song about my granddaughter
- 1:33:23Speaker 1: because she's eight months old. In her name is Khalia,
- 1:33:26Speaker 1: and she's the light of my life. You mentioned you
- 1:33:30Speaker 1: had a lot of failures. Which failures are you talking about? Well, relationships, UM,
- 1:33:36Speaker 1: songs that have not worked obviously, UM, tours, you name it.
- 1:33:41Speaker 1: I've had good days and not great days, and the
- 1:33:44Speaker 1: ones that were the toughest are the ones that taught
- 1:33:46Speaker 1: me the most. UM. When my biological father died, I
- 1:33:50Speaker 1: felt devastated and I felt like a part of my
- 1:33:52Speaker 1: life I would never get back. Stuff like that, you know,
- 1:33:56Speaker 1: where you just make really bad decisions financially the wrong people.
- 1:34:00Speaker 1: I've been so severely to portrayed. Anytime you have that
- 1:34:03Speaker 1: many people in your life, you're going to have issues
- 1:34:05Speaker 1: with that. And I've just learned from every single person
- 1:34:08Speaker 1: I've ever met. It's been a gift, not exactly what
- 1:34:11Speaker 1: I would want, but it was necessary for me to
- 1:34:15Speaker 1: finally say no, I'm going to listen to my gut more,
- 1:34:20Speaker 1: I'm going to say that doesn't work for me. By
- 1:34:24Speaker 1: the way, it's changed my business model to say that
- 1:34:26Speaker 1: doesn't work for me. Be a little more specific, how
- 1:34:29Speaker 1: did it change your business model? Well, I'm I'm a
- 1:34:32Speaker 1: people pleaser, and I tend to come to meetings wanting
- 1:34:35Speaker 1: to be clever, cute, and adorable and want people to
- 1:34:38Speaker 1: work with me. And I had to learn to say
- 1:34:41Speaker 1: no in a way that people would say, well, tell
- 1:34:43Speaker 1: me more about that. And I learned that when you
- 1:34:46Speaker 1: walk into a situation, whether it's you know, with a
- 1:34:50Speaker 1: friend or someone in the White House, you have to say,
- 1:34:53Speaker 1: you know what, I would love to do that and
- 1:34:55Speaker 1: I can't, and they would say, well, what can you do?
- 1:34:59Speaker 1: It's that way they're is a relationship there. It's not
- 1:35:01Speaker 1: a dictatorship. It's a democracy. So that doesn't work for me.
- 1:35:05Speaker 1: Helps me with democracy because I'm definitely a team player.
- 1:35:08Speaker 1: I'm not one of these it's why not it incorporated,
- 1:35:11Speaker 1: But there's a lot incorporated into me and a lot
- 1:35:13Speaker 1: of people running it. So when I say that doesn't
- 1:35:17Speaker 1: work for me, Bob, that doesn't work for me talking
- 1:35:19Speaker 1: about that or so far, I've been willing to talk
- 1:35:22Speaker 1: about everything we've talked about. But there are times when
- 1:35:25Speaker 1: an interviews, for instance, I'll say, well, you know what,
- 1:35:27Speaker 1: that doesn't really work for me to talk about that,
- 1:35:29Speaker 1: and then they'll say, well, let's talk about this, and
- 1:35:31Speaker 1: then we'll move on. Well, I think that's pretty clear.
- 1:35:37Speaker 1: How much do you listen to music at home? And
- 1:35:39Speaker 1: what music do you listen to all the time. My
- 1:35:42Speaker 1: husband is one of those characters you would love him.
