May 25, 2021 • 44 mins
Thirty years after the release of her mega chart-topping album, Amy Grant's heart is still very much in motion! The beloved singer-songwriter sits down with me today for a looong lovely chat. We cover a good many topics, all of which boil down to one thing - saying "Yes" to the possibilities. Saying "yes" to the things that come your way, even if they're out of your comfort zone, or you don't feel quite prepared. Amy says her heart is still opening to new possibilities and she is loving the people and experiences the practice of saying "yes" is bringing into her life. I can't wait for you to hear this one! ~ Delilah
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Love someone to know baby Baby. I'm taken with the
notion to talk today with an iconic recording artist, one
whose music I've played over and over and over for
(00:27):
years and years and years, songs dedicated by callers to
their sweethearts, to those that they love with the sweetest
of devotion. While I've been given the honorary title of
Queen of sappy love songs, my guest today became known
(00:48):
at a very early stage in her career, like before
she was even twenty I think as the queen of
Christian pop. She's been over forty years so far the
music world. She's racked up six Grammys, twenty six dev Awards.
It's been thirty years since Heart in Motion was released.
(01:11):
What's included her biggest worldwide hit that I just you
know tried to sing a few little notes of baby Baby,
a song she wrote about her baby, and we're going
to talk about that today. She's going to be celebrating
the album Heart in Motion all through the thirty year anniversary.
We are going to have so much fun chatting with
(01:31):
my friend Amy Grant today. But I need to stop
for a minute. I'm cracking myself up here. Stop for
a minute and gives some love to one of my
fabulous podcast sponsors. You've heard me say that it's when
the sky is nightest that the stars are brightest, but
for many people around the world, it can be hard
(01:52):
to see the light amidst the darkness. Mercy Ships is
an organization that gives people renewed hope. Mercy Ships turnships
into floating hospitals and then sends them to the poorest
countries in the world to provide free surgeries that save
lives and change lives. They are transforming communities by training
(02:13):
local doctors who continue the good work long after these
ships leave board. This hope goes beyond patients and their families.
It also inspires surgeons, nurses, the entire team involved. It's
all sustained by the generosity of volunteers and donors, and
what's most amazing is that anyone can get involved. I
(02:36):
encourage you to visit Mercy Ships dot org slash love
to learn how you can be a part of this
great work. Hello there, Hey Delilah, and I'm so sorry
as through the time up. I'm just shoving some chili
down my throat. Seconds to just take four big Amy,
(02:59):
take all the time you need to finish your chili,
I'll just um, I'll just entergain our listeners in the meantime. UM,
go ahead. She's enjoying her homemade chili. Her world famous
homemade chili. I've heard about it. Michael W. Smith is
bragged about it. But did she offered to share the recipe? No? No.
(03:24):
Did she offer to send me like freeze some and
send it in a sealed container or something. No? I
didn't do that either. All right, I think she's done.
Amy Grant, Welcome back from your chili bowl. Welcome to
love someone with Delilah. Okay, thank you that I was
(03:45):
working on some some hungry behavior. I saw a T
shirt online the other day. I almost ordered it for
my daughter. Sheila says, I'm sorry about what I said.
I was hungry, and if it had said when I
was hungry, I would have ordered it for her. Because
(04:07):
she doesn't get hungry. She gets she goes from zero
to hungry in five minutes. And she's got a little
one who's almost three, who is just like her. I'm like,
somebody finds some protein right now, find me some. I
don't care, some some some chicken strip something. Yep. I'm
(04:27):
speaking my language, sister, Uh. Welcome to U. To love
someone Amy. It's been a while since we caught up.
I think the last time I talked to you was
when I saw you on your Christmas tour a couple
of years ago. Yes, I know, and I've seen your
face recently with a People magazine article, and I wish
(04:51):
I could just wrap arms around you. I wish you
could do I would take that in a heartbeat. I
was talking to UH to a lady I just love
a girl named bree Uh last night. She's been her
whole career in the movie industry, in the TV industry,
and she said something that just blew my mind. She said,
(05:15):
I almost didn't want to come to your house. I
almost didn't want to get to know you. I said why.
She said, because I've been so disappointed with people I've
met through this industry, where you have these expectations of
them and then you get to see, you know, behind
the screen, they moved the curtain and and they're just
(05:37):
not real. I started laughing, and I said, you know what,
I am so blessed that I have people in my world,
in my life, in my career, in my inner circle
who are as real and as wonderful and genuine as
you imagine them to be. And I was looking I
(05:59):
had been looking online at some stuff that you've done
because I was thinking about this interview. And you and
and Michael are are that way. You. You are as
kind and as beautiful and as real as as somebody
would imagine you to be. And you never and all
(06:20):
the times I've seen you on stage, offstage, interviews, casually
with your husband, with Michael W. Smith, you have consistently
been a beautiful soul and I appreciate that about you.
Thank you. Well. Hey, um, it's easier to be one person,
(06:44):
it is, Oh yeah, how hard is that for people
to pretend and to put on this act and then
you know, when the cameras aren't rolling or whatever, to
be somebody completely different. That's like, that's like a lot
of energy. Unless you've got a multiple personality disorder, that's
(07:06):
a lot of energy. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, and
all of us, um, that have public lives, we do have,
like you said, a circle of people around us that
know us. Nothing is a surprise. And on the days
(07:26):
when you feel the lowest or you know, you you
have people that you trust to embrace all that too,
you know, because everybody's pendulum swings wide and and uh
and you know it's funny. I think when you have
people in your life that have constantly been um supportive
(07:50):
and nurturing, it makes but that it makes me want
to be that way to other people. If I go,
oh no, yeah, I had a big dose of that.
I was born into a family of that, and everybody
should have that. Um So, so you have that obviously
with your hubby how many years twenty years now you
(08:12):
and Vince one years? I know, but I'm telling you,
I don't think. I don't think we really felt like
an old married couple until COVID because we had a chance.
You know, always he's packing a bag leaving town, I'm
packing a bag leaping down. And there was just always
so much coming and going, and it was it was
(08:36):
such a It was really one of the many hidden
gifts of COVID for us to be in the same
place for a whole year. Same here. My hubby and
I have been together, not twenty one years, but going
on fourteen years married and almost went in the nineteen
years together I don't even remember. But same with us
(08:57):
because we live in two different states. His career is
in one state, and my studio in my life is
in another state. And for our entire marriage, we've had
a commuter marriage. And when COVID hit, I packed up
the kids and headed to his ranch. He has a
cattle ranch. It was weird. Okay, all I want to
(09:19):
do is ask you a million details. Yeah, okay, so
let's just let's just let's just pretend we're not even
recording this. What's this The weirdest thing that you discovered
about Vents that we can talk about during the shutdown,
or the biggest challenge that you guys had. I think
the biggest discovery for me was that um And I'm
(09:41):
not proud of this. I think the things about Vents
that I wished were different when we were always coming
and going, because I would be away from him and
then I and when I see him, I would like
project something onto him. Oh he doesn't quite suit that projection.
Um And And what I found when I was with
(10:02):
him all the time was that I I felt like
I really saw him um day in and day out,
the subtle, beautiful things about his personality day in and
day out. And I know it sounds crazy, but to
go twenty one years and this has never struck you before.
(10:28):
But when you're always coming and going, like for instance,
I feel like he saves his best material for me, funny, silly,
but he starts every day kind and humorous, every single day. Um.
He's a big talker, you know, he's not like Um,
(10:50):
he's a good listener. If I feel super energetic about
something that's going on, like I want, I'll say, I
just want you to know all about this. But he
doesn't ask a lot of questions, and so I would find,
you know, if we came together and he wasn't asking
a lot of questions, I don't know, I just be like,
I wish you'd ask me more questions. I wish you
(11:12):
were interested. But when you're together all the time, we
just found our pattern of being together. And as crazy
as it sounds, a lot of it was peaceful silence.
