The "Judds" - The True Story of Naomi, Wynonna and Ashley (Hardcover)

This revelatory biography evokes the journey of three beautiful and talented women -- mother and daughters -- and their amazing ascent from poverty and adversity to wealth and stardom.

In the words of Time magazine, "Naomi's never-say-die determination took her from pregnant teen bride to divorced welfare mother to driving force behind the now successful mother-daughter phenomenon known as "The Judds." Now daughter Ashley is taking the limelight as a movie star.

It is all here, from the early days when the marriage of Diana Ciminella crumbled and Diana and her daughters moved from Hollywood to Morrill, Kentucky. She brought along an old guitar a friend had given her. She took back her maiden name, Judd. She also changed her given name to Naomi, taken from the biblical story of Ruth, and her oldest daughter's name to Wynonna, from the name of the town in the song "Route 66."

Their big break came when a local record producer discovered Naomi and Wynonna and arranged a recording contract for them in March of 1983. Then came the release of their single record, Had A Dream, followed by Mama He's Crazy, which astonished everyone by winning the 1984 Grammy Award for the best country performance by a duo. Wynonna had just graduated from high school three months before. On the heels of this amazing success, the Judds released their first album, Why Not Me, which immediately went golden, selling a half million copies, and won them another Grammy Award. Their next album, Rockin' With the Rhythm, came out at the end of 1985 and went platinum (a million copies sold) almost overnight.

Over the next four years, the Judds toured North America and Europe and produced six albums. By January 1994, they had sold a combined total of 20 million albums.

As successful as their professional career had become, their personal lives were a war zone. Naomi and Wynonna have bickered with each other all their lives. They fought over Wynonna's tardiness, clothes, and bad taste in men.

The three Judd women describe themselves as an eternal, infernal, turbulent triangle. The stormy relationship between Naomi and Wynonna has gotten the most press and been the most troubling, partly because Ashley chose a career in theater and films rather than music. (Two of her recent memorable movies were Rudy in Paradise and A Time to Kill.)

The Judds, a stunning tell-all biography reveals:
-- Why teenage Wynonna ran away and almost destroyed the Judds as an act
-- How Ashley was virtually abandoned by her mother and sister at fifteen
-- The sudden tragedy of Naomi's brother's death from Hodgkin's disease
-- How Naomi ended a seven-year feud of silence with her own mother, Polly
-- The curious history of Mama, He's Crazy, the song that launched their career
-- How Naomi's mother tried to force her to denounce her father publicly
-- The two Wynonna obsessions that drive her mother wild

The Judds is a remarkable story that will appeal to the thousands of country music Judd fans who are caught up in their rags-to-riches personal lives and who are spellbound by their music.