- 1:35:45Speaker 1: By the way, is next time we talk, I want
- 1:35:47Speaker 1: him to be a part because he is. He goes
- 1:35:50Speaker 1: back to the sixties. He's got a record collection unlike
- 1:35:53Speaker 1: anyone I know, and he loves every single thing. And
- 1:35:58Speaker 1: he knows more about music from the Easty Boys to
- 1:36:01Speaker 1: the Birds. I mean, he is all in and he'll
- 1:36:06Speaker 1: play something for me and I'll be like, oh my god,
- 1:36:07Speaker 1: I had no idea. He played Blackbird for me and
- 1:36:11Speaker 1: I went, huh, what the heck. He's a rock and
- 1:36:15Speaker 1: roll genius when it comes to history, and he is
- 1:36:20Speaker 1: a maverick when it comes to music. So he's always
- 1:36:23Speaker 1: playing stuff in the car and I'm always going who
- 1:36:25Speaker 1: is that? Who is that? Who is that? And he
- 1:36:26Speaker 1: lets me know that who's the character on Yellowstone that
- 1:36:29Speaker 1: we just discovered the young the young kid who's playing
- 1:36:35Speaker 1: and selling out everywhere. Zach Zach. Yeah he turned me on. Yeah,
- 1:36:41Speaker 1: he just turned me on to Zach Brian. So he's
- 1:36:44Speaker 1: always at the forefront and he's always bringing me behind
- 1:36:48Speaker 1: him with grabbing my hands saying, here, we're gonna go
- 1:36:50Speaker 1: see this person. We're gonna go see this person. It
- 1:36:53Speaker 1: was his idea of too for me to meet Robert
- 1:36:55Speaker 1: were so here we are, you know, and now we're besties. Um.
- 1:36:59Speaker 1: And he the way he texted me back within ten minutes,
- 1:37:02Speaker 1: he most most people don't do that. Um. So I'm
- 1:37:07Speaker 1: I listen to music so much. I'm more immersed in
- 1:37:09Speaker 1: it than I've ever been. I will tell you straight up.
- 1:37:12Speaker 1: I am an artist, not a celebrity. Some people are
- 1:37:16Speaker 1: famous for being famous. I am not. I am in
- 1:37:18Speaker 1: it because I want to play these small We're playing
- 1:37:21Speaker 1: small places as well as the big places this year.
- 1:37:25Speaker 1: I'm not just one of those that I won't play
- 1:37:26Speaker 1: it if it doesn't have three thousand seats. I will
- 1:37:29Speaker 1: play green Hall every single time they invite me. In Austin, Texas. Okay,
- 1:37:36Speaker 1: other than your property, are there any other luxuries, whether
- 1:37:40Speaker 1: it be cars, flying, private clothes, jewelry, any other way?
- 1:37:45Speaker 1: You say, Yeah, I got money, I'd like to do
- 1:37:47Speaker 1: it this way. You are so funny. You know what.
- 1:37:50Speaker 1: I like to buy tractors. I'm working on a deal
- 1:37:54Speaker 1: with t SC. So let me just tell you straight up.
- 1:37:56Speaker 1: I don't do I don't fly privately and less it's
- 1:38:00Speaker 1: offered to me or I go in with somebody. Um.
- 1:38:04Speaker 1: I don't buy a lot of cars. I haven't driven
- 1:38:06Speaker 1: in a while because of the pandemic. I now am
- 1:38:09Speaker 1: driven because I don't know. I just like to sit
- 1:38:11Speaker 1: in the back and call people and talk on the phone.
- 1:38:14Speaker 1: Um luxuries. No, I don't wear jewelry because I'm a
- 1:38:18Speaker 1: guitar player. I've been playing since I was eight years old,
- 1:38:21Speaker 1: so that's fifty years. I've been playing guitar and getting
- 1:38:24Speaker 1: away with it. And I don't really buy a lot
- 1:38:26Speaker 1: of clothes. If you look at most of my videos,
- 1:38:28Speaker 1: it's like, oh, she's wearing the same thing over and
- 1:38:30Speaker 1: over and over and over and over. I won't say
- 1:38:33Speaker 1: that I don't care, but I think I probably should
- 1:38:36Speaker 1: more now when it comes to hair, I think if
- 1:38:40Speaker 1: I spend anything, I spend lots of money on extensions
- 1:38:43Speaker 1: and sparkles. That's the first time. It's the first time
- 1:38:48Speaker 1: I've ever said the word extensions. I'm gonna let that
- 1:38:52Speaker 1: lie good for you. Tell me about two tingle moments
- 1:38:58Speaker 1: meeting people. Oh my gosh. Well, the first one was
- 1:39:05Speaker 1: for me President Reagan, because he was my very first
- 1:39:07Speaker 1: president that I met, and I was like, oh my god,
- 1:39:11Speaker 1: this is like a movie. And I was just enamored
- 1:39:14Speaker 1: with the whole way that things were done back then.