And now when I'm away from him, I go, who
I missed that? It's crazy? Like I mean, I don't
(11:33):
know if that rings true for you. He can talk,
he can He also can talk and talk and talk,
But I just have such an appreciation for, I don't know,
just the calm center that do you notice how quiet
I'm being. Yeah, why do you are you relating to that?
(11:55):
Because because there is no way I'm opening my mouth now.
After that, I'm like, Dang, that didn't go the way
i've that would. He sounds so sweet and lovely and lovable.
And and here I was going to tell you how
I didn't realize how grumpy my husband was since we've
(12:17):
never lived together. Can I tell you it's so funny,
I'm I'm telling you that discovery to go. I mean,
I think Vince is it's harder on himself than he
is on anybody else, but he is. He just a
kind soul. I think for Paul, because my husband is older.
(12:38):
Um and his children, he and his wife, his first
wife had five children, and they're all grown and gone
and very successfully living on their own. Um for the
four girls they I lost my stepson, He lost his
only son, Um December of nineteen. But um, so when
(13:01):
he came into my world, he had had already graduated
in his mind from being a daily dad. Yeah, and
already was a grandpa you know when we met, and
and so was I. I was grandma when we met.
But I had not finished raising the ones I had
and I've adopted six more since we met. And so
(13:26):
when we lived apart, it was easy for him to
be interactive and engaged for two or three or five
or six days out of the month. But when we
were all living together, nine of us in a square
foot house, all of a sudden he realized why he
had you know, only had five and gotten them out
(13:49):
the door before WHU, that's a lot going on. Yeah,
that that would be hard and maybe this is maybe
you guys found deaf vincent I. The more concentrated time
we spent together, we realized that we um we are
so different from each other in how we like to
(14:11):
spend our time, in what energizes us. He has endless
patients and stamina in the recording studio, endless stamina when
it comes to something musical, perfecting a part, working on something,
working on a song, and I'm like a dog in
a backyard and forty squirrels have just been released, I squirrel, squirrel,
(14:37):
gotta go do this, gotta do that. So what what
are the sorts of things that you have that endless capacity?
Because it's funny, my husband and I are actually very
much alike in the things that we enjoy spending time doing.
We both love big equipment. We both love like being
in the dirt and landscaping and and and being out
(15:00):
doors and being you know, down at the creek and
planting trees. We both you know, we were very much
alike in that way. But I'm the same as you are.
If I could still give birth, I would have ten
more kids. And and Paul's like, no, No, five was
plenty for me. And now that I'm stepdad to fifteen more,
(15:21):
it's kind of a lot, a lot, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um So, so what are the things that you enjoy?
Like you said, he's got endless capacity for recording, what
are the things that that you just could spend ten
hours doing? I love cooking, I'm a lot more. Why
(15:41):
are you so dang skinny? Then every time I see
you do you just you're You're so beautiful and thin
and gorgeous. I love cooking and you can tell by
looking at me. I I don't know what to say.
I I got a fast my table is um I do.
(16:01):
And I love to move. I love to hike. It
would drive Vince crazy if I asked him to do
what I love doing every day. And I think that's
what I've really discovered is when when I think when
we were both younger, because we met in our thirties
and now we're in our sixties, and I think we
(16:24):
imagined that we would be inseparable because we were so
drawn to each other. But what what I found in
the COVID year was that he's my favorite person to
return to. But there's so many ways. I I just
love for my days to have purpose. I've got a
(16:44):
farm that I love to share, and I share it
in such an eclectic way. Is coming Sunday, We're having
our very first Elderly Day retreat. I met a filmmaker
and he said, I want to take people from assisted
liveing like truly the elderly out to the barefoot around
(17:05):
a campfire with a loved one, tell stories, Have there
be some music, and you know so I'm not I'm
just providing the place. What a precious wheet way to
share your blessings in a completely different way. I mean,
when you share your music, you share your blessings. But
(17:26):
think of the memories that's going to bring back for
people who maybe grew up on a farm or had
a farm, or went to their grandma's farm to be
able to leave the confines of four walls. Yeah, yeah,
especially after the year we've had. And this man, Glenn,
I met him through a friend of a friend and
he's a he makes documentaries and he's been a music
(17:48):
business as a graphic artist for years. And yeah, but
just to go, oh my gosh, our paths crossed. So
I feel like I'm always seeing the possibilities of enlarging
the community circle, even though I'm I get regenerated and
rejuvenated in solitude. I'm an introvert that likes people anyway.
(18:14):
But it's just like all those things are you know,
that will lead to something else, that will lead to
something else. I had a friend that started coming out
to the farm, and now we've made connections with the
Nashville Rescue Mission and we're getting ready to have a
retreat there with ten women served by the Rescue Mission.
And I'm so excited. I'm like, I have, believe it
(18:36):
or not, twenty family tents in my basement because I'm
such an outdoor freak. Twenty So I'm like, I get
the tents up in the backyard, I get to wash
the tents. You know, here, my engine, how are we
going to make them all sleep comfortably. How are we
going to do this and then still come out in
the backyard, you know, while I'm stretching the tents out
and making sure we have all the poles, that he'll
(18:57):
be like, I'm head to to the golf courpse. You know,
he loves he loves his patterns. And I'm not sure
how to describe what I love. But it's just the
matrix of all of our connectedness and how I believe
we're all so essential to each other and how we
connect what we offer. And one person has plentiful of
(19:21):
something else than another person that they they have scarcity
of that, and it's I'm all about, Oh my god,
connected dots. Just connect the dots. There's everything we need
if we could just communicate it. And and so Stone
Soup remember that story? Did you hear that story when
you were a little Yes, I love that. That's what
(19:44):
you are. You you are, you are the chef of
Stone Soup. M hmm. You could not have said anything
to put a bigger smile on my face. That that's
that's what your gift is. I mean, obviously, Amy Grant,
who's one how many Grammys and how many devil Wards
but what you just described of of figuring out who's
(20:08):
got this talent, who's got this gift, who's got this need?
Where is their scarcity? Where can my abundance flow into
that scarcity? That's that's a stone stone soup chef. Yeah, Yeah,
what's funny because I think just talking about scarcity and abundance.
(20:30):
I don't even know when this really felt like a
lightning bolt in my brain. But I keep looking at
like the situations in the world that feel like like
the like homelessness or um, you just go, oh, something
seem insurmountable. Some things, you know, respectful, race relations, just
(20:54):
you just name it. It's so easy to look at
all of the failed attempts and the ongoing problems and
just but I don't know, something has shifted in this
last year in me, and I just go, what if
every one of us were just willing to consider the
possibility of saying a simple yes for good that came
(21:20):
to us individually uniquely to us, that if we just said,
I'm just going to risk saying yes, you know, I mean,
to me, that's where the adventure is. The adventure is
starting a conversation in the elevator with someone that looks
different from you, Relax and say, how's your day going?
(21:42):
If we all just did things differently, if we all
said yes to the possibility of kindness, if we all
said yes to the possibility of sharing, of not holding
our resources, of sharing whatever it is that God has
blessed us with. Yes. And here's the other thing I
think the first time you say yes, and I think
(22:02):
it's a mystery how it comes to you, whatever it is,
just that it's like, yeah, just out of the blue,
it occurred to me to do this instead of that
I don't even know what it was. But something I
think that that's when the adventure begins. Is the first
time you go slightly outside of your own script, your
(22:25):
own thermostat temperature controlled environment that we all have tried
to create around ourselves, and it separates us from each other.
