The way she sees it, playing a concert in which she's backed by strings — orchestra strings, not guitar strings — is a dramatic change of pace, says Wynonna Judd, who makes her debut with the Honolulu Symphony Pops this weekend. That, she says, perfectly fits her and her family.

"It's kind of like moving your furniture around," she says. "It's the same house, but things are rearranged. It's very dramatic. But who doesn't love drama in the Judds' family?"

There's been plenty of drama, for sure. Throughout the 1980s, Wynonna and mom Naomi ruled the country-music charts (they had 14 No. 1 singles in the mid- to late-'80s) and steamrolled their way across the globe, becoming one of the most popular acts in country music. But along with the popularity came plenty of, as Wynonna says, drama.

"You spend 10 years on the road with your mom, cooped up in a tour bus, and see if you don't go nuts," Wynonna says, laughing. "Why am I as crazy as I am? It's my mom's fault."

She is, of course, kidding. She says she deeply loves her mother, and always has, even when they were at each other's throats. They have the type of close-knit relationship, she says, that only comes after a lot of heartache and hard times.

(And the hard times continue: Just this week, she filed for divorce from her estranged husband, Dan R. Roach, after his arrest in Texas on sex charges involving a minor. The two, who married in 2003, had been separated since Feb. 18.)

Wynonna grew up poor in Kentucky and California. Every day was a struggle for her and her family, she says. Many of the Judds' songs, and much of Wynonna's subsequent solo material, dealt with emotional and financial struggles — and Wynonna is often approached by fans who say the Judds' music made a deep impact on their lives.

"I have done and accomplished some very wonderful things," says Wynonna, 42. "But what matters most is the music. There was this woman a while back who came up to me towing her two kids. She says to me, 'I left my abusive husband because of one of your songs,' and she just starts crying, and I do, too. It's that kind of stuff that matters. It's not about No. 1s. My mom always taught us, 'Be the change you want to see in the world.' "

These days, Wynonna is on TV more than on the charts. She, her mother and actress-sister Ashley have publicly aired their struggles on "Oprah" in recent years. And she just wrapped up the fourth season of "Nashville Star," an "American Idol"-like talent contest for country singers that she co-hosts.

"Nashville Star," she says, was a real eye-opener, but not in a good way.

"I'll probably get a memo from someone for saying this, but the contestants on that show have no clue about work ethic. I feel for them," she says. "For them, it's all about the limo ride and champagne. I just can't understand that, I guess because I had different goals. I've been platinum and I've been plywood, and the only thing I ever wanted to do was connect with my audience. Just give me a stage, an audience and a microphone and I'm good.

"I learned that from my mom. That's why God put her on the tour bus with me."