- 1:39:17Speaker 1: You know, everything was such a big deal, and the
- 1:39:20Speaker 1: Secret Service and performing for him and going through the
- 1:39:24Speaker 1: the whole thing that I had to go through to perform.
- 1:39:27Speaker 1: That was number one, uh President's stuff. And then Super
- 1:39:31Speaker 1: Bowl when they whisk you out and you have thirty
- 1:39:34Speaker 1: seconds to get out there, do your thing and get
- 1:39:37Speaker 1: the heck out of dodge. That's pretty tingly, you know,
- 1:39:41Speaker 1: because you have only a certain amount of time to
- 1:39:43Speaker 1: get your stuff done. Um, let's see, I bungee jumped.
- 1:39:48Speaker 1: That was exciting about that. Well, when I went solo,
- 1:39:53Speaker 1: I took my whole band and we've bungee jumped at
- 1:39:57Speaker 1: one of those what do you call those things sa Flags.
- 1:40:00Speaker 1: I think it was at a six Flags. We had
- 1:40:03Speaker 1: just done a show and I was like, we're in
- 1:40:05Speaker 1: between Remember when we used to do two shows a night.
- 1:40:08Speaker 1: By the way, hello, we were doing two shows that
- 1:40:11Speaker 1: night and I had time in between shows, and so
- 1:40:14Speaker 1: I took everybody and said, whoever will bungee jump gets
- 1:40:16Speaker 1: a hundred bucks, and I just I just remember that
- 1:40:20Speaker 1: being a real moment for me because it was listen,
- 1:40:23Speaker 1: I was single, I was rich, I was young, and
- 1:40:27Speaker 1: I was in control, or so I thought, ha ha ha,
- 1:40:30Speaker 1: big joke. But I remember thinking I am free, and
- 1:40:35Speaker 1: so bungee jumping represented being free to me. It was
- 1:40:38Speaker 1: one of the most terrifying things I've ever done, and
- 1:40:40Speaker 1: I'll never do it again. But are you that much
- 1:40:43Speaker 1: of a risk taker? Definitely? So I think that's why
- 1:40:46Speaker 1: I drove mother so crazy. Give me a couple of
- 1:40:49Speaker 1: other examples. Oh, you know, buying houses with cash, um,
- 1:40:55Speaker 1: picking the wrong guy to marry and ending up almost broke. Um. Oh,
- 1:41:01Speaker 1: you name it. I think I've done it, dude. I
- 1:41:03Speaker 1: think I've done some really stupid stuff and live to
- 1:41:06Speaker 1: write about it. It's in my book. I talk about
- 1:41:09Speaker 1: it very openly because I know that in our failures,
- 1:41:12Speaker 1: that's how we learn to set boundaries. And I have
- 1:41:15Speaker 1: really good boundaries now, better than I did anyway. But
- 1:41:19Speaker 1: generally speaking, are you impulsive? Yes, I'm so impulsive that
- 1:41:24Speaker 1: my assistant locks the doors because she knows I'll jump
- 1:41:28Speaker 1: out and run up and and knock on somebody's door.
- 1:41:30Speaker 1: And you think I'm kidding, I will do it. I
- 1:41:34Speaker 1: think that's because everybody's so freaking serious. I'm so tired
- 1:41:38Speaker 1: of everybody being so unhappy. I just want people to
- 1:41:41Speaker 1: have some joy, you know, And if I can bring
- 1:41:43Speaker 1: joy to somebody, I will, I will walk over to somebody.
- 1:41:47Speaker 1: I did this the other day. Somebody was singing karaoke
- 1:41:49Speaker 1: in a bar and somebody called me and said, they're
- 1:41:51Speaker 1: doing your song and they really suck. And I said,
- 1:41:53Speaker 1: give me give her the phone and I face timed
- 1:41:56Speaker 1: her and she looked at me like I was an alien.
- 1:42:01Speaker 1: And I loved it so much. I was like, let's
- 1:42:04Speaker 1: do that again. Now. I love doing stuff like that.