The first time you say I'm a little nervous, but
I'm going to show up at this table. I don't
know if I have the skill set, but I'm going
(22:46):
to try this thing. Everything you need to do, it
will show up. Yeah, Like when I the first time
I went to Africa, Amy, I was so scared. I
was so I didn't even have a past sport. I
had only traveled out of the United States to Canada
a couple of times and to Mexico a couple of times.
(23:09):
That's it. I had no travel experience, I had no
no knowledge of what a developing country was like. And
it was people at World Vision that said, um, why
don't you you know? I went to them and asked
them for for help for somebody that had contacted me
in West Africa, and they said, well, why don't you
(23:31):
go and see what the conditions are like and see
what you could do? And you might as well said
why don't you get on a spaceship and go live
on Mars. To me, it was just such a foreign like, no,
I'm I'm a single mom and I've got a career
in and I said yes, yeah, And it changed everything.
(23:53):
It changed everything. It's saying yes, oh my gosh, and look,
didn't it funn need make your your entire life less gray?
And you see the edges of technicolor. And the more
you step into yes, the more vivid and vibrant your
life gets. Oh boy, did it get vivid? And did
(24:15):
it get vibrant? And did it get filled with purpose
and passion and joy? And six children, and a whole
different way of looking at things. Um, a whole different
understanding of of family and dynamics and culture and music
(24:37):
and traditions and food and everything. Everything changed the moment.
It didn't even change the minute I got to Ghana.
It changed the moment I said yes to the possibility
of stepping outside that comfort zone. Yeah, So what was
the biggest yes that you can think of that has
(25:00):
has impacted you and your family? That you said the
way my brain works at two o'clock in the morning,
I'll go, that's the introduction have said, But I just don't.
My brain doesn't work that way. So I'm just going
to say a recent yes was I have a friend,
so all of our kids, you know, have launched five um,
(25:24):
and UM, I can fix that for you. I can.
I can. I can fix that for you. If you
got that empty nest there, I can fill it right
back up. Lord. Yeah. Well so the so the summer
my father died, I traveled to see two friends of
Michael College, one in North Carolina and one in New Hampshire.
(25:48):
And I was so struck by their hospitality. It was
so beautiful to me in its simplicity that it was
all about the welcome. I came home and said, Okay,
I'm gonna take these kids rooms, and I'm going to uh,
I'm going to get come from you know, new mattresses.
(26:10):
I mean, most everybody took their beds. I'm gonna I'm
going to go through. I'm gonna box up. You know,
nobody needs seventh grade maths papers. They don't want them,
you know, just to go through the clutter um to
make the rooms there, the old bedrooms just available. I
(26:31):
was so moved by this trip when I was welcomed
into people's homes. So I have made those bedrooms available.
So events a lot of invitations, you know, havevior come
to town, young artists, young musicians. A friend of mine
called and she said some she called them the Washington,
DC area, and she said, a friend of mine's daughter
(26:54):
is in a band and she and her bandmate are
coming to Nashville, and she as, do I know anybody there?
And it was the first time it wasn't. I didn't
know any of these people except my friend, and I thought,
just say yes, say yes, just say you got a room,
(27:14):
You've got a bedroom, you got a new comforter. Yes, yes,
you can come. Yes, but that might seem like not
a big deal, but to somebody that it's one thing.
Even if you can, you control your openness. Now, what
I am saying at sixty is the things that come
to me, I'm going to trust are for me. The
(27:36):
things that come to me like I don't have that.
I don't want to. I don't want to waste precious
energy chasing something. But if it's meant for me, I mean,
I worked hard, trust me. But and so I said yes. Now,
I told Dan's hey, we've got two girls, are gonna
usually am very soon. And it was so beautiful that
(27:57):
he was the one to greet them, that they were
so lovely. I now love their music. Vince had his birthday.
They made his birthday pie and I went, oh, my gosh. There.
I feel so protective of them. And they're the ages
of my children, and they're they're making beautiful music, and
(28:19):
I I can think about them, I can pray for
them the rest of their lives. Every time I hear
their songs, and I'm so I'm just so glad the
circle widens. And I'm so grateful to my friends that
she asked me, you know, and I've got friends whose
guest rooms are full every weekend. I mean they're bleariott,
(28:39):
they're exhausted from company, you know. So I mean everybody
has to find their way. But you know, hotels are expensive,
and and when you're young and starting out and wanting
to to learn and grow, it's not even that hotels
are expensive, but the value of your wring your your
(29:00):
heart into them, there's there's there's no way you can
calculate that. Yep. My guest today is Amy Grant. We're
going to pause for a moment to share a word
from one of the sponsors that makes this podcast possible.
I've discovered a great new hair solution for thicker, healthier hair.
It's neutroful. It's designed to help you grow healthier hair.
(29:25):
Thirty million women are impacted by weekend or thinning hair.
Thousands of women have taken back control of their hair
with Neutrafule. Many rave that the supplement not only transforms
their hair, but helps restore their confidence. Neutrofule offers two
targeted formulas that are clinically shown to improve hair growth
(29:46):
and thickness with less shedding. Healthier hair growth takes time,
and many experienced thicker, stronger, faster growing hair and three
to six months. In a clinical study, scent of women
reported improved growth after six months. More than five hundred
top doctors recommend neutra ful as an effective and high
(30:07):
quality solution for healthier hair. You can grow thicker, healthier
hair by going to neutraful dot com and use promo
code hope to save fifteen dollars off your first month subscription.
This is their best offer anywhere and it's only available
to US customers for a limited time, plus free shipping
on every order. Get fifteen dollars off at neutraful dot
(30:31):
com spelled in U t R A f O L
dot com promo code hope. Amy, We were just sharing
a conversation about the power of saying yes, and I
wanted to share an example of that with you. Yes,
my son, Zach, the the boy that the People magazine
(30:54):
had asked me about, was somebody who said yes to
every possibility. Yes. Yeah. I mean, he didn't even have
no in his vocabulary. If there was an opportunity that
presented itself, didn't matter how crazy, how dangerous, how um silly,
how foolish. Yes, Yes I'll try it. Yes, I'll climb it. Yes,
I'll go there. And a friend of mine called and said,
(31:19):
have you heard the African Children's Choir. You've been to Africa,
you have a ministry in Africa. Have you heard them?
I said, actually I have, it's been a few years.
And she said, well, they're going to be in a
church in town today. She said, I just found out
that they're going to be at this church. And I said, okay,
what time and she said, oh, in about half an hour.
I'm like, all right, I'm gonna throw on a skirt
(31:41):
and grab my kids and let's head out the door.
So I grabbed my kids, we went down to the church. Um,
you know, new several people there and the African Children's
Choir performed beautifully. Oh my gosh, what a treat it was,
And what a treat it was because at the time
I had adopted four children out of Africa, a different region,
a different country, but very much the same music, same culture.
(32:06):
And afterwards I was talking with some people. I was
standing there and um, the choir director came up to
me and said, are you Toliland And I said yes.
He says, thank you so much for the invitation, Like
what invitation? He says, your son invited us over to
your your house. He said, you have a farm, and
that we could bring the kids in the choir over
(32:27):
for lunch. He said, normally the church that we perform
at does that, but this was a surprise today. We
didn't even know we were coming here. Um, and so
the pastor didn't have time to organize anything. And your
son said you would. And I look over at Zach,
who was maybe eight nine, grinning ear to ear. He
(32:49):
had invited twenty six children and ten advisors to our
house for lunch. Oh my gosh, I loved it. Okay,
so didn't so tell me what your brain did. So
my brain said, okay, I got to make a cup
of quick phone calls. I called my husband, who was
(33:10):
at home, and said, um, Paul, could you like maybe
pick the dirty laundry up off the floor real quick?
