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. "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's 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
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Love some Lontemer with de Love 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
(00:26):
for 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
(00:48):
known at a very early stage in her career, like
before she was even twenty I think as the queen
of Christian pop. She's spent over forty years so far
the music world. She's racked up six Grammys, twenty six
Dove Awards. It's been thirty years since Heart in Motion
(01:10):
was released, Whi'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
twenty twenty one to thirty year anniversary. We are going
to have so much fun chatting with my friend Amy
(01:32):
Grant today, but I need to stop for a minute.
I'm cracking myself up here. Stop for a minute and
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Speaker 2 (02:44):
Hello there, Hey Delilah. I'm so sorry. I screw the
time up. I'm just shoving some chili down my throat
a fifteen more seconds to just take four.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Big fights, Amy, take all all the time you need
to finish your chili. I'll just I'll just entertain our
listeners in the meantime. Go ahead. She's enjoying her homemade chili,
her world famous homemade chili. I've heard about it. Michael W.
(03:17):
Smith has bragged about it. But did she offer to
share the recipe? No? No, Did she offer to send me, like,
freeze some and send it in a sealed container or something?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
No? No, I shouldn't do that either.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
All right, I think she's done, Amy Grant, Welcome back
from your chili bowl. Welcome to love someone with Delilah.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Okay, thank you that I was working on some some
angry behavior.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I saw a T shirt online the other day. I
almost ordered it for my daughter Sheila. It says I'm
sorry about what I said when I was hungry, And
if it had said when I was hungry, I would
have ordered it for her. Yes, yes, because she doesn't
get hungry. She gets she goes from zero to hangry
(04:12):
in five minutes. And she's got a little one who's
almost three, who is just like her. I'm like, somebody
find some protein right now. Find me some I don't care,
some chicken strip something.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yep, I'm speaking my language.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Sister. Welcome 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.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yes, I know, and I've seen your face recently with
a People magazine article, and I wish I could just
wrap arms around you.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I wish you could do I would take that in
a heartbeat. I was talking to to a lady I
just love, a girl named Brie last night. She's spent
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 they're just not real.
(05:39):
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
Michael are that way. You are as kind and as
beautiful and as real as somebody would imagine you to be.
And you never in all the times I've seen you
(06:21):
on stage, off stage, interviews, casually with your husband, with
Michael W. Smith, you have consistently been a beautiful soul
and I appreciate that about you.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Thank you. Well, Hey, it's easier to be one person,
it is.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
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. There's a lot
(07:06):
of energy.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, yeah, and you know it. And all of us
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 when you feel
(07:28):
the lowest or you know, you have people that you
trust to embrace all that too, you know, because everybody's
pendulum swings wide and and you know, it's funny. I
think when you have people in your life that have
constantly been supportive and nurturing, that it makes me want
(07:54):
to be that way to other people because 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.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
So so you have that obviously with your hobby. How
many years twenty twenty years now you invents twenty.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
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 leaving down and there was just always so much
coming and going, and it was it was such a
(08:36):
It was really one of the many hidden gifts of
COVID for us to be in the same place for
a whole year.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Same here. My Hobby and I have been together, not
twenty one years, but going on fourteen years married and
almost went in the eighteen nineteen years together I don't
even remember. But same with us because we live in
two different states. His career is in one state and
my studio and my life is in another state. And
(09:05):
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.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Okay, all I want to do is ask you a
million details.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, okay, so let's just pretend we're not even recording this.
What's the weirdest thing that you discovered about Vents that
we can talk about during the shutdown or the biggest
challenge that you guys had.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I think the biggest discovery for me was that. And
I'm 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 when now I see him, I would like project
something onto him. Oh, he doesn't quite fit that projection.
(10:00):
And what I found when I was with him all
the time was that I felt like I really saw
him day in and day out, the subtle, beautiful things
about his personality day in and day out. And I
(10:21):
know it sounds crazy, but to go twenty one years
and this has never struck you before, 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.
(10:46):
Big talker, you know, he's not like 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,
(11:09):
I don't know, just be like, I wish you asked
me more questions. I wish you 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, whow I missed that? It's crazy,
(11:32):
Like I mean, I don't 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.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
That do you notice how quiet I'm being?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah? Why do you are you relating to that.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
No, no, because there is no way I'm opening my
mouth now. After that, I'm like, dang, that didn't go
the way I would. Oh, he sounds so sweet and
lovely and lovable. And here I was going to tell
(12:12):
you how I didn't realize how grumpy my husband was
since we've never lived together.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Can I tell you it's so funny 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.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I think for Paul, because my husband is older 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. For the four girls. I
lost my step son. He lost his only son December
(12:57):
of twenty nineteen. But so when 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 so was I. I was
grandma when we met, but I had not finished raising
(13:19):
the ones I had, and I've adopted six more since
we met. And so 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
(13:40):
in a twelve hundred square foot house, all of a
sudden he realized why he had you know, only had
five and gotten them out the door.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Before Whoo, that's a lot going on. Yeah, that would
be hard, and maybe this is maybe you guys found
this Vince and I. The more concentrated time we spent together,
we realize that we we are so different from each
other in how we like to spend our time, in
(14:12):
what energizes us. He has endless patience 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.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
I squirrel, squirrel, Gotta go do this, gotta do that.
