Wynonna Judd and Ann Wilson are two of the most powerful vocalists in their respective genres, and when they got together in 2004, it was inevitable that sparks would fly.

Legendary rockers Heart teamed up with the country icon for an episode of CMT Crossroads that taped on April 29 and aired on July 9, 2004, featuring live collaborations from each other's catalogs that included Heart's "Dog and Butterfly" and "Magic Man," as well as Wynonna's solo hit "No One Else on Earth" and more.

“Ah, what a feeling,” Judd said of the taping. “I mean, that’s one of the highlights of my career, no doubt, just because I knew I was getting away with something.”

Judd was so excited to be singing with her musical heroes that she invited them to her farm outside of Nashville for a picnic before the shoot. She said she prepared for it more than any other gig of her life.

“When I showed up there, I knew every word backwards and forwards, and I was probably over-prepared because, at one point, Ann came over to me and patted me like big sister to little sister, and said, ‘Hey, don’t forget to enjoy yourself. Relax. It’s OK,’" the singer recalled. "And I’m going, ‘Excuse me, Miss Opera Singer,’ you know, ‘Sings from like another galaxy!’ It was pretty intense for a while, then somehow it just clicked, and then it got easier.”

Judd knows a little bit about the musical chemistry between family, having launched her career as one-half of the Judds with her mother, Naomi. She was impressed by the Wilson sisters' musical telepathy.

“There’s an eye contact thing. It’s like when you see birds flying parallel: If one turns left, the other goes with them," she observed. "They don’t even have to speak. They just do it. There’s a real shorthand going on, absolutely. A nod of the head, the raise of the eyebrow. … There’s just that blood thing that obviously is just so DNA, that bypasses anything we can all understand unless you’re singing with blood.”

 

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