- 1:42:09Speaker 1: And you obviously have this new record on the anti
- 1:42:12Speaker 1: you're working on, but anything looking out the front window
- 1:42:16Speaker 1: of the of life that you would like to accomplish
- 1:42:20Speaker 1: in the time you have left. I want to, like
- 1:42:26Speaker 1: John Lennon said, I just want to be remembered for
- 1:42:29Speaker 1: being a good person, because I think this business is
- 1:42:32Speaker 1: really hard and sometimes it takes the joy out of us.
- 1:42:36Speaker 1: And you know what I want to do. I want
- 1:42:37Speaker 1: to be self sufficient on the farm. I love, love,
- 1:42:40Speaker 1: love the idea of growing my own food, and who
- 1:42:43Speaker 1: knows what will come of it. I'd like to have
- 1:42:46Speaker 1: concerts on the farm. I'd love to invite the fans
- 1:42:48Speaker 1: out for a fish fry and do their own fishing.
- 1:42:51Speaker 1: I would like to get back down to re reel.
- 1:42:55Speaker 1: I want real more than anything in this life. I
- 1:42:58Speaker 1: want real. I think the business is incredibly fake sometimes
- 1:43:01Speaker 1: with all the filters and the eyebrows are perfect and
- 1:43:05Speaker 1: everything's in place, it's hard to believe anymore what's real.
- 1:43:09Speaker 1: So whatever I can do to be real. If I
- 1:43:11Speaker 1: can start opening up the farm and doing concerts around
- 1:43:14Speaker 1: the lake, come on, let's do it. I might even
- 1:43:17Speaker 1: invite you. Well, it certainly sounds great. Shy of that,
- 1:43:24Speaker 1: as we're in the middle of winter. Anything we didn't
- 1:43:27Speaker 1: talk about that, you feel your fans need to know
- 1:43:30Speaker 1: where you want to get off your chest or want
- 1:43:32Speaker 1: to illuminate m hmm. Interesting timing that question is very interesting.
- 1:43:38Speaker 1: I had to cancel um a performance the other night
- 1:43:41Speaker 1: because my body just said, you know what, no is
- 1:43:45Speaker 1: a complete sentence. And of course, you know, things go
- 1:43:48Speaker 1: viral and people talk and they wonder and they worry,
- 1:43:51Speaker 1: and people are saying, oh, she just doesn't look well
- 1:43:54Speaker 1: and is she okay? And I will tell you straight up,
- 1:43:58Speaker 1: not only am I okay, I'm doing better than I
- 1:44:02Speaker 1: actually thought I would be doing at this point in
- 1:44:04Speaker 1: this process. I've got an incredibly strong will and an
- 1:44:11Speaker 1: incredible faith. Now I get hopeless, and I do have
- 1:44:14Speaker 1: days where I just feel like, oh my god, I
- 1:44:17Speaker 1: don't have the answer, and that's just part of it.
- 1:44:20Speaker 1: But I would tell my fans that I'm in a process,
- 1:44:23Speaker 1: and that process can be trusted, whether it's a doctor
- 1:44:27Speaker 1: or a lawyer. Uh send lawyer, guns and money. UM.
- 1:44:32Speaker 1: I want to be honest with fans and tell them
- 1:44:36Speaker 1: that I struggle some days with feeling like it's too much.
- 1:44:41Speaker 1: You know, this tour is a big tour, and I
- 1:44:44Speaker 1: have to show up and kind of act like I
- 1:44:46Speaker 1: know what I'm doing. By the way, and I'm also
- 1:44:48Speaker 1: the hostess for Ashley McBride and Brandy and Little Big
- 1:44:51Speaker 1: Town and it's gonna be a lot. But I'm telling
- 1:44:55Speaker 1: the fans everywhere I go, don't worry about me. You
- 1:44:58Speaker 1: can pray for me. Um oh, you can see yourself
- 1:45:02Speaker 1: and me. I'm struggling at times, I'm broken and I'm blessed.
- 1:45:09Speaker 1: On that note, I think we've come to the end
- 1:45:11Speaker 1: of the feeling. We've known, we've covered it. Why I
- 1:45:15Speaker 1: want to thank you so much for taking the time
- 1:45:18Speaker 1: and being so honest and open and real. As you said, well,
- 1:45:23Speaker 1: my life depends on it, so you're welcome until next time.
- 1:45:27Speaker 1: This is Bob left sets h