So 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
(14:59):
being out 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
age you are. If I could still give birth, I
would have ten more kids, and Paul's like, no, No,
five was plenty for me. And now that I'm a
(15:19):
stepdad to fifteen more, it's kind of a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
It's a lot, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
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.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I love cooking. I'm a lot more.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Why are you so dang skinny? Then? Every time I
see you, you just you're You're so beautiful and thin
and gorgeous. I love cooking, and you can tell by
looking at me.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
I I don't know what to say. I got a
fast metable, I do, and I love to move. I
love to hike. It would drive since crazy if I
ask him to do what I love doing every day.
And I think that's what I've really discovered, is I
(16:17):
think when we were both younger, because we met in
our thirties and now we're in our sixties, and I
think we imagined that we would be inseparable because we
were so drawn to each other. But what I found
in the COVID year was that he's my favorite person
(16:37):
to return to. But there's so many ways. I just
love for my days to have purpose. I've got a
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 living,
(17:00):
like truly the elderly out to be barefoot around the
campfire with a loved one, tell stories, have there be
some music, and you know, so I'm just providing the place.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
What a precious, sweet way to share your blessings in
a completely different way. I mean, when you share your music,
you share your blessings. But 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
(17:36):
of four walls.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
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 he makes documentaries and he's been in the music
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
(18:02):
the community circles, even though I get regenerated and rejuvenated
in solitude. I'm an introvert that likes people anyway. 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,
(18:25):
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 or not, twenty family
tents in my basement because I'm such an outdoor freak.
Twenty So I'm like, I get set the tents up
(18:45):
in the backyard, I get to wash the tents. You know,
here goes my engine. How are we going to make
them all sleep comfortably? How are we going to do this?
And then so they'll come out in the backyard, you know,
while I'm stretching the tents out making sure we have
all the polls, and he'll be like, I'm head to
the golf course. You know, he loves he loves his patterns.
And I'm not sure how to describe what I love.
(19:07):
But it's just the matrix of all of our connectedness
and how I believe we're all so essential to each
other in how we connect what we offer. And one
person has plentiful of something else that another person that
they have scarcity of that, And so I'm all about,
(19:29):
oh my gosh, connected dots, just connected dots. There's everything
we need if we could just communicate it.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
And so Stone Soup remember that story? Did you hear
that story when you were little?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yes? I love that.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
That's what you are. You are, you are the chef
of Stone Soup.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Hmm. You could not have said anything to put a
bigger smile on my face.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
That's what your gift is. I mean, obviously Amy Grant,
who's one and how many Grammys and how many twenty
six devil wards. But what you just described of figuring
out who's 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 a stone soup chef.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, yeah, what's funny because I think just talking about
scarcity and abundance. 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 homelessness, or you just go, oh, something seem insurmountable.
(20:49):
Some things, you know, respectful, race relations, 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
(21:12):
just willing to consider the possibility of saying a simple
yes for good that came 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
(21:33):
in the elevator with someone that looks different from you. Amen,
relax and say, how's your day going. If we all
just did things.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Differently, if we all said yes to the possibility of kindness,
if we all said yes to the possibility of sharing,
of not hoarding our resources of sharing whatever it is
that God has blessed us with.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yes. And here's the other things. I think the first
time you say yes, and I think, it's a mystery
how it comes to you, whatever it is, just that
it's like, huh, 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
(22:21):
go slightly outside of your own script, your own thermostat
temperature controlled environment that we all have tried to create
around ourselves, and it separates us from each other. But
the first time you say, I'm a little nervous, but
I'm going to show up at this table. I don't
(22:43):
know if I have the skill set, but I'm going
to try this thing.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Everything you need to do, it will show up.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Like when I the first time I went to Africa, Amy,
I was so scared. I was so I didn't even
have a passport. I had only traveled out of the
United States to Canada a couple of times and to
Mexico a couple of times. That's it. I had no
travel experience. I had no knowledge of what a developing
(23:17):
country was like. And it was people at World Vision
that said, why don't you you know? I went to
them and asked them for help for somebody that had
contacted me in West Africa, and they said, well, why
don't you 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
(23:39):
go live on Mars. To me, it was just such
a foreign like, no, I'm a single mom and I've
got a career, And I said yes, yeah, And it
changed everything. It changed everything.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yes, it's just saying yes, Oh my gosh, and look
at didn't it make your entire life less gray? And
you see the edges of technicolor. And the more you
step into yes, the more vivid and vibrant in your
life gets?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Oh boy, did it get vivid? And did 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, a whole different understanding of family and dynamics
(24:35):
and culture and music 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.
