Amy Grant has weathered plenty in recent months. The gospel singer was severely injured in a bike accident over the summer, resulting in memory loss she still deals with, and also had surgery to remove a cyst on her vocal cords in January. Through it all, Grant has remained determined and strong, in spite of the many challenges she has faced.
“I feel fantastic,” Grant says on Today. “I mean, really from 2020 on, I feel like I had to, if I were a car, I’ve made a lotta trips to the shop. And I feel like I’m emerging. I went, ‘Oh man, I feel like a classic now.’ And actually sort of re-revved up in a really beautiful way.”
The wife of Vince Gill also relied strongly on her faith, vowing to deal with whatever the outcome may be of her accident and its lingering effects.
“It’s helped me not be afraid,” Grant shares. “And just to go, however this turns out, I believe I’m held by love, just like I believe that about you, and everybody I meet.”
After postponing her fall tour dates to focus on her healing, the 62-year-old resumed performing in time for the holidays, both for her Christmas With Amy Grant & Michael W. Smith Tour, as well as her Christmas at the Ryman with Amy Grant & Vince Gill residency.
“The first night of the Christmas tour, which is the first time back on tour, teleprompter, and I was on heels,” Grant recalls. “I was holding onto the piano. Before the show, I was like, ‘I’m so scared. I’m so scared.’ And I work with so many great singers, and they’re like, ‘We got you, we got you.’”
Grant also had to use a notebook to remember people’s names, even people she has known her entire life.
“I wrote this long book. It was a spiral notebook,” shares the singer. “And I was just writing to remember, writing — making sure I could remember everybody’s name in my family, which I couldn’t, at first.”
Grant capped off 2022 by becoming a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, alongside U2, Gladys Knight, George Clooney, and composer and conductor Tania León. It was a welcome end to a challenging year, although Grant was unaware of the new challenges that she would face at the beginning of 2023. After having trouble with her voice, the six-time Grammy Awards winner discovered she had a cyst on her throat that needed to be removed.
“[I was] working with a vocalist and she said, ‘What is happening in your throat? Lean your head back,’” Grant recalls. “And I said, ‘I know. It’s like I’ve got an Adam’s apple that keeps getting bigger.’ Unbeknownst to me, I’d had a thyroglossal duct cyst.”
Grant, who had heart surgery in 2020, is surprisingly grateful for the challenges she has faced, and the way she came through it all.
“To me it’s just been a great reminder that life is dynamic, people are dynamic,” Grant says. “Nobody’s all good, nobody’s all bad. A circumstance is not all bad or all good. Even in the worst, awful, worst trauma, beauty and goodness are still present.”
Grant has plenty of shows on the calendar over the next few months. Find music and tour dates at AmyGrant.com.
