Amy Grant has opened up about the candid advice her husband, fellow musician Vince Gill, offered during her recovery from a traumatic brain injury sustained in 2022.
The Accident and Recovery
The 65-year-old Grammy-winning Christian singer-songwriter was hospitalized after hitting a pothole while cycling, which threw her from her bike and left her unconscious for approximately 10 minutes. Reflecting on the challenging recovery period during a Wednesday episode of the Wild Card with Rachel Martin podcast, Grant recalled a pivotal conversation with Gill.
“I just remember in the fall of 2022 when my world was very quiet. I just remember saying to Vince, 'What if this is all I get back? What if this is it?' Because, to me, it's like the world is in a conversation, and I am down the hall and in a back bedroom. This is like my response time,” Grant said.
She added, “I love people making me laugh. I love delivering a great one-liner. But that doesn’t happen when you’re like three steps behind the rest of the room.”
Vince Gill's Blunt Response
Grant shared that Gill, her husband of more than 25 years, responded with straightforward wisdom: “Amy, life happens to every one of us every day. A virtuoso musician could have a stroke and never be able to pick up their instrument again. All you do is you just take the hand you’re dealt that day and live the life that you get.”
Return to Performing
In November 2022, Grant returned to live performances for the first time since her injury. She admitted being nervous during that initial show in Memphis, Tennessee, and even forgot “lyrics to songs that I wrote.”
“I’m just on a healing journey, but this time here. You know, love and kindness is also very healing, and I’m not kidding — I feel filled up from head to toe,” she told Fox News at the time. She expressed gratitude for Gill’s support and patience throughout her recovery.
“I think early on, I said, ‘What if I’m different, what if I’m not the same?’ and he said, ‘Hey, every day we wake up a little different, and we love each other, and it’s good,’” she recalled. “I feel like my old rascally self.”
Family and Blended Household
Grant and Gill have been married since 2000, blending a family of five children: three from Grant’s previous marriage to singer-songwriter Gary Chapman; one daughter from Gill’s first marriage to Janis Oliver; and one daughter, Corrina, born in 2001.
During Gill’s residency at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in August 2022, Corrina joined him on stage for a touching musical tribute to her mother. “We haven’t been doing [‘When Amy Prays’] much, but because of her accident and everything she’s been going through we’ve been thinkin’ a lot about her, and I thought how sweet it would be for her youngest to sing the song I wrote for her,” Gill told the audience. Corrina changed the chorus from “when my Amy prays” to “when my mama prays,” adding a heartfelt touch.