(24:56):
So what was the biggest yes that you can think
of that has has impacted you and your family that
you said.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Jilila, the way my brain works at two o'clock in
the morning, I'll go. But that's the answer I should
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.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
And I can fix that for you. Can I can
fix that for you. If you got that empty nest there,
I can fill it right back up. Oh lord?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah. Well so so the summer my father died at
twenty eighteen, I traveled to see two friends of mine
prol college, one in North Carolina and one in New Hampshire,
and I was so struck by their hospitality. It was
so beautiful to me in its simplicity that it was
(25:57):
all about the welcome. I came home and said, Okay,
I'm going to take these kids rooms and I'm going
to uh, I'm going to get company, you know, new mattresses.
I mean, most everybody took their beds. I'm gonna I'm
going to go through I'm going to box up. You know,
nobody needs seventh grade mass papers. They don't want them,
(26:20):
you know, just to go through the clutter to make
the rooms there, the old bedrooms just available. I 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, hey, if you're
(26:42):
come to town, young artists, young musicians. A friend of
mine called and she said from She called from the Washington,
DC area, and she said, a friend of mine's daughter
is in a band and she and her bandmate are
coming to Nashville. And she asked, do I know anybody there?
And it was the first time it wasn't. I didn't
(27:06):
know any of these people except my friend. And I thought,
just say yes.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Just say yes, Just say you got a room, you
got a bedroom, you got a new comforter, Yes, yes
you can come.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
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 things that come to me,
like I don't have the I don't want to. I
(27:39):
don't want to waste precious energy chasing something. But if
it's meant for me, I mean, I work hard, trust me.
But and so I said yes. Now, I told Vents, hey,
we've got two girls are going to be like him
very soon. And it was so beautiful that he was
the one to greet them. That they they were so lovely.
(28:02):
I now love their music. Thence 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
I can think about them, I can pray for them
(28:23):
the rest of their lives every time I hear their songs,
and I'm so I'm just so glad to circle widened.
And I'm so grateful to my friend that she asked me,
you know. And I've got friends whose guest rooms are
full every weekend. I mean, they're blearyot, they're exhausted from company,
you know. So I mean, everybody has to find their way.
(28:45):
But you know, hotels are expensive, and.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
When you're young and starting out and wanting to learn
and grow. It's not even that hotels are expensive, but
the value of your bring your heart into them. There's
no way you can calculate that.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
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(30:38):
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 boy that
the People magazine had asked me about, was somebody who
said yes to every possibility. Yes, Yeah, I mean, he
(31:00):
didn't even have no in his vocabulary. If there was
an opportunity that presented itself, didn't matter how crazy, how dangerous,
how 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, have you heard the African
Children's choir? You've been to Africa, you have a ministry
(31:23):
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 on in about half an hour. I'm like, all right,
I'm going to throw on a skirt and grab my
kids and let's head out the door. So I grabbed
(31:44):
my kids. We went down to the church. You know,
knew 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 the choir director came up to me
and said, are you Delilah. I said yes. He says,
thank you so much for the invitation. I'm like, what
an invitation? He says, your son invited us over to
your house. He said, you have a farm and that
we could bring the kids in the choir over for lunch.
(32:28):
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, 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 had invited twenty six children
(32:53):
and ten advisors to our house for lunch.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Oh my gosh, I love this. Okay, So then, so
tell me what your brain did.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
So my brain said, okay. I got to make a
couple of quick phone calls. I called my husband, who
wasn't home, and said, Paul, could you like maybe pick
the dirty laundry up off the floor real quick, tidy
up a little bit. I got to call a few
people and I'm going to swing by the story. He said,
what's going on. I said, oh, We've got some people
coming over for lunch. And he's like, ooh, someone from
(33:25):
the church. I said, well, you could say that twenty
six children and ten advisors. And he's like, okay, 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 had rice here.
So just put on a huge pot of rice and
cooked up some beans and started a fire out in
(33:48):
the backyard and they roasted hot dogs and very very simple,
simple meal. But they played and they sang, and they
danced and they played with me my kids. And when
it came time to go, my son that had invited
them was crying, didn't want them to go. It's like, no,
(34:08):
you just became a part of our family. You can't
go now, you have to spend the night.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Oh man, what an open heart.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
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.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
His life with. That's inspiring. That's really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
So your kids are grown and they have flown the nest.
What are they doing?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Oh goodness. Jenny Jenny Gill, My I do daughter. She's
such a great singer. She toured with me for ten years.