Tidy up a little bit. I gotta call a few people,
and uh, and I'm going to swing by. The story
said what's going on? I said, Oh, we've got some
people coming over for lunch. And he's like, oho, someone
from the church. I said, well, you could say that
twenty six children and tend advisors. And he's like, Okay,
(33:30):
I'm picking up the dirty laundry. And I went to
the store. And because I had spent so much time
in Africa, I knew what they would enjoy eating. And
um had rice here. So just put on a huge
pot of rice and cooked up some beans and has
started a fire out in the backyard and they roasted
hot dogs and very very simple, simple meal. But they
(33:56):
played and they sang, and they danced and they played
with my kids. And when it came time to go,
my son that had invited them was crying. I didn't
want them to go. It's like, no, you just became
a part of our family. You can't go now. You
have to spend the night. Oh oh, Man got an
(34:18):
open heart. He was an open heart, and he said
like I said, he said yes to every possibility. And
at his service, my sister said that she wanted to
live with the same courage and abandonment that he had
lived his life with. Ah, that's inspiring, that's really beautiful.
(34:41):
So your kids are grown and they have flown the nest.
What are they doing? Oh goodness, Jenny Jenny Gill, my
I do daughter. Um, she's such a great singer. She
toured with me for ten years. But she loved film
and editing, and so she started the production company and
(35:01):
she's got a couple of videos on C and T
right now. Um. It's funny. You can be good at something,
but that's not your I think you're most passionate about.
And she's good at a lot of things, but she
is passionate about film, cameras, video and especially editing. And
so we're just Um. She has two kids, our grandkids,
(35:24):
Wyatt and Everley, six and three. Um, and then I
have a daughter, Millie, who is lovely and also a
new bride. And and wasn't at Millie that you told
me you wrote baby Baby before many years ago. Yes,
Millie is like she's always been, like a concealed weapon.
She's just under five feet, like she would thanks that
(35:47):
everybody in the family's tal looks at me. She's got
a wicked sense of humor. You know, once every few
years she will say I love you. She is not
you know who, She's just not. She's not wired that way.
But Millie's the one that I came in. It was
my birthday night and she had cooked and I probably
(36:10):
had worked, and there was a birthday cake cooked by her.
With candles on the table and photographs of my favorite friends,
like scattered with flowers on the table. It's one o'clock
in the morning, you know. Like, so she made a
little birthday party for you, a birthday with your friends.
She gave her kidney to her best childhood friend. I
(36:32):
mean so yeah. Um. Then the baby girl, Corina is
just singing every chance she gets. She's in she's studying
music in school, and and she just released her very
first song. It's called Swallow the Sun. And she just
goes by Corina, c O. R. R. Iron A and
(36:56):
Karina just She just has one song on Spotify called
Swallow the Sun. So life is good, life is full.
And how eager are you to get back out and
and be able to perform? Oh? I can't wait. Um.
I love what the music does true people. I love
(37:17):
what it does with people. I love just the connected
feeling of everybody participating, whether they're singing along or just listening,
but just involved in a song. I've done so many
Zoom performances and it is not the same. It's just oh,
your energy. When your shoes come off, that's when that's
(37:41):
when the magic starts to happen. When you're on stage
and your energy. I loved. I love the way that
the last show that I went to, um Jordan Smith
and then Michael w and you, the way you played
off each other and the energy that you shared with
each other that we all be am a part of.
(38:01):
Just it's the best. It's the best. It is, you know,
it is. It's fun to make music with people that
you love, and it's and and to me music just
that's just a great backdrop for an evening long conversation.
And yeah, I know, I can't wait. I can't wait. Well,
(38:22):
hopefully soon, hopefully soon, as soon as you get something
booked and dates on the calendar, call me so I
can we can talk about it on the radio and
people can go flee and and be a part of
that evening long conversation with you. Amy, Thank you, thank you.
I actually do have shows booked now in August, September, October, November, December. Yea,
(38:45):
where where how can folks find you? How can I
find you? I'm sure they're all on my website, which
I and not the one that puts them on there.
But I'm positive because I have the I've had people
say hey, I got I got tickets for your show
at the Caverns, which is the underground theater that I've
never played before. Um, but a lot of these shows.
(39:07):
Is it really a cavern? Yes? Oh cool? Liperature is
going to be like whatever that underground temperature is, you know,
cool cool, you'll want to wear a sweater or a
parka over your pretty dress. Uh yeah, but yeah, so
lots of shows all the way. I think that Christmas
shows are already on sale and almost sold out, the
(39:30):
twelve Christmas shows at the RHEM, and I think people
are just going there. I can get out, I can
go buy a ticket to something, you know. So we're
about to launch into a whole lot of musical fun. Well,
everybody who has missed music, go see Amy, go see
her shows. Um, thirty year anniversary of fabulous album. Yeah,
(39:51):
it's funny because we had we had a set list
for the tour that didn't happen. Um, but we'll we'll
be back in rehearsals uh in July. And this is
the thirtieth anniversary, probably the largest selling record I've ever had,
So I think we are going to go back and
dust off a bunch of those songs. And you know, man,
(40:12):
every year that goes by. I just pinched myself, going,
I still get to do something I love. Now I've
had to drop the keys. I can't the same high
note I used to sing. But oh man, music is timeless.
I I just signed a long term contract for radio
and the same thing I pinched myself, I get to
(40:33):
keep I get paid to do what I love, to
do what I love every night yep, and and talk
to people that I love. I get I get to
get paid to do this. It's a good thing. It is.
And you know now there are generations that feel about
you and your voice that it feels like coming home
(40:53):
because you've been doing what you've been doing for a
long time. That's really the payoff and the gift that
nobody tells you when you start doing something young and
you just don't ever stop doing it, that actually you
do feel the impact, not with the whole world, but
with a lot of people. You just have such a
longevity of experiences together. Yeah, it really is. It's generational.
(41:19):
And it's the same with your concerts. I mean, I
took my kids and my grandkids to your last concert,
and I saw so many people that had three and
four generations they're loving you and and and singing along
with every song because you know we've been around the
block three times maybefore. Yea. All right, enjoy your camp out,
(41:41):
your big camp out with all your tents. Enjoyed the
seniors coming for the cook out, the barbecue in the backyard.
And um, just be blessed, be blessed beyond measure. Thank you,
Thank you, honey, God bless you great to be with you.
What a delightful converse sation. Thank you again. Amy Grant
(42:02):
popular and beloved contemporary Christian music artist she often wrote
and performed with Michael W. Smith started out in the
eighties and she had a goal to become the first
Christian singer songwriter who was also successful as a contemporary
pop singer, and boy did she achieve that. Find a Way,
(42:24):
Her album, released in nine five, became the first non
Christmas Christian song to hit Billboard's Top forty and reached
number seven on the Adult Contemporary chart. She scored her
first Billboard number one song a year later with the
Next Time I Fall, a duet she did with Chicago's
Peter Satera. For the following decades, she churned out hit
(42:46):
after hit. Heart In motion was released in it became
a worldwide sensation. Five million copies were sold. She celebrated
five top twenty hits, which came some of the all
time requesting songs on my show. To this day, I
get request for baby Baby, every heartbeat good for me.
(43:10):
That's what love is for and I will remember you.
Amy's musical career spans more than forty years and stretches
from her gospel roots into becoming an iconic pop star.
She's a songwriter, she's a television personality. Mostly she's a
good person. I am so so fortunate to have been
(43:32):
on this journey with her along the way, playing her music,
taking dedications night after night for her songs, going to
her shows. I can't even tell you how many Amy
Grant Michael W. Smith concerts that I have been to
over the years, and I can call her a friend.
Amy is celebrating Heart and Motions thirtieth birthday all year
(43:56):
with fun throwbacks, reissues, outtakes, live version ens, and more.
