Culture
Amy Grant ruminates 5 decades of touring, new album, songwriting for tough topics, and the prayer that changed her life
By: Ian Saint
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MARIETTA, Ohio (WOUB) — Amy Grant has been heralded “the Queen of Christian pop,” garnering the most No.1 Billboard Top Christian Albums in history; but her crossover success beyond Christian media is unparalleled.
The Gospel Music Hall of Famer also notched two No.1 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, and has received both Kennedy Center Honors and a Hollywood Walk of Fame star. In conversation with WOUB, however, it seems Grant’s humanitarian recognition makes her proudest.
Before playing Peoples Bank Theatre (222 Putnam St.) Sunday, Grant spoke with WOUB’s Ian Saint about her spring tour, upcoming album, and faith in action. A transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.
Ian Saint: What are your favorite Ohio memories?
Amy Grant: Goodness; I’ve toured Ohio since the late ‘70s. I spent an unbelievable off-day at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; which really takes a couple days to enjoy all the things they offer.
Every decade brings different versions of touring. In the ‘80s-90s, I had children with me; 2000s, I took my bike everywhere. Sometimes me, the band, and crew would ride 30-40 miles before a show.
My mother’s Heart In Motion CD was one of the first albums I ever studied. Our favorite track is Hope Set High, which you wrote yourself. How does that song resonate with you today?
Grant: I love its simple approach. That song was written for a gathering of high-school and college kids. A dozen of us creatives on faith journeys called ourselves “the Greyshirts,” and we wanted to invite young people to have a faith experience outside church. We tried writing an original song every week.
We worked hard to clean out the loft of my barn, on a tiny country road, for this gathering. We’d no idea how many would show up; we just put flyers around town. I was walking in the field around that barn, asking, “why would anybody want to come tonight?” And I wrote that song, “I’ve got my hope set high.”
Over 200 kids showed up. The Loft would do a season of 10 shows. I meet people with their grown kids at shows, now, who say “I was a high-school kid who came to The Loft” — and I feel awe.
Is this your last tour before your new album?
Grant: I’m recording four more songs, then the album’s finished. I’ve started working with Mac McAnally — fantastic musician, worked with Jimmy Buffet for 40 years. He grew up in Muscle Shoals, and played guitar on lots of the early Muscle Shoals recordings produced by Rick Hall, who could spot a hit instantly — for instance, discovering and developing Aretha Franklin’s original soulful sound, following the more classical direction early in her career.
I’ve always been impressed by how gracefully your songwriting handles taboo issues. You’re performing Ask Me on this tour. It seems daunting to write good songs about such heavy subjects with care. How do you attain that? And how has processing peoples’ reactions to those difficult-subject songs transformed you?
Grant: I don’t know if “graceful execution” is how I’d depict myself. Ask Me is about two friends of mine, morphed into one story. I was walking with a friend, who started talking about her childhood as the sun went down. She was sexually taken advantage of by a trusted family member, many times; it was a way of life for her as a child. I felt ripped from stem-to-stern, totally undone by her early trauma.
I locked myself in the farm basement, and didn’t come out until the song was written. I was trying to capture the conversation, and be respectful of her story, because there is a redemptive element to the chorus — even though the questions are still loud and unanswered, “why does this happen?”
The first tour I ever sang Ask Me, I was selling-out big places; but I remember seeing lone figures standing out in the audience, as though they were saying “this is my story.” That was always… whoa.
Music, in the end, is best when it articulates a real experience or feeling. That’s why we connect with music — “oh, man, that’s how I feel,” “that’s what happened to me.” That’s my therapy, and how I deal with life. That was such an intimate connect point, talking about sexual abuse.
You’ve been speaking out to support continued government funding for PEPFAR, the 2003 program founded by President Bush to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as their funding is under threat. Can you expound on why this cause is dear to you?
Grant: There’s been so much progress curbing HIV — a worldwide problem. It’s [progressed to] living with, rather than dying from, HIV. I’ve always felt my strength is helping connect the dots between surplus and need. I don’t want to focus so much on shenanigans in circles beyond my control. I’m not sure how PEPFAR is going to play out — but I know in every one of our neighborhoods and hometowns, there’s great need.
And each one of us has capacity to create real change — if we use our decision-making, choices, influence, finances to do things that matter. I’m responding in a time where nationwide responses to things that matter to lots of us seems in jeopardy. That makes it even more important to take personal responsibility.
Ask, “what can I do in the landscape I find myself every day?” It can be something as simple as looking the person at the grocery store in the eye, or starting a conversation with somebody that looks different from you. Because conversation — the exchange of ideas — is the beginning of everything. And I think we all have (ability) to become more engaged in our communities. If we all exercise our ability to influence, sacrifice, and do good work, everything would change. That’s the mantra I tell myself in the morning: “what is right in front of you?”
Back when Baby Baby was screaming up the charts, I had a baby while doing lots of overseas interviews. I was sleep-deprived; and I remember being at the coffeepot with my mother-in-law — who’s long since passed-away, and I’m no longer married to her son — saying “Mary, I am so exhausted. I was doing interviews at 3 A.M. I don’t think I’ve prayed a succinct prayer in two weeks.”
She said, “oh, Amy, it just takes one good prayer.” I said, “that runs counter to the sort of judgmental world I grew up in. Please tell me that one prayer.” She said: every day, pray, “Lord, lead me today to those I need and those that need me; and let something I do have eternal significance.”
I’m telling you, Ian, I started praying that prayer then. And there are so many times now, big things will happen in my life; I’ll go, “how did those dots connect?” My manager has this phrase: “good gosh, it all worked out just like we didn’t plan.” That everyday prayer tells me there is a bigger plan at work, impossible for me to see.