‘I went into a deep, deep hole’: Wynonna Judd on overcoming family tragedy and putting a lifetime of love and pain into her new album

The country star has abandoned Nashville slickness for a set of raw, pared-back songs that reckon with the death of her mother and decades of personal struggles. ‘This is a labour of love,’ she says

When Wynonna Judd appears on my laptop screen – hair a deep shade of crimson, makeup perfect and sporting a huge black baseball cap with Kentucky Queen spelt out across its brim – she looks both fabulous and confident. Which is a good thing, as the Nashville star has been off the radar for a decade. On the occasions her name has made the news, it’s more often been linked to family tragedy than music.

“I’m in a good place,” says the woman Rolling Stone described as “the greatest female country singer since Patsy Cline”. “My life has been chaotic. I’ve had a lot of success and a lot of failure, and it’s music that keeps me going. Always.”