WYNONNA

net slash give. I am calling Why Nona. You know it's cool is when you're so famous you don't need a last name. Just Why Nona. She's got a new album and a new song out and I can't wait to talk to her, and she just a love well. Well, well, hey girlfriend, So I just watched uh your new videos. Damn you look good from the neck up. I'm doing pretty good, sister. I thought you looked good from the top of your head to the tip of your toes. Well, I feel good, you know. You know, as girls, you know,

we go back and forth lock to with us. Yeah, mine's mostly going forth, not going back so much, you know what. I'm on a new program called give Yourself a Break. There you go. Yeah, that's the program we all need to be on. Back to you, back to your music, Back to this new song that we're playing. Keeps me alive. I love it. I love the the hunting, soulful, just love that pours out that well. I'm trying this new thing called vulnerability. Sideline Winona is tender headline. You know,

get get this. I well, last time I saw you, we're trying to be well, we're out. We're already alpha females. You know, we're running our own business. We're doing things our way because we somehow got the message that we could do what we wanted to do our way. And then all of a sudden, one day, my kids left home and I found myself crying uncontrollably for hours at a time, thinking what is going on with me? Is

it hormonal? Is it? And then and I took a walk in the woods, and Delilah, it just hit me, Oh my god, this is life. This is this is part of the circle of life, and the give and the take and then let go and the embrace and the ebb and the flow and all that. And I got myself caught up in all of it, and I started to write and record songs that come very close to my situation in life, as we are autobiographical and as an artist. I don't know, I just let it fly.

I guess I just started singing from a different place. This is the deal. You know. The heart has all these different chambers, Well so does I think my my diaphragm. I have this angst time in my life where I remember singing from my toe nails from a place of pain. I had, you know, years where I was flying high and money was flowing in and I was successful in

number one's and awards, and that was that right. So now the chamber I'm singing from is just this vulnerable place of just wanting to be that eighteen year old girl with a guitar and feeling life again, you know, and sometimes it's up and sometimes it's down, and I think people will relate to that. So last time we talked, you had just gone through probably the darkest days of your life, and there was a glimmer in your eye that I hadn't seen in a long time, and uh,

a lightness to your spirit. I guess that's the best way to like, like light was just pouring in and pouring out simultaneously. Huh. And I remember thinking, oh my god, something's going on with you. But we didn't have a long time to talk or share. So is that light still still pouring? Is it Is it time to talk about it? I think I think more so now than ever,

my dear. Yes, we haven't talked in a while, and when we do, we tend to go straight to the Okay, it's the bottom line here, um, I mean, it's it's interesting. Girls don't sit around and talk about you know, what do you make after taxes? And hey, you know, how's your golf score? We know you and I go right to Okay, which one of your kids in trouble now? Or are you happy? Are you happy? Um? Are you

in love? Do you have joy in your life? And so I look, I just went through a really, really tough here, probably one of the toughest in my adult life. And it has nothing to do with the music business. But what has happened is, you know, everything from the word to reading Burnet Brown. She sent me her book and I started reading and it's called Daring Greatly and

it talks about um. And for me, what I did was I applied it to daring to be authentic and daring to be myself, which is really scary because you think am I enough? You know, you go through all these things where you think am I worthy enough? Because I don't know. Growing up, I always wondered am I good enough? Am I smart enough? Am I pretty enough? Because I always had Mom and Ashley and they were always um thin and popular, and I was always kind

of the misfit it and free spirited. And you know what, though, Delilah, it's actually turned out to be that being free spirit, it gives me permission to be unique, to be myself, to follow my heart, to not have to conform. And I'll tell you what something's going on. You're right, You're right, something is going on the light even in the darkness, the light is still there. And I think it's the hope and the faith that I got from my Mamma when it was really down and dark and oh my gosh,

I could complain and be the victim. I thought a lot about you know, all my heroes, you know, from my Angelo to all these women I've met along the way, you being part of that. I know that you're a survivor. You're not a victim. I know you. I know that you're not one to sit around and complain. You might have a bad day, but it's not a bad life,

you know what I mean. I have such a blessed life and all those things that you're you're talking about is I'm going through my list in my head, you know, abuse, and my folks loved me fiercely, and I'm at the place of my life where I can say, I can honestly say they did the best that they could with the information and the tools that they absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, but that doesn't negate the fact that there was incredible craziness going on, you know, inside those four walls and