But she loves film and editing, so she started the
production company and she's got a couple of videos on
CMT right now. It's funny. You can be good at something,
(35:08):
but that's not your the thing 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 She has two kids, our grandkids, Wyatt
and every six and three. And then I have a daughter, Millie,
(35:29):
who is lovely and also a new bride, and she's just.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And wasn't it Millie that you told me you wrote
baby Baby for many years ago?
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yes, Millie is like she's always been, like a concealed weapon.
She's just under five feet, like she would thanks that
everybody in the family's to looks at me. But 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
(36:01):
that way. But Millie's the one that I came in.
It was my birthday night, and she had cooked and
I probably 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.
(36:22):
It's one o'clock in the morning, you know, I like, so.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
She made a little birthday party for you with your friends.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
She gave her kidney to her best childhood friend. I mean,
so yeah, Then the baby girl. Karina is just singing
every chance she gets. She's she's studying music in school,
and and she just released her very first song. It's
(36:50):
called Swallow the Sun. And she just goes by Karna,
C O, R, R, I and A and Karina just
she just has one song on Spotify. Its called Swallow
her Son.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
So life is good, life is full. And how eager
are you to get back out and be able to perform?
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Oh? I can't wait. I love what music does two people.
I love 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
(37:31):
done so many Zoom performances and it is not the same.
It's just the same. Oh.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Your energy, when your shoes come off, that's when that's
when the magic starts to happen, when you're on stage
and your energy. I love. I love the way that
the last show that I went to, Jordan Smith and
then Michael w and you, the way you played off
each other and the energy that you shared with each
(37:58):
other that we all became I'm a part of. Just
it's the best. It's the best.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
It is you know it is. It's fun to make
music with people that you love, and it's it and
and to me, music just that's just a great backdrop
for us an evening long conversation and yeah, I know,
I can't wait. I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Well, 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 be a part of
that evening long conversation with you, Amy, Thank.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
You, thank you. I actually do have shows booked now
in August, September, October, November, December.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
So yay. Where how can folks find you? How can
I find you?
Speaker 2 (38:49):
I'm sure they're all on my website, which I am
not the one that put 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.
But a lot of these shows.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Is it really a cavern? Yes?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Oh coolture is going to be like whatever that underground temperature.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Is, you know, cool cool. You'll want to wear a
sweater or a parka over your pretty dress.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah, but yeah, so lots of shows all the way.
I think the Christmas shows are already on sale and
almost sold out, the twelve Christmas shows at the Rhyme,
and I think people are just going, I can get out,
I can go buy a picket or something, you know.
So we're about to launch into a whole lot of
musical fun.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Well, everybody who has missed music, go see Amy, go
see her shows. Thirty year anniversary of a fabulous album.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, it's funny because we had we had a set
list for the tour that didn't happen. But we'll be
back in rehearsals in July. And this is the thirtieth
anniversary of probably the largest selling record I've ever had,
So I think we're 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 make the same
high notes I used to sing. But oh man, music
is timeless.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I just signed a long term contract for radio and
the same thing I pinch myself, I get to keep
I get paid to do what I love, to do
what I love every night, yep, and talk to people
that I love. I get to I get paid to
do this. It's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It is. And you know, now there are generations that
feel about you and your voice that it feels like
coming home 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,
(41:08):
but with a lot of people. You just have such
a longevity of experiences together.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, it really is. It's generational. 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 there loving
you and singing along with every song because you know,
we've been around the block three times maybe four.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
All right, enjoy your camp out, your big camp out
with all your tents, Enjoy the seniors coming for the cookout,
the barbecue in the backyard, and just be blessed, be
blessed beyond measure. Thank you, thank you, honey, God, bless you.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Great to be with you.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
What a delightful Congress station. Thank you again. Amy Grant
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
(42:19):
pop singer, and boy did she achieve that. Find a Way,
Her album, released in nineteen eighty 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 Follow, a duet she did with
(42:40):
Chicago's Peter Setera. For the following decades, she churned out
hit after hit. Heart in Motion was released in nineteen
ninety one, it became a worldwide sensation. Five million copies
were sold. She celebrated five top twenty hits, which became
came some of the all time requests songs on My show.
(43:03):
To this day, I get requests for baby Baby, every
heartbeat good for me. 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.
(43:28):
Mostly she's a good person. I am so so fortunate
to have been 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
(43:51):
a friend. Amy is celebrating Heart in Motion's thirtieth birthday
all year with fun throwbacks, reissues, outtakes, live version and more.
You can find it all by checking in with Amy
on Facebook at Amy Grant, Instagram at Amy Grant Official,
and Twitter at Amy Grant. Amy thank you again for
(44:12):
spending this time with us. Hopefully everyone listening to this
podcast will also join me on the radio every night,
and I'll be back with a new podcast shortly. God
bless you be
Love some Lontemer with de Love 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
(00:26):
for 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
(00:48):
known at a very early stage in her career, like
before she was even twenty I think as the queen
of Christian pop. She's spent over forty years so far
the music world. She's racked up six Grammys, twenty six
Dove Awards. It's been thirty years since Heart in Motion
(01:10):
was released, Whi'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
twenty twenty one to thirty year anniversary. We are going
to have so much fun chatting with my friend Amy
(01:32):
Grant today, but I need to stop for a minute.
