Wynonna Judd performed a new song, โGirl Who Could Sing,โ Oct. 8 on TODAY, and it certainly resonated with Carson Daly.
The track, from her first new album in 10 years, โThe Hard Truth,โ is about how she never met her biological father.
โI didnโt find out he was my real father until I was 30. So this is a very heavy song,โ she said before playing it.
After wrapping up, Carson was visibly moved.
โWow, youโre getting me there, man,โ he said.
โMy goodness,โ she said.
โYeah, I didnโt know my biological father, so that song, like every lyric of that hits home,โ he said.
Carsonโs biological father, Jim Daly, died of bladder cancer in 1979 when Carson was 5.
During the pandemic in 2020, he and his older sister, Quinn, re-created a photo of him mixing a drink in the 1970s while wearing a UCLA zip-up.
โI feel like I time traveled back to like 1978 for a second there and entered the personal space of my father, and Iโm grateful for that,โ Carson said on TODAY at the time.
โI have so few shared experiences with him, itโs like a powerful moment,โ he said.
For Carson, the performance and songโs premise struck a chord.
โFor me it was just cool putting on the UCLA sweatshirt because I have so few things that connect me to my biological father,โโ he said. โTo be able to re-create that photo was really cool. That dichotomy I see in Dadโs face when I look at that picture. I donโt know if heโs running from fear or head into it.โ
A few years after his father died, Carsonโs mother, Patti, married Richard Caruso, whom Carson called โPops.โ The couple died five weeks apart in 2017 from unrelated ailments. Carson had a strong relationship with Caruso and mourned his death.
โPops passed away today with absolute dignity & pride. The greatest man we ever knew. Our hero,โ he wrote on Instagram.
โHe exemplified great faith, loyalty to family & hard work. He provided us all with so much. Weโre grateful. His legacy lives on in all of us & anyone who had the pleasure of meeting him. Heโs reunited with mom now.โ
Judd has opened up about how the man she believed to be her father, Michael Ciminella, was not actually her dad. Her biological father was man named Charles Jordan. He dated her mother, Naomi, when they were teenagers.
โShe was very much in love with him, and they were just too young … she got pregnant, and thatโs that,โ Judd told People last month. โBack in 1963 that just didnโt happen without there being consequences that were intense.โ
It was a development she addressed in โGirl Who Could Sing.โ
โI was 30 years old when I learned the truth, that the man I called โDadโ my entire life, was not my biological father,โ she said in a statement released along with the song.
โIt changed everything I thought I knew about who I was. By the time I was ready to meet him, he was gone. I never got to hear his voice, look him in the eyes, or ask him why. Iโll carry those unanswered questions with me for the rest of my life. โWas I ever really your daughter, or just a girl who could sing?โ is the question that hurts the most โ because Iโll never get to hear his answer. What do you do with the questions youโll never have answers to? My answer is simple โฆ I sing about it.โ
