Nightline Playlist: Wynonna Judd

Country superstar talks about her musical start and her all-time favorite tunes.

ByABC News
February 27, 2009, 11:54 AM

Feb. 27, 2009— -- Growing up in Ashland, Ky., in the early 1970s, Christina Claire Ciminella was a lonely teenager living with a single mother and no television or telephone in the house.

Her escape was listening to singers Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt on the radio, and dreaming that one day singer Bonnie Raitt would pull up in her driveway and take her away.

Christina's mother, Diana Ellen Judd, was working as a nurse who enjoyed singing on the side. By the time Christina was 12 years old, her mother realized she was a gifted singer, and gave her a guitar. The young teen taught herself to play and was soon singing on her back porch at the top of her lungs.

In 1977, mother and daughter started planning a move to Nashville to break into the music business. After a divorce, Diana changed her name to Naomi, a biblical name. Following her mother's lead, Christina changed her name too; to Wynonna, from a lyric in Nat King Cole's song "Route 66." The country duo sensation, The Judds, was born.

"We were living in the country and I think I just picked [the guitar] up to entertain myself," Wynonna Judd told "Nightline" in a recent interview at The Spotted Pig in New York City's West Village.

"The next thing I know, I am flailing away in my room to Bonnie Raitt and Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris, and all these incredible she-roes."

Today, Judd, 44, is celebrating 25 years of success in the music business. "I still have that feeling of, 'How did I get so blessed.' And I've struggled with it for years, not feeling worthy of it. I'm starting to understand that it's a gift and it's OK to accept it and enjoy it."

Her new album, Sing-Chapter 1, is an assortment of songs paying tribute to different genres and artists that have influenced her through the years. Looking back, Judd told 'Nightline' the reasons behind some of her favorite songs.

Mitchell is one of Judd's all-time "she-roes." Judd says she knows every recording Mitchell has ever done, and considers Mitchell's music to have helped her through some of the tough times when she was living in borderline welfare conditions with her mom and half-sister, Ashley.