Wynonna Judd says she still talks to late mother Naomi when she performs: 'Why are we not singing together?'

Wynonna Judd says that two years after the death of her mother Naomi Judd, she still feels close to her when she's in front of a crowd.

When asked in an Us Weekly interview published Tuesday if she still talks to her, Judd said, "I do. On stage, I look up a lot because I see angels. Now I do it with Mom. I'm like, 'What the hell are you doing? Where are you and why are you not here? And why are we not singing together again?'"

Now 60, the "I Saw the Light" singer said she feels Naomi's presence the strongest on stage and when she's with Kaliyah, her 2-year-old granddaughter. Kaliyah's mother is the singer's daughter, Grace Kelley, who has struggled with legal issues.

"She carries a picture of Mama around and a picture of her and her mom," Judd said. "I talk to her about them and say, 'They love you very much.'"

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In general, Judd, now 60, said she's "in a really good place."

"I've worked on forgiveness and my anger and frustration with suicide," explained the singer, whose mother died by suicide. "[At a fan club party] last night, everyone had on Judds T-shirts from the '80s and '90s. I thought, I have a choice: I can either be better or bitter. My grief comes and goes. I see it as a gift in terms of the healing part."

When the grief comes, she accepts it.

"Something will happen and you start to cry and think, What's wrong with me? Then you realize there's nothing wrong with you. It's perfectly fine to cry. It's important to embrace it and lean into it. I cry as much as I need to and when it's time to be done, it will be," she said.

In what has been an emotionally trying time, Judd said that she's become closer with her actress sister Ashley Judd.

"Now that Mom's gone," she said, "it feels like there's more of a solidifying — and that grout between the stones is God. We're both believers so we have such a strong connection now. There's no drama there, and if there is, it doesn't last as long as it used to. We're older now and we realize we have only so much time left."

For her part, Ashley has said that she's come to understand that her mother was doing the best she could to cope with the pain she felt from mental illness.

She explained in July 2022 on the Healing With David Kessler podcast that she hoped her mother was "able to let go of any guilt or shame that she carried for any shortcomings she may have had" as a mother when she died, "Because certainly on my end, all was forgiven long ago."

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.