Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 13, 1995 TAG: 9505170027
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
A self-admitted ``stranger in a strange land,'' country music superstar Naomi Judd faced a phalanx of filmmakers last year in the first production meeting for ``Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge.'' The session began with officials in the big Sony Studio conference room stating their positions and duties.
``I was last,'' remembers Judd, who was serving as co-executive producer. ``I stood up and took a deep breath, because I feel so strongly about going by my intuition.
``I said, `Every time we begin an album, every time there was something Wynonna and Ashley and I created to try to communicate with other people, hoping that they would understand us, the first thing we do is pray about it. I would like the privilege of covering us with a prayer.'
``I don't think this has ever happened before!'' she said, with a hearty laugh. ``Heads snapped. There was electricity in the air. No one said a word, and I just let 'er rip.''
The results can be seen Sunday and Monday on NBC (at 9 p.m. on WSLS-Channel 10). Based on Judd's huge best seller, ``Love Can Build a Bridge,'' the two-parter stars Kathleen York as Naomi, Viveka Davis as Wynonna and Megan Ward as younger daughter Ashley, herself a successful actress (``Sisters'').
Both Naomi and Wynonna are polished performers and rare beauties. Why not play themselves?
``The obvious answer is that we can't act,'' Judd answered with customary frankness. She recalled that when the family lived in Los Angeles during the 1970s, she shunned actors because ``I thought that these were people who had no personal histories or who had uncontrollable egos.'' Her notions changed when Ashley began acting.
Judd came here for final meetings, arriving from Nashville, where she and her two daughters have adjoining farms. She was staying in the same room at her usual hotel, a practice she maintains in every city she visits. She likes the familiarity of the places, if not the laundry prices. Rather than pay $5 to get a blouse cleaned, she washed her things in the bathtub.
The Judd saga already is well-known through her book and interviews:
A battered wife raises her two daughters while working as a waitress, receptionist and secretary - and on welfare. She and her older daughter audition in Nashville and win an RCA contract. They go on to win the Country Music Academy duet of the year award for eight years, sell more than 15 million albums, receive six Grammys and sell out concerts everywhere.
It all stopped in 1990 when a liver virus ended Judd's singing career and threatened her life. Her farewell tour with Wynonna became an overwhelming and heartbreaking event.
``After I was diagnosed, our manager at the time thought I wasn't going to make it,'' she recalled. ``He wanted these adventures - or misadventures - documented for the grandchildren he thought I wouldn't see.
``He went to New York and signed us to a Random House contract; I had nothing to do with it. He signed us to a four-hour miniseries with NBC, predicated on the book. I had nothing to do with that - zero, zip, zilch. At that time, frankly, I couldn't finish my own sentences.
``I survived, I started studying the mind-body phenomenon, I decided to become partners with the Lord in this healing process. I embarked on my own journey, what I call the voyage of self-discovery.''
At the end of the farewell tour, the manager reminded Judd of the book contract. ``You mean I have to sit down and relive all this garbage?'' she wailed. There was no way out. She spent the next 21/2 years writing ``Love Can Build a Bridge.''
The success of the book is satisfying, but she still misses performing.
``When we were on stage, I used to say it was as if there was a third entity,'' Judd said of performing with her daughter. ``Because when Wynonna and I came together to sing harmony, it was a mystical experience. We realized that there was an exponential thing going on. We just felt like we were levitating these coliseums, these massive concrete and steel auditoriums with 15,000 people from all walks of life.
``I miss it desperately, because music is such a transmitter. It gives us access to each other's souls.''
Could she sing again?
``Well, I do harmony backups on Wynonna's records, and we do special events, like last year's grand finale at Super Bowl halftime.''
And there is hope for the future. Judd reported that her doctor at UCLA had told her that morning her liver scan had proved normal.
``They were stunned,'' she said. ``I was told in 1990 by my first doctor that I had maybe three years to live. I'm just'' - big laugh - ``groovin'.''
by CNB