You can find it all by checking in with Amy
on Facebook at Amy Graham, Instagram at Amy Grant Official,
and Twitter at Amy Grant. Amy thank you again for
spending this time with us. Hopefully everyone listening to this
podcast will also join me on the radio every night,
(44:19):
and I'll be back with a new podcast shortly. God
bless you.
Love someone to know baby Baby. I'm taken with the
notion to talk today with an iconic recording artist, one
whose music I've played over and over and over for
(00:27):
years and years and years, songs dedicated by callers to
their sweethearts, to those that they love with the sweetest
of devotion. While I've been given the honorary title of
Queen of sappy love songs, my guest today became known
(00:48):
at a very early stage in her career, like before
she was even twenty I think as the queen of
Christian pop. She's been over forty years so far the
music world. She's racked up six Grammys, twenty six dev Awards.
It's been thirty years since Heart in Motion was released.
(01:11):
What's included her biggest worldwide hit that I just you
know tried to sing a few little notes of baby Baby,
a song she wrote about her baby, and we're going
to talk about that today. She's going to be celebrating
the album Heart in Motion all through the thirty year anniversary.
We are going to have so much fun chatting with
(01:31):
my friend Amy Grant today. But I need to stop
for a minute. I'm cracking myself up here. Stop for
a minute and gives some love to one of my
fabulous podcast sponsors. You've heard me say that it's when
the sky is nightest that the stars are brightest, but
for many people around the world, it can be hard
(01:52):
to see the light amidst the darkness. Mercy Ships is
an organization that gives people renewed hope. Mercy Ships turnships
into floating hospitals and then sends them to the poorest
countries in the world to provide free surgeries that save
lives and change lives. They are transforming communities by training
(02:13):
local doctors who continue the good work long after these
ships leave board. This hope goes beyond patients and their families.
It also inspires surgeons, nurses, the entire team involved. It's
all sustained by the generosity of volunteers and donors, and
what's most amazing is that anyone can get involved. I
(02:36):
encourage you to visit Mercy Ships dot org slash love
to learn how you can be a part of this
great work. Hello there, Hey Delilah, and I'm so sorry
as through the time up. I'm just shoving some chili
down my throat. Seconds to just take four big Amy,
(02:59):
take all the time you need to finish your chili,
I'll just um, I'll just entergain our listeners in the meantime. UM,
go ahead. She's enjoying her homemade chili. Her world famous
homemade chili. I've heard about it. Michael W. Smith is
bragged about it. But did she offered to share the recipe? No? No.
(03:24):
Did she offer to send me like freeze some and
send it in a sealed container or something. No? I
didn't do that either. All right, I think she's done.
Amy Grant, Welcome back from your chili bowl. Welcome to
love someone with Delilah. Okay, thank you that I was
(03:45):
working on some some hungry behavior. I saw a T
shirt online the other day. I almost ordered it for
my daughter. Sheila says, I'm sorry about what I said.
I was hungry, and if it had said when I
was hungry, I would have ordered it for her. Because
(04:07):
she doesn't get hungry. She gets she goes from zero
to hungry in five minutes. And she's got a little
one who's almost three, who is just like her. I'm like,
somebody finds some protein right now, find me some. I
don't care, some some some chicken strip something. Yep. I'm
(04:27):
speaking my language, sister, Uh. Welcome to U. To love
someone Amy. It's been a while since we caught up.
I think the last time I talked to you was
when I saw you on your Christmas tour a couple
of years ago. Yes, I know, and I've seen your
face recently with a People magazine article, and I wish
(04:51):
I could just wrap arms around you. I wish you
could do I would take that in a heartbeat. I
was talking to UH to a lady I just love
a girl named bree Uh last night. She's been her
whole career in the movie industry, in the TV industry,
and she said something that just blew my mind. She said,
(05:15):
I almost didn't want to come to your house. I
almost didn't want to get to know you. I said why.
She said, because I've been so disappointed with people I've
met through this industry, where you have these expectations of
them and then you get to see, you know, behind
the screen, they moved the curtain and and they're just
(05:37):
not real. I started laughing, and I said, you know what,
I am so blessed that I have people in my world,
in my life, in my career, in my inner circle
who are as real and as wonderful and genuine as
you imagine them to be. And I was looking I
(05:59):
had been looking online at some stuff that you've done
because I was thinking about this interview. And you and
and Michael are are that way. You. You are as
kind and as beautiful and as real as as somebody
would imagine you to be. And you never and all
(06:20):
the times I've seen you on stage, offstage, interviews, casually
with your husband, with Michael W. Smith, you have consistently
been a beautiful soul and I appreciate that about you.
Thank you. Well. Hey, um, it's easier to be one person,
(06:44):
it is, Oh yeah, how hard is that for people
to pretend and to put on this act and then
you know, when the cameras aren't rolling or whatever, to
be somebody completely different. That's like, that's like a lot
of energy. Unless you've got a multiple personality disorder, that's
(07:06):
a lot of energy. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, and
all of us, um, that have public lives, we do have,
like you said, a circle of people around us that
know us. Nothing is a surprise. And on the days
(07:26):
when you feel the lowest or you know, you you
have people that you trust to embrace all that too,
you know, because everybody's pendulum swings wide and and uh
and you know it's funny. I think when you have
people in your life that have constantly been um supportive
(07:50):
and nurturing, it makes but that it makes me want
to be that way to other people. If I go,
oh no, yeah, I had a big dose of that.
I was born into a family of that, and everybody
should have that. Um So, so you have that obviously
with your hubby how many years twenty years now you
(08:12):
and Vince one years? I know, but I'm telling you,
I don't think. I don't think we really felt like
an old married couple until COVID because we had a chance.
You know, always he's packing a bag leaving town, I'm
packing a bag leaping down. And there was just always
so much coming and going, and it was it was
(08:36):
such a It was really one of the many hidden
gifts of COVID for us to be in the same
place for a whole year. Same here. My hubby and
I have been together, not twenty one years, but going
on fourteen years married and almost went in the nineteen
years together I don't even remember. But same with us
(08:57):
because we live in two different states. His career is
in one state, and my studio in my life is
in another state. And for our entire marriage, we've had
a commuter marriage. And when COVID hit, I packed up
the kids and headed to his ranch. He has a
cattle ranch. It was weird. Okay, all I want to
(09:19):
do is ask you a million details. Yeah, okay, so
let's just let's just let's just pretend we're not even
recording this. What's this The weirdest thing that you discovered
about Vents that we can talk about during the shutdown,
or the biggest challenge that you guys had. I think
the biggest discovery for me was that um And I'm
(09:41):
not proud of this. I think the things about Vents
that I wished were different when we were always coming
and going, because I would be away from him and
then I and when I see him, I would like
project something onto him. Oh he doesn't quite suit that projection.
Um And And what I found when I was with
(10:02):
him all the time was that I I felt like
I really saw him um day in and day out,
the subtle, beautiful things about his personality day in and
day out. And I know it sounds crazy, but to
go twenty one years and this has never struck you before.
(10:28):
But when you're always coming and going, like for instance,
I feel like he saves his best material for me, funny, silly,
but he starts every day kind and humorous, every single day. Um.
He's a big talker, you know, he's not like Um,
(10:50):
he's a good listener. If I feel super energetic about
something that's going on, like I want, I'll say, I
just want you to know all about this. But he
doesn't ask a lot of questions, and so I would find,
you know, if we came together and he wasn't asking
a lot of questions, I don't know, I just be like,
I wish you'd ask me more questions. I wish you
(11:12):
were interested. But when you're together all the time, we
just found our pattern of being together. And as crazy
as it sounds, a lot of it was peaceful silence.