outside those four walls, and a lot of just real sick dysfunction and function. I think, I think you're right with that word. I grew up in country music in the eighties. If we go back to that, I remember going from literally, um, the Appalachian way of life, welfare, Uh, single parent, Um, we had one car that broke down, you know, depending on the the day, you know, did it run well, did we get where we were needing

to go, or did we stay home? Um? I went from that to opening for the Legends of country music, and that's weird, and I don't know that I can ever really explain what it's like to go from having a knockdown drag out with my mom over the fact that she thinks I have on too much makeup to walking in and saying Hello, Johnny Cash and you know it's the c m A. And I'm hey, Dolly, Hey Loretta. And you know that's just weird, Delilah, that's just a

weird because I'm eighteen years old. You know, I was supposed to be talking to my mom about boys, or hey, can I have fifty dollars to help with my rent this month? Or whatever? But instead we're on the road. We're waking up in Vegas. Um our names are in the headlines. You know, our records are going number one, And you're right, it's a strange, uh life to try to figure out I'm eighteen years old. When you're eighteen, your brain is not formed. You're going through all your

angst and all your stuff with boys. I remember breaking up with my boy friend that I had had um after high school for years, when Mama, He's Crazy was going number one on the charts. Now you explain those two things happening happening simultaneously. Yeah, there's just no way to wrap your head around. Now, you just walked through it. And what you do is you walk through it, you hold your head up high. And I remember hearing this once, act as if and that doesn't mean live a fake life.

It just means act as if because the bottom line is you're fundamentally okay. I remember my mama one time I was flailing around having a tantrum. I probably was three or four, and she picked me up and she kissed me and she said, you're okay, and she placed me down on the ground and I just it just stopped right there. And I remember that, and I've taken that with me all through my success. You're okay, You're everything else sucks. Maybe everything sucks, but you know what,

I'm here and I'm not going to complain. Life is a blessing when you look. You have to look for it sometimes, in my opinion, I told Jennie the other day, said, sometimes I have to wake up and maybe I can only pick one thing that I'm grateful for, but that one thing will get me to the next thing, and then that next thing will get me to the next thing. Look, it's your choice, man, you gotta decide whether you're um, you know, the glass is half full or half empty,

and it's your choice. It is our choice, and for you and I, it doesn't matter if the glasses half are half empty because we have like a bazillion people counting on us, and so it doesn't matter how bad our day is or what we're going through, we still have to pick ourselves up, put our lipstick on, rat our hair, and and smiled because we don't have a choice.

I mean, if if you crumble and you fall down, or I crumble and I fall down, how many people have we wrapped our arms around that we're taking care of because you're a mama bear. I'm a mama bear, not just to our bonus kids, but to our employees and our staff and our band. Speaking of band, tell me about Big Noise. The Big Noise just became the band name just because it was It made sense because these four I'm down to four. I used to have eleven.

And you know what less is more, sister, it's it's amazing. These four guys make it sound so amazing. I don't need all that, and so it's like simplified, simplified, simplified. I don't know about you, but I'm getting so tired of having to bigger, better, faster, more is the American way, it seems, and I'm just tired, and so I just said, you know what, honey, let's get down to where we're having fun and we don't have to worry about the

numbers part right, because I know you get it. I know you understand it's much more simpler with less people. I love this band. I mean, they literally are my family. I spend more time with them than I do my relatives. And we're a tribe and we go around and we make as much noise as we can. We played in a valley. It was nuts, it was crazy, it was a festival. It was life, it was messy, it was people. Um look, we weren't in a nice theater with air conditioning.

Let's just put it that way. And I had more fun with these people because they're real and they are the kind of people I come from. First of all, these mountain people. They reminded me of that, and I had all fulme playing there than I would Carnegie Hall. I love Carnegie Hall. I've been there, done that. But what I'm loving right now, Delilah, is all these festivals are playing now that we're considered to be in the Americana world. Um, we're being accepted and welcomed into that,

you know the world of of uh. It's a little bit more folksy and outdoor theaters and blah blah blah blah blah. I'm just you know what, I'm grateful, man, I've been doing this thirty five years. I have a place to belong and you just said that it's it's it's belonging and having a purpose for me. And I'll go anywhere. I mean today, Um, we're inside, next day, we're outside. One day, we're at a county fair. The next day. You know, we're playing uh for the military.

It just doesn't matter, man, I'll set up anywhere. I don't care. You just want to bless people and love people and share your music. I do. I do. That's That's what I've I've promised God is that I would quit well, try to quit complaining. And every time I want to come, I'm supposed to say the word hallelujah. Based on my husband, Um a lot, Oh God, I love you. I love you too. Dwilah, slow down and live some more. Where you live