While a residency at The Venetian gives Grammy-winning duo The Judds a chance to perform multiple shows without having to travel, daughter Wynonna sees it more as a way to honor her mother Naomi before setting off on the next arc of her career. “She’s turning 70 in January, and this is my opportunity to celebrate her,” said Wynonna in a phone interview. “I’ve been on tour and I’ve had fans come up and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve never had a chance to see you live,’ because they’re young. In fact, back in the ’80s they weren’t even here. Either that or they were small. Now they get to see us live.”
The Judds gave a farewell tour in 1991 after Naomi, a former nurse, had to retire due to being diagnosed with Hepatitis C. She would fully recover, but Wynonna spread her wings and soared as a solo artist before the two toured together again in 2000 and 2010. Now the three or four generations of “Juddheads” who have never witnessed Wynonna perform with her gracious mom at her side adding harmonies to classics like “Mama, He’s Crazy,” and “Grandpa (Tell Me ’Bout the Good Old Days)” and “Girls Night Out” (the song for which the residency was named) will get their chance.
Not having to travel will enable fewer distractions, which kept the 2010 reunion tour from being as enjoyable as it could have been. The Judds were starring in their own reality show at the time, and personal issues encroached on Wynonna to the point where she sometimes didn’t know what day it was. “I had to look at my phone to know it was Wednesday,” she said. “I was trying to do too much, and I was getting back into my work addiction and overdoing it.”
Life would get tougher after her husband Cactus Moser lost his leg in a 2012 motorcycle accident. Now fully recovered, Moser is back leading her band and helped her record her latest album (“probably the most fun I’ve ever had”) on the Judds’ 1,000-acre Tennessee farm, from where Naomi described her excitement about the upcoming residency. “Of course, I love my tour bus,” she said, “but we rented Celine Dion’s condo in a little gated community, so I can be normal and go to the dry cleaners and have the sense of being around everyday people. We’re pretty darn psyched!”
Naomi hasn’t exactly been waiting for a call from Wynonna for the next reunion. She became in-demand as a public speaker, espousing mind-body-spirit lifestyles and humanitarian causes. The residency gives her a chance to not only reunite with Wynonna, who will perform her own songs in solos sets, but get reacquainted with old friends who plan to make the trip. “A bunch of my girlfriends who I grew up with since we were babies back in Ashland, Ky., about five of them, I think they’re going to come,” she said. “It makes me smile.”
The Venetian, 8 p.m. Oct. 13-14, 16-17, 21 & 23-24, starting at $59.50 plus tax and fee. 702.414.9000