And now when I'm away from him, I go, who
I missed that? It's crazy? Like I mean, I don't
(11:33):
know if that rings true for you. He can talk,
he can He also can talk and talk and talk,
But I just have such an appreciation for, I don't know,
just the calm center that do you notice how quiet
I'm being. Yeah, why do you are you relating to that?
(11:55):
Because because there is no way I'm opening my mouth now.
After that, I'm like, Dang, that didn't go the way
i've that would. He sounds so sweet and lovely and lovable.
And and here I was going to tell you how
I didn't realize how grumpy my husband was since we've
(12:17):
never lived together. Can I tell you it's so funny,
I'm I'm telling you that discovery to go. I mean,
I think Vince is it's harder on himself than he
is on anybody else, but he is. He just a
kind soul. I think for Paul, because my husband is older.
(12:38):
Um and his children, he and his wife, his first
wife had five children, and they're all grown and gone
and very successfully living on their own. Um for the
four girls they I lost my stepson, He lost his
only son, Um December of nineteen. But um, so when
(13:01):
he came into my world, he had had already graduated
in his mind from being a daily dad. Yeah, and
already was a grandpa you know when we met, and
and so was I. I was grandma when we met.
But I had not finished raising the ones I had
and I've adopted six more since we met. And so
(13:26):
when we lived apart, it was easy for him to
be interactive and engaged for two or three or five
or six days out of the month. But when we
were all living together, nine of us in a square
foot house, all of a sudden he realized why he
had you know, only had five and gotten them out
(13:49):
the door before WHU, that's a lot going on. Yeah,
that that would be hard and maybe this is maybe
you guys found deaf vincent I. The more concentrated time
we spent together, we realized that we um we are
so different from each other in how we like to
(14:11):
spend our time, in what energizes us. He has endless
patients and stamina in the recording studio, endless stamina when
it comes to something musical, perfecting a part, working on something,
working on a song, and I'm like a dog in
a backyard and forty squirrels have just been released, I squirrel, squirrel,
(14:37):
gotta go do this, gotta do that. So what what
are the sorts of things that you have that endless capacity?
Because it's funny, my husband and I are actually very
much alike in the things that we enjoy spending time doing.
We both love big equipment. We both love like being
in the dirt and landscaping and and and being out
(15:00):
doors and being you know, down at the creek and
planting trees. We both you know, we were very much
alike in that way. But I'm the same as you are.
If I could still give birth, I would have ten
more kids. And and Paul's like, no, No, five was
plenty for me. And now that I'm stepdad to fifteen more,
(15:21):
it's kind of a lot, a lot, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um So, so what are the things that you enjoy?
Like you said, he's got endless capacity for recording, what
are the things that that you just could spend ten
hours doing? I love cooking, I'm a lot more. Why
(15:41):
are you so dang skinny? Then every time I see
you do you just you're You're so beautiful and thin
and gorgeous. I love cooking and you can tell by
looking at me. I I don't know what to say.
I I got a fast my table is um I do.
(16:01):
And I love to move. I love to hike. It
would drive Vince crazy if I asked him to do
what I love doing every day. And I think that's
what I've really discovered is when when I think when
we were both younger, because we met in our thirties
and now we're in our sixties, and I think we
(16:24):
imagined that we would be inseparable because we were so
drawn to each other. But what what I found in
the COVID year was that he's my favorite person to
return to. But there's so many ways. I I just
love for my days to have purpose. I've got a
(16:44):
farm that I love to share, and I share it
in such an eclectic way. Is coming Sunday, We're having
our very first Elderly Day retreat. I met a filmmaker
and he said, I want to take people from assisted
liveing like truly the elderly out to the barefoot around
(17:05):
a campfire with a loved one, tell stories, Have there
be some music, and you know so I'm not I'm
just providing the place. What a precious wheet way to
share your blessings in a completely different way. I mean,
when you share your music, you share your blessings. But
(17:26):
think of the memories that's going to bring back for
people who maybe grew up on a farm or had
a farm, or went to their grandma's farm to be
able to leave the confines of four walls. Yeah, yeah,
especially after the year we've had. And this man, Glenn,
I met him through a friend of a friend and
he's a he makes documentaries and he's been a music
(17:48):
business as a graphic artist for years. And yeah, but
just to go, oh my gosh, our paths crossed. So
I feel like I'm always seeing the possibilities of enlarging
the community circle, even though I'm I get regenerated and
rejuvenated in solitude. I'm an introvert that likes people anyway.
(18:14):
But it's just like all those things are you know,
that will lead to something else, that will lead to
something else. I had a friend that started coming out
to the farm, and now we've made connections with the
Nashville Rescue Mission and we're getting ready to have a
retreat there with ten women served by the Rescue Mission.
And I'm so excited. I'm like, I have, believe it
(18:36):
or not, twenty family tents in my basement because I'm
such an outdoor freak. Twenty So I'm like, I get
the tents up in the backyard, I get to wash
the tents. You know, here, my engine, how are we
going to make them all sleep comfortably. How are we
going to do this and then still come out in
the backyard, you know, while I'm stretching the tents out
and making sure we have all the poles, that he'll
(18:57):
be like, I'm head to to the golf courpse. You know,
he loves he loves his patterns. And I'm not sure
how to describe what I love. But it's just the
matrix of all of our connectedness and how I believe
we're all so essential to each other and how we
connect what we offer. And one person has plentiful of
(19:21):
something else than another person that they they have scarcity
of that, and it's I'm all about, Oh my god,
connected dots. Just connect the dots. There's everything we need
if we could just communicate it. And and so Stone
Soup remember that story? Did you hear that story when
you were a little Yes, I love that. That's what
(19:44):
you are. You you are, you are the chef of
Stone Soup. M hmm. You could not have said anything
to put a bigger smile on my face. That that's
that's what your gift is. I mean, obviously, Amy Grant,
who's one how many Grammys and how many devil Wards
but what you just described of of figuring out who's
(20:08):
got this talent, who's got this gift, who's got this need?
Where is their scarcity? Where can my abundance flow into
that scarcity? That's that's a stone stone soup chef. Yeah, Yeah,
what's funny because I think just talking about scarcity and abundance.
(20:30):
I don't even know when this really felt like a
lightning bolt in my brain. But I keep looking at
like the situations in the world that feel like like
the like homelessness or um, you just go, oh, something
seem insurmountable. Some things, you know, respectful, race relations, just
(20:54):
you just name it. It's so easy to look at
all of the failed attempts and the ongoing problems and
just but I don't know, something has shifted in this
last year in me, and I just go, what if
every one of us were just willing to consider the
possibility of saying a simple yes for good that came
(21:20):
to us individually uniquely to us, that if we just said,
I'm just going to risk saying yes, you know, I mean,
to me, that's where the adventure is. The adventure is
starting a conversation in the elevator with someone that looks
different from you, Relax and say, how's your day going?
(21:42):
If we all just did things differently, if we all
said yes to the possibility of kindness, if we all
said yes to the possibility of sharing, of not holding
our resources, of sharing whatever it is that God has
blessed us with. Yes. And here's the other thing I
think the first time you say yes, and I think
(22:02):
it's a mystery how it comes to you, whatever it is,
just that it's like, yeah, just out of the blue,
it occurred to me to do this instead of that
I don't even know what it was. But something I
think that that's when the adventure begins. Is the first
time you go slightly outside of your own script, your
(22:25):
own thermostat temperature controlled environment that we all have tried
to create around ourselves, and it separates us from each other.
The first time you say I'm a little nervous, but
I'm going to show up at this table. I don't
know if I have the skill set, but I'm going
(22:46):
to try this thing. Everything you need to do, it
will show up. Yeah, Like when I the first time
I went to Africa, Amy, I was so scared. I
was so I didn't even have a past sport. I
had only traveled out of the United States to Canada
a couple of times and to Mexico a couple of times.