I'm cracking myself up here. Stop for a minute and
give 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 to see the
(01:52):
light amidst the darkness. Mercy Ships is an organization that
gives people renewed hope. Mercy Ships turn ships into floating
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the world to provide free surgeries that save lives and
change lives. They are transforming communities by training local doctors
(02:14):
who continue the good work long after these ships leave port.
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 encourage you
(02:36):
to visit Mercyships dot org slash love to learn how
you can be a part of this great work.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Hello there, Hey Delilah. I'm so sorry. I screw the
time up. I'm just shoving some chili down my throat
a fifteen more seconds to just take four.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Big fights, Amy, take all all the time you need
to finish your chili. I'll just I'll just entertain our
listeners in the meantime. Go ahead. She's enjoying her homemade chili,
her world famous homemade chili. I've heard about it. Michael W.
(03:17):
Smith has bragged about it. But did she offer to
share the recipe? No? No, Did she offer to send me, like,
freeze some and send it in a sealed container or something?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
No? No, I shouldn't do that either.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
All right, I think she's done, Amy Grant, Welcome back
from your chili bowl. Welcome to love someone with Delilah.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Okay, thank you that I was working on some some
angry behavior.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I saw a T shirt online the other day. I
almost ordered it for my daughter Sheila. It says I'm
sorry about what I said when I was hungry, And
if it had said when I was hungry, I would
have ordered it for her. Yes, yes, because she doesn't
get hungry. She gets she goes from zero to hangry
(04:12):
in five minutes. And she's got a little one who's
almost three, who is just like her. I'm like, somebody
find some protein right now. Find me some I don't care,
some chicken strip something.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yep, I'm speaking my language.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Sister. Welcome 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.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yes, I know, and I've seen your face recently with
a People magazine article, and I wish I could just
wrap arms around you.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I wish you could do I would take that in
a heartbeat. I was talking to to a lady I
just love, a girl named Brie last night. She's spent
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 they're just not real.
(05:39):
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
Michael are that way. You are as kind and as
beautiful and as real as somebody would imagine you to be.
And you never in all the times I've seen you
(06:21):
on stage, off stage, interviews, casually with your husband, with
Michael W. Smith, you have consistently been a beautiful soul
and I appreciate that about you.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Thank you. Well, Hey, it's easier to be one person,
it is.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
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. There's a lot
(07:06):
of energy.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, yeah, and you know it. And all of us
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 when you feel
(07:28):
the lowest or you know, you have people that you
trust to embrace all that too, you know, because everybody's
pendulum swings wide and and you know, it's funny. I
think when you have people in your life that have
constantly been supportive and nurturing, that it makes me want
(07:54):
to be that way to other people because 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.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
So so you have that obviously with your hobby. How
many years twenty twenty years now you invents twenty.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
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 leaving down and there was just always so much
coming and going, and it was it was such a
(08:36):
It was really one of the many hidden gifts of
COVID for us to be in the same place for
a whole year.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Same here. My Hobby and I have been together, not
twenty one years, but going on fourteen years married and
almost went in the eighteen nineteen years together I don't
even remember. But same with us because we live in
two different states. His career is in one state and
my studio and my life is in another state. And
(09:05):
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.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Okay, all I want to do is ask you a
million details.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, okay, so let's just pretend we're not even recording this.
What's the weirdest thing that you discovered about Vents that
we can talk about during the shutdown or the biggest
challenge that you guys had.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I think the biggest discovery for me was that. And
I'm 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 when now I see him, I would like project
something onto him. Oh, he doesn't quite fit that projection.
(10:00):
And what I found when I was with him all
the time was that I felt like I really saw
him day in and day out, the subtle, beautiful things
about his personality day in and day out. And I
(10:21):
know it sounds crazy, but to go twenty one years
and this has never struck you before, 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.
(10:46):
Big talker, you know, he's not like 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,
(11:09):
I don't know, just be like, I wish you asked
me more questions. I wish you 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, whow I missed that? It's crazy,
(11:32):
Like I mean, I don't 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.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
That do you notice how quiet I'm being?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah? Why do you are you relating to that.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
No, no, because there is no way I'm opening my
mouth now. After that, I'm like, dang, that didn't go
the way I would. Oh, he sounds so sweet and
lovely and lovable. And here I was going to tell
(12:12):
you how I didn't realize how grumpy my husband was
since we've never lived together.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Can I tell you it's so funny 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.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I think for Paul, because my husband is older 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. For the four girls. I
lost my step son. He lost his only son December
(12:57):
of twenty nineteen. But so when 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 so was I. I was
grandma when we met, but I had not finished raising
(13:19):
the ones I had, and I've adopted six more since
we met. And so 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
(13:40):
in a twelve hundred square foot house, all of a
sudden he realized why he had you know, only had
five and gotten them out the door.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Before Whoo, that's a lot going on. Yeah, that would
be hard, and maybe this is maybe you guys found
this Vince and I. The more concentrated time we spent together,
we realize that we we are so different from each
other in how we like to spend our time, in
(14:12):
what energizes us. He has endless patience 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.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
I squirrel, squirrel, Gotta go do this, gotta do that.
