After setbacks, pop and Christian music icon Amy Grant grateful for life and music

Amy Grant’s concerts these days are especially for those who listened to “El Shaddai” on their Walkmans or blasted “Baby, Baby” on their boomboxes.

“At this point I figure if anybody’s buying a ticket, it’s because we share a musical past,” the Christian music icon said in a phone interview. “You can’t go back and redo who you grew up listening to. It just is what it is, so I’m thrilled people are buying tickets and still showing up.”

Her fall tour, which stops at the Orpheum Theatre in Wichita on Saturday night, is a celebration of Grant’s 45-plus years in Christian music and her mainstream success in pop music.

“It’s not based around a new record, but I have two or three new songs I’m doing,” she said from her home outside Nashville. “Mostly it’s just a walk down memory lane.”

It’s also a thank you to her fans, who supported her after a tumultuous few years, including a congenital heart condition that led to open heart surgery in 2020, a strong fight against COVID, and a July 2022 bicycle accident where she hit a pothole and was knocked unconscious.

While Grant says her short-term memory and balance are still a bit off, she feels a new zest for life.

“In a way I feel just super gratitude for the present. I know how quickly life can change for all of us for all kinds of reasons,” said Grant, who turns 63 next month. “Mostly I continue seeing life through a more mature lens, and I guess that’s true for everybody. Life goes on. I want to think differently about this fourth quarter than I did when I was younger.”

Following the interview, she and husband Vince Gill were off to a memorial service for a close friend and longtime Nashville musician. She said she feels more of a spirit of celebrating life than mourning death.

“I want my first response when faced with an unexpected goodbye to be, ‘Good job, high five, you did it!’” she said. “There’s so many things you cannot control in life, and whatever it is I assume we’re right on time. Be gentle with yourself, be gentle with others.”

The illnesses and accidents have also galvanized her love for her fans.

“I have felt such a beautiful connectedness with people who said, ‘I really prayed for you.’ And it’s made me so aware of that connective tissue between all of us, which I believe exists,” she said. “I think when we criticize each other or point out our differences, I think we step away from the connective tissue. We kind of abdicate that innate connection.”

While losing some of her short-term memory, Grant said she did better than she thought she would while going out on tour. In this leg of the tour, unlike her first few months after returning, she won’t be using a teleprompter.

“I didn’t lose all my memory, but it’s made me grateful for the repetition of being on the road, because repetition is great for brain recovery,” she said. “I am grateful for the content of the songs I’ve been singing because it reminds me the good parts fly by fast, and a lot of what we focus on has to do with our overall health and wellness and how we see other people.”

The Georgia native released her first, self-titled album in 1977, and has recorded contemporary Christian classics such as “El Shaddai,” “Angels” and “Sing Your Praise to the Lord.”

By 1985, she shifted to adult contemporary and pop music, with hits like “Baby Baby,” “Find a Way,” “Takes a Little Time” and a duet with Chicago’s Peter Cetera, “Next Time I Fall.”

Grant said going mainstream was a natural progression for her.

“I was already writing in that direction,” she said. “Music should be about everything, music is about everything. Every day we deal with a growling stomach, a good or bad night’s sleep, reasons to pray, a great experience or a tough argument with a loved one. Stuff like that is every day, and just from a creative standpoint I wanted to have an evening of songs that talk about all parts of life. As a songwriter, that just made sense to me.”

Next week will be the release of “Lead Me On Live,” a collection of 18 songs from her tours during 1989.

Through it all, she has collected 22 Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association, six Grammy Awards, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors last year.

Later this year, Grant will reunite with Michael W. Smith for a 10-city Christmas tour, and will play her usual 12-show holiday residency at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville with Gill, himself a legend in country music and her husband since 2000.

“This year will make 30 years after our first Christmas show together. We have seen a generation come and go, but it’s kind of become a Nashville tradition,” she said. “We’re just enjoying being on that train while it lasts.”

The couple’s only daughter together, 22-year-old Corrina Grant Gill, was to headline her first concert at a club in Nashville two days after her phone interview with the Eagle.

Sadly, she’ll be on the road and can’t make it, although Gill will be in attendance.

Grant said she didn’t doubt her daughter’s talent – “That girl could out-sing me by the time she was 8” – but she and Gill were preparing her for making a life of music.

“At some point you just have to sing your truth and sing your experience, and the people that share that or are curious about it will find you,” she said. “Just continue being yourself and the people who want to make space in their life for your music will.”

AMY GRANT

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 200 N. Broadway

Tickets: $68-$86, from selectaseat.com or 316-755-7328