On Wednesday (May 11), CMT announced that it’s going to air Naomi Judd: A River Of Time Celebration live from Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on May 15 at 6 p.m. CT.
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The event, which will honor the life and legacy of Judd and her stunning career, will air commercial-free, as well.
The public memorial celebration for the singer, who passed away on April 30, will include tributes from her daughters Wynonna and Ashley with more performances soon to be announced.
“We are sincerely privileged to work alongside Wynonna, Ashley, and Larry to present this live celebration of life for their mother and wife Naomi,” said the producers for the CMT broadcast. “While we all continue to deeply mourn the loss of such a legendary artist, we are honored to commemorate her legacy alongside the country community, her friends, family and legions of fans across the world at the perfect venue: The Mother Church of Country Music. This special will celebrate her timeless voice, unforgettable spirit, and the immense impact she left on our genre through the best form of healing we have—music.”
CMT previously aired The Judds’ final performance of “Love Can Build A Bridge” at the 2022 CMT Awards. Fans can watch the full performance of that HERE.
As many fans know, Naomi died on April 30, after dealing with mental illness her whole life.
Notably, Naomi had written and released a memoir that talked about her severe bouts with depression and mental illness. The memoir is called River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope and came out in 2016.
In the book, the Grammy Award-winner talks about the “boulder-like weight of my severe treatment-resistant depression and terrifying panic attacks.”
Naomi also battled hepatitis C in her life, at one time around 1990 only being given three years to live by her doctors. She’d apparently contracted the illness as a nurse before the Judds took off.
At one point, Naomi, who suffered from “trauma,” wrote that she had “plenty of reasons to jump out of bed every morning. Never did I expect that only months after the Encore tour [in 2010] ended, I would feel I had every reason to jump off a bridge to end my tortured existence.”
Naomi’s daughters announced the news of their mother’s death. The daughters provided the statement to The Associated Press.
In the statement, they said, “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”
Naomi is survived by her husband (and fellow singer), Larry Strickland, who was backup singer, years prior, for Elvis Presley.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images