So 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
(14:59):
being out 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
age you are. If I could still give birth, I
would have ten more kids, and Paul's like, no, No,
five was plenty for me. And now that I'm a
(15:19):
stepdad to fifteen more, it's kind of a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
It's a lot, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
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.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I love cooking. I'm a lot more.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Why are you so dang skinny? Then? Every time I
see you, you just you're You're so beautiful and thin
and gorgeous. I love cooking, and you can tell by
looking at me.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
I I don't know what to say. I got a
fast metable, I do, and I love to move. I
love to hike. It would drive since crazy if I
ask him to do what I love doing every day.
And I think that's what I've really discovered, is I
(16:17):
think when we were both younger, because we met in
our thirties and now we're in our sixties, and I
think we imagined that we would be inseparable because we
were so drawn to each other. But what I found
in the COVID year was that he's my favorite person
(16:37):
to return to. But there's so many ways. I just
love for my days to have purpose. I've got a
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 living,
(17:00):
like truly the elderly out to be barefoot around the
campfire with a loved one, tell stories, have there be
some music, and you know, so I'm just providing the place.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
What a precious, sweet way to share your blessings in
a completely different way. I mean, when you share your music,
you share your blessings. But 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
(17:36):
of four walls.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
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 he makes documentaries and he's been in the music
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
(18:02):
the community circles, even though I get regenerated and rejuvenated
in solitude. I'm an introvert that likes people anyway. 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,
(18:25):
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 or not, twenty family
tents in my basement because I'm such an outdoor freak.
Twenty So I'm like, I get set the tents up
(18:45):
in the backyard, I get to wash the tents. You know,
here goes my engine. How are we going to make
them all sleep comfortably? How are we going to do this?
And then so they'll come out in the backyard, you know,
while I'm stretching the tents out making sure we have
all the polls, and he'll be like, I'm head to
the golf course. You know, he loves he loves his patterns.
And I'm not sure how to describe what I love.
(19:07):
But it's just the matrix of all of our connectedness
and how I believe we're all so essential to each
other in how we connect what we offer. And one
person has plentiful of something else that another person that
they have scarcity of that, And so I'm all about,
(19:29):
oh my gosh, connected dots, just connected dots. There's everything
we need if we could just communicate it.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
And so Stone Soup remember that story? Did you hear
that story when you were little?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yes? I love that.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
That's what you are. You are, you are the chef
of Stone Soup.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Hmm. You could not have said anything to put a
bigger smile on my face.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
That's what your gift is. I mean, obviously Amy Grant,
who's one and how many Grammys and how many twenty
six devil wards. But what you just described of figuring
out who's 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 a stone soup chef.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, yeah, what's funny because I think just talking about
scarcity and abundance. 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 homelessness, or you just go, oh, something seem insurmountable.
(20:49):
Some things, you know, respectful, race relations, 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
(21:12):
just willing to consider the possibility of saying a simple
yes for good that came 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
(21:33):
in the elevator with someone that looks different from you. Amen,
relax and say, how's your day going. If we all
just did things.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Differently, if we all said yes to the possibility of kindness,
if we all said yes to the possibility of sharing,
of not hoarding our resources of sharing whatever it is
that God has blessed us with.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yes. And here's the other things. I think the first
time you say yes, and I think, it's a mystery
how it comes to you, whatever it is, just that
it's like, huh, 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
(22:21):
go slightly outside of your own script, your own thermostat
temperature controlled environment that we all have tried to create
around ourselves, and it separates us from each other. But
the first time you say, I'm a little nervous, but
I'm going to show up at this table. I don't
(22:43):
know if I have the skill set, but I'm going
to try this thing.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Everything you need to do, it will show up.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Like when I the first time I went to Africa, Amy,
I was so scared. I was so I didn't even
have a passport. I had only traveled out of the
United States to Canada a couple of times and to
Mexico a couple of times. That's it. I had no
travel experience. I had no knowledge of what a developing
(23:17):
country was like. And it was people at World Vision
that said, why don't you you know? I went to
them and asked them for help for somebody that had
contacted me in West Africa, and they said, well, why
don't you 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
(23:39):
go live on Mars. To me, it was just such
a foreign like, no, I'm a single mom and I've
got a career, And I said yes, yeah, And it
changed everything. It changed everything.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yes, it's just saying yes, Oh my gosh, and look
at didn't it make your entire life less gray? And
you see the edges of technicolor. And the more you
step into yes, the more vivid and vibrant in your
life gets?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Oh boy, did it get vivid? And did 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, a whole different understanding of family and dynamics
(24:35):
and culture and music 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.