(23:09):
That's it. I had no travel experience, I had no
no knowledge of what a developing country was like. And
it was people at World Vision that said, um, why
don't you you know? I went to them and asked
them for for help for somebody that had contacted me
in West Africa, and they said, well, why don't you
(23:31):
go and see what the conditions are like and see
what you could do? And you might as well said
why don't you get on a spaceship and go live
on Mars. To me, it was just such a foreign like, no,
I'm I'm a single mom and I've got a career
in and I said yes, yeah, And it changed everything.
(23:53):
It changed everything. It's saying yes, oh my gosh, and look,
didn't it funn need make your your entire life less gray?
And you see the edges of technicolor. And the more
you step into yes, the more vivid and vibrant your
life gets. Oh boy, did it get vivid? And did
(24:15):
it get vibrant? And did it get filled with purpose
and passion and joy? And six children, and a whole
different way of looking at things. Um, a whole different
understanding of of family and dynamics and culture and music
(24:37):
and traditions and food and everything. Everything changed the moment.
It didn't even change the minute I got to Ghana.
It changed the moment I said yes to the possibility
of stepping outside that comfort zone. Yeah, So what was
the biggest yes that you can think of that has
(25:00):
has impacted you and your family? That you said the
way my brain works at two o'clock in the morning,
I'll go, that's the introduction have said, But I just don't.
My brain doesn't work that way. So I'm just going
to say a recent yes was I have a friend,
so all of our kids, you know, have launched five um,
(25:24):
and UM, I can fix that for you. I can.
I can. I can fix that for you. If you
got that empty nest there, I can fill it right
back up. Lord. Yeah. Well so the so the summer
my father died, I traveled to see two friends of
Michael College, one in North Carolina and one in New Hampshire.
(25:48):
And I was so struck by their hospitality. It was
so beautiful to me in its simplicity that it was
all about the welcome. I came home and said, Okay,
I'm gonna take these kids rooms, and I'm going to uh,
I'm going to get come from you know, new mattresses.
(26:10):
I mean, most everybody took their beds. I'm gonna I'm
going to go through. I'm gonna box up. You know,
nobody needs seventh grade maths papers. They don't want them,
you know, just to go through the clutter um to
make the rooms there, the old bedrooms just available. I
(26:31):
was so moved by this trip when I was welcomed
into people's homes. So I have made those bedrooms available.
So events a lot of invitations, you know, havevior come
to town, young artists, young musicians. A friend of mine
called and she said some she called them the Washington,
DC area, and she said, a friend of mine's daughter
(26:54):
is in a band and she and her bandmate are
coming to Nashville, and she as, do I know anybody there?
And it was the first time it wasn't. I didn't
know any of these people except my friend, and I thought,
just say yes, say yes, just say you got a room,
(27:14):
You've got a bedroom, you got a new comforter. Yes, yes,
you can come. Yes, but that might seem like not
a big deal, but to somebody that it's one thing.
Even if you can, you control your openness. Now, what
I am saying at sixty is the things that come
to me, I'm going to trust are for me. The
(27:36):
things that come to me like I don't have that.
I don't want to. I don't want to waste precious
energy chasing something. But if it's meant for me, I mean,
I worked hard, trust me. But and so I said yes. Now,
I told Dan's hey, we've got two girls, are gonna
usually am very soon. And it was so beautiful that
(27:57):
he was the one to greet them, that they were
so lovely. I now love their music. Vince had his birthday.
They made his birthday pie and I went, oh, my gosh. There.
I feel so protective of them. And they're the ages
of my children, and they're they're making beautiful music, and
(28:19):
I I can think about them, I can pray for
them the rest of their lives. Every time I hear
their songs, and I'm so I'm just so glad the
circle widens. And I'm so grateful to my friends that
she asked me, you know, and I've got friends whose
guest rooms are full every weekend. I mean they're bleariott,
(28:39):
they're exhausted from company, you know. So I mean everybody
has to find their way. But you know, hotels are expensive,
and and when you're young and starting out and wanting
to to learn and grow, it's not even that hotels
are expensive, but the value of your wring your your
(29:00):
heart into them, there's there's there's no way you can
calculate that. Yep. My guest today is Amy Grant. We're
going to pause for a moment to share a word
from one of the sponsors that makes this podcast possible.
I've discovered a great new hair solution for thicker, healthier hair.
It's neutroful. It's designed to help you grow healthier hair.
(29:25):
Thirty million women are impacted by weekend or thinning hair.
Thousands of women have taken back control of their hair
with Neutrafule. Many rave that the supplement not only transforms
their hair, but helps restore their confidence. Neutrofule offers two
targeted formulas that are clinically shown to improve hair growth
(29:46):
and thickness with less shedding. Healthier hair growth takes time,
and many experienced thicker, stronger, faster growing hair and three
to six months. In a clinical study, scent of women
reported improved growth after six months. More than five hundred
top doctors recommend neutra ful as an effective and high
(30:07):
quality solution for healthier hair. You can grow thicker, healthier
hair by going to neutraful dot com and use promo
code hope to save fifteen dollars off your first month subscription.
This is their best offer anywhere and it's only available
to US customers for a limited time, plus free shipping
on every order. Get fifteen dollars off at neutraful dot
(30:31):
com spelled in U t R A f O L
dot com promo code hope. Amy, We were just sharing
a conversation about the power of saying yes, and I
wanted to share an example of that with you. Yes,
my son, Zach, the the boy that the People magazine
(30:54):
had asked me about, was somebody who said yes to
every possibility. Yes. Yeah. I mean, he didn't even have
no in his vocabulary. If there was an opportunity that
presented itself, didn't matter how crazy, how dangerous, how um silly,
how foolish. Yes, Yes I'll try it. Yes, I'll climb it. Yes,
I'll go there. And a friend of mine called and said,
(31:19):
have you heard the African Children's Choir. You've been to Africa,
you have a ministry in Africa. Have you heard them?
I said, actually I have, it's been a few years.
And she said, well, they're going to be in a
church in town today. She said, I just found out
that they're going to be at this church. And I said, okay,
what time and she said, oh, in about half an hour.
I'm like, all right, I'm gonna throw on a skirt
(31:41):
and grab my kids and let's head out the door.
So I grabbed my kids, we went down to the church. Um,
you know, new several people there and the African Children's
Choir performed beautifully. Oh my gosh, what a treat it was,
And what a treat it was because at the time
I had adopted four children out of Africa, a different region,
a different country, but very much the same music, same culture.
(32:06):
And afterwards I was talking with some people. I was
standing there and um, the choir director came up to
me and said, are you Toliland And I said yes.
He says, thank you so much for the invitation, Like
what invitation? He says, your son invited us over to
your your house. He said, you have a farm, and
that we could bring the kids in the choir over
(32:27):
for lunch. He said, normally the church that we perform
at does that, but this was a surprise today. We
didn't even know we were coming here. Um, and so
the pastor didn't have time to organize anything. And your
son said you would. And I look over at Zach,
who was maybe eight nine, grinning ear to ear. He
(32:49):
had invited twenty six children and ten advisors to our
house for lunch. Oh my gosh, I loved it. Okay,
so didn't so tell me what your brain did. So
my brain said, okay, I got to make a cup
of quick phone calls. I called my husband, who was
(33:10):
at home, and said, um, Paul, could you like maybe
pick the dirty laundry up off the floor real quick?
