Amy Grant, Vince Gill talk joint album and the time he cut off his fingertip on Christmas
Melissa RuggieriAmy Grant is regarded as the most successful contemporary Christian artist of all time.
But within her 40-year career and 30 million albums sold, she’s also morphed into a holiday staple.
Her five Christmas albums, notably the hits-generating “A Christmas Album” in 1983 and “Home for Christmas” in 1992, are reliably comfortable and warm, extensions of Grant’s personality and crossover pop career.
Her husband, country luminary Vince Gill (who has seamless slotted into the Eagles touring lineup since 2017), also prompted Christmas tingles with 1993’s “Let There Be Peace on Earth” album.
Now, the couple has teamed for their first joint holiday effort, “When I Think Of Christmas.” The album, which arrived in September, was inspired by their performances at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The 14th annual tradition continues with a spate of shows through Dec. 21.
The new collection features nine remastered Grant/Gill classics – including her defining “Tennessee Christmas” and his glistening “O Holy Night” – as well as a pair of contemplative new offerings: the title track and their duet on “’Til the Season Comes Round Again.”
In a recent video chat, the affable Grant, who turns 64 on Nov. 25, and Gill, 67, were alternately thoughtful and humorous as they expounded on what Christmas means to each of them and how the season formed the backbone of their nearly 25-year marriage.
Question: Before we talk about the Christmas album, Vince, what has it been like playing with the Eagles at the Sphere in Las Vegas?
Answer: It’s the most people I’ve ever been ignored by! I’m up there singing my heart out and everybody is looking up (as the visuals). It’s pretty massive with everything going on behind you. I wouldn’t turn around and look for fear I’d have a stroke. I’ve been playing for 60 years and I’ve never used (in-ear monitors). That’s kind of a mind bender because I’m disconnected from the crowd and that’s a little disconcerting to not be able to hear and feel them. But we’re still doing those great songs and it’s an amazing sounding place.
You both are synonymous with the Ryman at Christmas. What made this the right time to do a joint holiday album?
Grant: We just end every year with Christmas and we thought, hey, who knows how long life is going to last? Who knows how long we’re going to do this run (at the Ryman)? But let’s do a package together. We both have such history with that music.
Gill: It’s the first music we ever played and sang together so it’s really special. I really try to just stand to the side and let her shine because she’s so much better at it than I am. It can be a little too “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” for me. (Christmas songs) don’t quite rock hard enough for my taste (laughs). People love familiarity and … we thought it was a pretty sweet idea to put a record together from the both of us. We’ve done a couple of duets. But when we got married, we didn’t think that we needed to be Sonny and Cher. We had so many years invested in our own careers that it didn’t make a lot of sense to combine everything, so we’ve done it sparingly.
So Christmas music is how you met, but this is also the 30th anniversary of “House of Love,” which features your lovely duet. What do you remember about those sessions?
Grant: It was actually the Thanksgiving weekend and December of 1993 and we did three things together. Vince asked me to be on a TV show with Michael McDonald and Chet Atkins and I’d promised the Nashville Symphony I’d do a benefit for them. So I said, I’ll do your show, will you do my live thing? It was the first time I’d ever heard him live. I had one of his records, but I went oh my gosh, he can sing anything. Between those two shows, I was working on (“House of Love”) and I said, hey we’re already working together will you come sing on my record? It really was bam, bam, bam. Those three things in 2 ½ weeks set us on a path of knowing each other, loving working together, really a magical friendship. Everything about him was familiar to me.
Gill: The neat thing with “House of Love” was when I came and sang on that record, it was her dad’s birthday. (Grant’s father died in 2018.)
Grant: That’s right. We’d taken him out to lunch and I said, “I’m gonna go sing with Vince Gill.”
Gill: (Laughs) And your dad said, “Never heard of him.”
Both of the new songs are reflective and in listening to your Christmas songs over the years, Amy, I always got the feeling that Christmas makes you particularly pensive.
Grant: Both of us have a quiet side. I can’t imagine a Christmas where I’m not the last one up. I’ve built a fire, the house is super quiet and I stay up for hours just thinking, man, another year. It goes fast. What are the real gifts we give each other? I mean, I can make it serious that fast (laughs). It just feels appreciative and just being aware. Life goes by so quickly and so often we’re on autopilot and I think being able to give ourselves to a moment, undistracted – the good and the hard – is a gift we give ourselves.
Vince do you feel the same way about Christmas? Do you get in those reflective moods?
Gill: Probably not like my bride here. I enjoy the time of year. It feels like the whole world finally says hey, we’re going to shut it down, stop running and everybody settles in with who they’re crazy about. I like the peacefulness of that time of year. Eat a lot of food, watch a lot of ball games.
Grant: I have a lot of interaction with people (around Christmas) and of course we’re born and we die and so many people are especially aware of loss and loneliness at Christmas time. If you just give somebody a moment and get past the quick banter, it just takes one person to go, “This is a little bit of a rough stretch,” and instantly, people will unfurl their real feelings. This new song (“When I Think of Christmas”) allows for a little bit of tenderness and welcoming the whole picture, because life is the whole picture.
What are some Christmas traditions in the Grant/Gill household?
Grant: As strange as it might sound, with our immediate family and our extended family we love sharing the music – the shows at the Ryman – so in a way, over the years of doing those shows, it’s kind of simplified our home experience. One of my favorite traditions is we don’t have a holiday meal. We have a big Christmas breakfast because we’re working every night. Vince makes breakfast for all of us.
Gill: It’s not very good. They’re nice enough to eat it. It’s just normal stuff, bacon and eggs, nothing special. I cut my thumb off one year opening the bacon.
Grant: Just the tip!
Gill: I’ve got a picture of it. It was a chunk not quite the size of a dime. I thought I’d ruined my career when I saw the knife go across that thumb. That’s when I got fired, so I haven’t been much of a breakfast chef after that. I put a Band-Aid on it. And I can still play the guitar.