(24:56):
So what was the biggest yes that you can think
of that has has impacted you and your family that
you said.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Jilila, the way my brain works at two o'clock in
the morning, I'll go. But that's the answer I should
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.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
And I can fix that for you. Can I can
fix that for you. If you got that empty nest there,
I can fill it right back up. Oh lord?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah. Well so so the summer my father died at
twenty eighteen, I traveled to see two friends of mine
prol college, one in North Carolina and one in New Hampshire,
and I was so struck by their hospitality. It was
so beautiful to me in its simplicity that it was
(25:57):
all about the welcome. I came home and said, Okay,
I'm going to take these kids rooms and I'm going
to uh, I'm going to get company, you know, new mattresses.
I mean, most everybody took their beds. I'm gonna I'm
going to go through I'm going to box up. You know,
nobody needs seventh grade mass papers. They don't want them,
(26:20):
you know, just to go through the clutter to make
the rooms there, the old bedrooms just available. I 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, hey, if you're
(26:42):
come to town, young artists, young musicians. A friend of
mine called and she said from She called from the Washington,
DC area, and she said, a friend of mine's daughter
is in a band and she and her bandmate are
coming to Nashville. And she asked, do I know anybody there?
And it was the first time it wasn't. I didn't
(27:06):
know any of these people except my friend. And I thought,
just say yes.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Just say yes, Just say you got a room, you
got a bedroom, you got a new comforter, Yes, yes
you can come.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
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 things that come to me,
like I don't have the I don't want to. I
(27:39):
don't want to waste precious energy chasing something. But if
it's meant for me, I mean, I work hard, trust me.
But and so I said yes. Now, I told Vents, hey,
we've got two girls are going to be like him
very soon. And it was so beautiful that he was
the one to greet them. That they they were so lovely.
(28:02):
I now love their music. Thence 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
I can think about them, I can pray for them
(28:23):
the rest of their lives every time I hear their songs,
and I'm so I'm just so glad to circle widened.
And I'm so grateful to my friend that she asked me,
you know. And I've got friends whose guest rooms are
full every weekend. I mean, they're blearyot, they're exhausted from company,
you know. So I mean, everybody has to find their way.
(28:45):
But you know, hotels are expensive, and.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
When you're young and starting out and wanting to learn
and grow. It's not even that hotels are expensive, but
the value of your bring your heart into them. There's
no way you can calculate that.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
My guest today is Amy Grant. We're going to pause
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(30:38):
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 boy that
the People magazine had asked me about, was somebody who
said yes to every possibility. Yes, Yeah, I mean, he
(31:00):
didn't even have no in his vocabulary. If there was
an opportunity that presented itself, didn't matter how crazy, how dangerous,
how 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, have you heard the African
Children's choir? You've been to Africa, you have a ministry
(31:23):
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 on in about half an hour. I'm like, all right,
I'm going to throw on a skirt and grab my
kids and let's head out the door. So I grabbed
(31:44):
my kids. We went down to the church. You know,
knew 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 the choir director came up to me
and said, are you Delilah. I said yes. He says,
thank you so much for the invitation. I'm like, what
an invitation? He says, your son invited us over to
your house. He said, you have a farm and that
we could bring the kids in the choir over for lunch.
(32:28):
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, 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 had invited twenty six children
(32:53):
and ten advisors to our house for lunch.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Oh my gosh, I love this. Okay, So then, so
tell me what your brain did.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
So my brain said, okay. I got to make a
couple of quick phone calls. I called my husband, who
wasn't home, and said, Paul, could you like maybe pick
the dirty laundry up off the floor real quick, tidy
up a little bit. I got to call a few
people and I'm going to swing by the story. He said,
what's going on. I said, oh, We've got some people
coming over for lunch. And he's like, ooh, someone from
(33:25):
the church. I said, well, you could say that twenty
six children and ten advisors. And he's like, okay, 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 had rice here.
So just put on a huge pot of rice and
cooked up some beans and started a fire out in
(33:48):
the backyard and they roasted hot dogs and very very simple,
simple meal. But they played and they sang, and they
danced and they played with me my kids. And when
it came time to go, my son that had invited
them was crying, didn't want them to go. It's like, no,
(34:08):
you just became a part of our family. You can't
go now, you have to spend the night.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Oh man, what an open heart.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
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.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
His life with. That's inspiring. That's really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
So your kids are grown and they have flown the nest.
What are they doing?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Oh goodness. Jenny Jenny Gill, My I do daughter. She's
such a great singer. She toured with me for ten years.