Tidy up a little bit. I gotta call a few people,
and uh, and I'm going to swing by. The story
said what's going on? I said, Oh, we've got some
people coming over for lunch. And he's like, oho, someone
from the church. I said, well, you could say that
twenty six children and tend advisors. And he's like, Okay,
(33:30):
I'm picking up the dirty laundry. And I went to
the store. And because I had spent so much time
in Africa, I knew what they would enjoy eating. And
um had rice here. So just put on a huge
pot of rice and cooked up some beans and has
started a fire out in the backyard and they roasted
hot dogs and very very simple, simple meal. But they
(33:56):
played and they sang, and they danced and they played
with my kids. And when it came time to go,
my son that had invited them was crying. I didn't
want them to go. It's like, no, you just became
a part of our family. You can't go now. You
have to spend the night. Oh oh, Man got an
(34:18):
open heart. He was an open heart, and he said
like I said, he said yes to every possibility. And
at his service, my sister said that she wanted to
live with the same courage and abandonment that he had
lived his life with. Ah, that's inspiring, that's really beautiful.
(34:41):
So your kids are grown and they have flown the nest.
What are they doing? Oh goodness, Jenny Jenny Gill, my
I do daughter. Um, she's such a great singer. She
toured with me for ten years. But she loved film
and editing, and so she started the production company and
(35:01):
she's got a couple of videos on C and T
right now. Um. It's funny. You can be good at something,
but that's not your I think you're most passionate about.
And she's good at a lot of things, but she
is passionate about film, cameras, video and especially editing. And
so we're just Um. She has two kids, our grandkids,
(35:24):
Wyatt and Everley, six and three. Um, and then I
have a daughter, Millie, who is lovely and also a
new bride. And and wasn't at Millie that you told
me you wrote baby Baby before many years ago. Yes,
Millie is like she's always been, like a concealed weapon.
She's just under five feet, like she would thanks that
(35:47):
everybody in the family's tal looks at me. She's got
a wicked sense of humor. You know, once every few
years she will say I love you. She is not
you know who, She's just not. She's not wired that way.
But Millie's the one that I came in. It was
my birthday night and she had cooked and I probably
(36:10):
had worked, and there was a birthday cake cooked by her.
With candles on the table and photographs of my favorite friends,
like scattered with flowers on the table. It's one o'clock
in the morning, you know. Like, so she made a
little birthday party for you, a birthday with your friends.
She gave her kidney to her best childhood friend. I
(36:32):
mean so yeah. Um. Then the baby girl, Corina is
just singing every chance she gets. She's in she's studying
music in school, and and she just released her very
first song. It's called Swallow the Sun. And she just
goes by Corina, c O. R. R. Iron A and
(36:56):
Karina just She just has one song on Spotify called
Swallow the Sun. So life is good, life is full.
And how eager are you to get back out and
and be able to perform? Oh? I can't wait. Um.
I love what the music does true people. I love
(37:17):
what it does with people. I love just the connected
feeling of everybody participating, whether they're singing along or just listening,
but just involved in a song. I've done so many
Zoom performances and it is not the same. It's just oh,
your energy. When your shoes come off, that's when that's
(37:41):
when the magic starts to happen. When you're on stage
and your energy. I loved. I love the way that
the last show that I went to, um Jordan Smith
and then Michael w and you, the way you played
off each other and the energy that you shared with
each other that we all be am a part of.
(38:01):
Just it's the best. It's the best. It is, you know,
it is. It's fun to make music with people that
you love, and it's and and to me music just
that's just a great backdrop for an evening long conversation.
And yeah, I know, I can't wait. I can't wait. Well,
(38:22):
hopefully soon, hopefully soon, as soon as you get something
booked and dates on the calendar, call me so I
can we can talk about it on the radio and
people can go flee and and be a part of
that evening long conversation with you. Amy, Thank you, thank you.
I actually do have shows booked now in August, September, October, November, December. Yea,
(38:45):
where where how can folks find you? How can I
find you? I'm sure they're all on my website, which
I and not the one that puts them on there.
But I'm positive because I have the I've had people
say hey, I got I got tickets for your show
at the Caverns, which is the underground theater that I've
never played before. Um, but a lot of these shows.
(39:07):
Is it really a cavern? Yes? Oh cool? Liperature is
going to be like whatever that underground temperature is, you know,
cool cool, you'll want to wear a sweater or a
parka over your pretty dress. Uh yeah, but yeah, so
lots of shows all the way. I think that Christmas
shows are already on sale and almost sold out, the
(39:30):
twelve Christmas shows at the RHEM, and I think people
are just going there. I can get out, I can
go buy a ticket to something, you know. So we're
about to launch into a whole lot of musical fun. Well,
everybody who has missed music, go see Amy, go see
her shows. Um, thirty year anniversary of fabulous album. Yeah,
(39:51):
it's funny because we had we had a set list
for the tour that didn't happen. Um, but we'll we'll
be back in rehearsals uh in July. And this is
the thirtieth anniversary, probably the largest selling record I've ever had,
So I think we are going to go back and
dust off a bunch of those songs. And you know, man,
(40:12):
every year that goes by. I just pinched myself, going,
I still get to do something I love. Now I've
had to drop the keys. I can't the same high
note I used to sing. But oh man, music is timeless.
I I just signed a long term contract for radio
and the same thing I pinched myself, I get to
(40:33):
keep I get paid to do what I love, to
do what I love every night yep, and and talk
to people that I love. I get I get to
get paid to do this. It's a good thing. It is.
And you know now there are generations that feel about
you and your voice that it feels like coming home
(40:53):
because you've been doing what you've been doing for a
long time. That's really the payoff and the gift that
nobody tells you when you start doing something young and
you just don't ever stop doing it, that actually you
do feel the impact, not with the whole world, but
with a lot of people. You just have such a
longevity of experiences together. Yeah, it really is. It's generational.
(41:19):
And it's the same with your concerts. I mean, I
took my kids and my grandkids to your last concert,
and I saw so many people that had three and
four generations they're loving you and and and singing along
with every song because you know we've been around the
block three times maybefore. Yea. All right, enjoy your camp out,
(41:41):
your big camp out with all your tents. Enjoyed the
seniors coming for the cook out, the barbecue in the backyard.
And um, just be blessed, be blessed beyond measure. Thank you,
Thank you, honey, God bless you great to be with you.
What a delightful converse sation. Thank you again. Amy Grant
(42:02):
popular and beloved contemporary Christian music artist she often wrote
and performed with Michael W. Smith started out in the
eighties and she had a goal to become the first
Christian singer songwriter who was also successful as a contemporary
pop singer, and boy did she achieve that. Find a Way,
(42:24):
Her album, released in nine five, became the first non
Christmas Christian song to hit Billboard's Top forty and reached
number seven on the Adult Contemporary chart. She scored her
first Billboard number one song a year later with the
Next Time I Fall, a duet she did with Chicago's
Peter Satera. For the following decades, she churned out hit
(42:46):
after hit. Heart In motion was released in it became
a worldwide sensation. Five million copies were sold. She celebrated
five top twenty hits, which came some of the all
time requesting songs on my show. To this day, I
get request for baby Baby, every heartbeat good for me.
(43:10):
That's what love is for and I will remember you.
Amy's musical career spans more than forty years and stretches
from her gospel roots into becoming an iconic pop star.
She's a songwriter, she's a television personality. Mostly she's a
good person. I am so so fortunate to have been
(43:32):
on this journey with her along the way, playing her music,
taking dedications night after night for her songs, going to
her shows. I can't even tell you how many Amy
Grant Michael W. Smith concerts that I have been to
over the years, and I can call her a friend.
Amy is celebrating Heart and Motions thirtieth birthday all year
(43:56):
with fun throwbacks, reissues, outtakes, live version ens, and more.
You can find it all by checking in with Amy
on Facebook at Amy Graham, Instagram at Amy Grant Official,
and Twitter at Amy Grant. Amy thank you again for
spending this time with us. Hopefully everyone listening to this
podcast will also join me on the radio every night,
(44:19):
and I'll be back with a new podcast shortly. God
bless you.
Host
Delilah
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.