Wynonna photo courtesy of Curb Records. Photo credit: Kristin Barlowe.

Most country artists are obsessed with having hits. Every album needs to have multiple potential singles, and some acts literally want every song on their project to be something that would get radio stations excited.

Not so with Wynonna Judd. She still cares about the music — and wouldn’t mind hearing more of her current recordings on the air — but that’s no longer the driving force it was in an earlier era.

“I [tour and record] as a smart businesswoman, and I also don’t rely on it as an addiction to where it makes me feel like I’m somebody,” she told The Sault Star in Ontario. “I already know I’ve arrived and I’ve had my 15 minutes, and from here on I’m just going to enjoy myself and get away with as much as possible.”

The Judds released their first single in 1983, when Wynonna was still a teen. She and mother Naomi Judd spent the rest of that decade touring together on America’s highways. It was an unusual scenario: At an age when most young women are establishing themselves separate from their parents, Wy was literally locked in a bus with her mom for hours and days on end.

It’s now almost 20 years since she became a solo artist, and Wynonna’s much calmer than she was then about her place in the world.

“I can honestly say that I think I think I’m stronger, healthier and [have] a more positive attitude,” she said. “I spent much of my 20s and 30s trying to, I think, spend a lot of time reacting. . . . And now I’m much more proactive. I get there now in plenty of time to relax. I’ve learned how to change my lifestyle and just try to cut down on the stress and just really appreciate the journey. Because I continue to hear it’s a journey, not a destination.”

The journey includes several big moments in the near future. Wynonna appears in a May 19 CBS special, “I Get That A Lot,” surprising customers by posing as a tire-store employee. She releases a new album, Love Heals, May 24 at Cracker Barrel stores. And the Judds will open the CMA Music Festival with a performance at Nashville’s Riverfront Park June 10. They’re promising a reunion tour some time in 2010.

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