But she loves film and editing, so she started the
production company and she's got a couple of videos on
CMT right now. It's funny. You can be good at something,
(35:08):
but that's not your the thing 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 She has two kids, our grandkids, Wyatt
and every six and three. And then I have a daughter, Millie,
(35:29):
who is lovely and also a new bride, and she's just.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And wasn't it Millie that you told me you wrote
baby Baby for many years ago?
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yes, Millie is like she's always been, like a concealed weapon.
She's just under five feet, like she would thanks that
everybody in the family's to looks at me. But 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
(36:01):
that way. But Millie's the one that I came in.
It was my birthday night, and she had cooked and
I probably 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.
(36:22):
It's one o'clock in the morning, you know, I like, so.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
She made a little birthday party for you with your friends.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
She gave her kidney to her best childhood friend. I mean,
so yeah, Then the baby girl. Karina is just singing
every chance she gets. She's she's studying music in school,
and and she just released her very first song. It's
(36:50):
called Swallow the Sun. And she just goes by Karna,
C O, R, R, I and A and Karina just
she just has one song on Spotify. Its called Swallow
her Son.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
So life is good, life is full. And how eager
are you to get back out and be able to perform?
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Oh? I can't wait. I love what music does two people.
I love 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
(37:31):
done so many Zoom performances and it is not the same.
It's just the same. Oh.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Your energy, when your shoes come off, that's when that's
when the magic starts to happen, when you're on stage
and your energy. I love. I love the way that
the last show that I went to, Jordan Smith and
then Michael w and you, the way you played off
each other and the energy that you shared with each
(37:58):
other that we all became I'm a part of. Just
it's the best. It's the best.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
It is you know it is. It's fun to make
music with people that you love, and it's it and
and to me, music just that's just a great backdrop
for us an evening long conversation and yeah, I know,
I can't wait. I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Well, 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 be a part of
that evening long conversation with you, Amy, Thank.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
You, thank you. I actually do have shows booked now
in August, September, October, November, December.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
So yay. Where how can folks find you? How can
I find you?
Speaker 2 (38:49):
I'm sure they're all on my website, which I am
not the one that put 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.
But a lot of these shows.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Is it really a cavern? Yes?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Oh coolture is going to be like whatever that underground temperature.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Is, you know, cool cool. You'll want to wear a
sweater or a parka over your pretty dress.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah, but yeah, so lots of shows all the way.
I think the Christmas shows are already on sale and
almost sold out, the twelve Christmas shows at the Rhyme,
and I think people are just going, I can get out,
I can go buy a picket or something, you know.
So we're about to launch into a whole lot of
musical fun.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Well, everybody who has missed music, go see Amy, go
see her shows. Thirty year anniversary of a fabulous album.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, it's funny because we had we had a set
list for the tour that didn't happen. But we'll be
back in rehearsals in July. And this is the thirtieth
anniversary of probably the largest selling record I've ever had,
So I think we're 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 make the same
high notes I used to sing. But oh man, music
is timeless.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I just signed a long term contract for radio and
the same thing I pinch myself, I get to keep
I get paid to do what I love, to do
what I love every night, yep, and talk to people
that I love. I get to I get paid to
do this. It's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It is. And you know, now there are generations that
feel about you and your voice that it feels like
coming home 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,
(41:08):
but with a lot of people. You just have such
a longevity of experiences together.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, it really is. It's generational. 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 there loving
you and singing along with every song because you know,
we've been around the block three times maybe four.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
All right, enjoy your camp out, your big camp out
with all your tents, Enjoy the seniors coming for the cookout,
the barbecue in the backyard, and just be blessed, be
blessed beyond measure. Thank you, thank you, honey, God, bless you.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Great to be with you.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
What a delightful Congress station. Thank you again. Amy Grant
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
(42:19):
pop singer, and boy did she achieve that. Find a Way,
Her album, released in nineteen eighty 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 Follow, a duet she did with
(42:40):
Chicago's Peter Setera. For the following decades, she churned out
hit after hit. Heart in Motion was released in nineteen
ninety one, it became a worldwide sensation. Five million copies
were sold. She celebrated five top twenty hits, which became
came some of the all time requests songs on My show.
(43:03):
To this day, I get requests for baby Baby, every
heartbeat good for me. 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.
(43:28):
Mostly she's a good person. I am so so fortunate
to have been 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
(43:51):
a friend. Amy is celebrating Heart in Motion's thirtieth birthday
all year with fun throwbacks, reissues, outtakes, live version and more.
You can find it all by checking in with Amy
on Facebook at Amy Grant, Instagram at Amy Grant Official,
and Twitter at Amy Grant. Amy thank you again for
(44:12):
spending this time with us. Hopefully everyone listening to this
podcast will also join me on the radio every night,
and I'll be back with a new podcast shortly. God
bless you be
Host
Delilah
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