On October 17, 1990, Naomi Judd shockingly announced that she was stepping away from the music industry. Judd was just 44 and on top of the country music world as one-half of the mother-daughter duo the Judds when she dropped the surprise update.
The announcement came after she received her hepatitis C diagnosis in January earlier that year. Her daughter Wyonna took her place in the family group during her health-related musical hiatus.
“I have always told Wy and our fans the only thing that could stop me from this career that I so desperately love is my health,” Judd said, via the Los Angeles Times. “Unfortunately, that has happened.”
When she walked away from her band, the Judds had sold more than 6 million records and had more than a dozen No. 1 country hits, including “Why Not Me” and “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Old Days).”
Bob Guerra, operations manager for Los Angeles country music radio stations KZLA and KLAC, paid tribute to the group after Judd walked away.
“Their rise to fame was so fairy-tale like,” Guerra told the Los Angeles Times at the time. “Initially what made them so popular was the fact that they were this pretty mother-and-daughter team, but I think it was the unique directness of their songs and their pure harmonies which ultimately won fans over and helped push country music back to a simpler sound.”
While Judd stepped away from music, she stayed in the spotlight, becoming a spokesperson for the American Liver Foundation, founding the Naomi Judd Education and Research Fund, and starring in a 1999 TV movie called A Holiday Romance.
The Judds would reunite for the Power to Change Tour in 2000, and again in 2010 for what they said would be their final tour, the Last Encore Tour. The Judds then held a nine-show Las Vegas residency called ” Girls Night Out inside The Venetian Theatre in Las Vegas in 2015.
Naomi Judd tragically died by suicide on April 30, 2022, at the age of 76, the day before she and her daughter Wynonna were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
