Past Internet Articles About Amy Grant

Wishes Come True!
From "The Arizona Republic"
by Randy Cordova
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 14, 2005

At the height of her career, Amy Grant was in an extraordinary position in the music industry. Her songs were played on American Bandstand and she was a guest on The 700 Club.

The singer/songwriter was a groundbreaker. She was the most successful artist to emerge from the contemporary Christian music scene, in terms of record sales and impact. She helped change the face of the genre.

"She wouldn't use the phraseology, but she could be described as the first CCM pop superstar," says Alan Cook, general manager for inspirational KFLR-FM (90.3) in Phoenix. "I remember taking my two girls to an Amy Grant concert, and it was full of young ladies screaming all the way through. That was definitely not the norm for a Christian concert back then."

But entertainment careers wax and wane, and Grant's is no exception. It has been eight years, an eternity in pop music, since she enjoyed a mainstream-radio hit.

Her career is about to enter a new phase, as she gets ready to star in a reality show called Three Wishes that premi�res Sept. 23 on NBC. Hosting a TV show may seem like an odd turn, but it's just the latest twist for a woman who has lived more than half her life in the public eye.

"The music industry has changed so much," Grant says by phone while driving to her office in Nashville. "Musically, I don't really know what it is I'm trying to do. I'm not trying to do what I used to do, but I'm not sure what I'm actually trying to do."

Bona fide pop star

It was 20 years ago that Grant put Christian music on the mainstream radar. That was when she released Unguarded, an explosive album that was marketed simultaneously to pop and Christian audiences. The curly-haired singer hit the mainstream Top 40 with the engaging Find a Way, and a new kind of entertainment career was launched.

"Seeing her in interviews on TV as well as listening to her music, I felt some kind of connection with her," says Michael Yarlott, 35, a corporate trainer who lives in Phoenix. "After all these years, even if she comes out with a song that doesn't make Number 1 on the pop charts, I still feel a kind of connection."

Grant, 44, seems to have that bond with a lot of people. Her first album came out in 1978 and more than a dozen have followed, each showcasing her insightful way with lyrics and her dark, dusky voice. While Unguarded introduced her to the secular world, the 5-million-selling disc Heart in Motion (1991) and such tunes as Baby Baby and I Will Remember You made her a bona fide pop star.

But for the first time since she was a teenager, music will take a back seat.

"What I'm going to do this year is mostly do TV instead of concerts," she says, although a nine-city concert tour will stop in Phoenix on Tuesday. "Sometimes, it's nice to take a break, even from something you love doing."

Inspirational legacy

Although her pop success made her a household name, her inspirational recordings form her greatest legacy.

Her five Grammys are for religious recordings. The 1982 disc Age to Age is considered the first Christian-music album to be certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, signifying a million discs sold. The brutally candid 1988 album Lead Me On was named the No. 1 Christian-music album of all time in a CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) magazine poll five years ago.

In 2001, the RIAA chose her recording of El Shaddai as one of the most significant songs of the 20th century, right behind Elton John's Candle in the Wind and ahead of such recordings as Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower and Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi, which Grant covered on her 1994 House of Love album.

Tunes such as Angels, Father's Eyes and I'm Gonna Fly provided the soundtrack to millions of Christians coming of age in the late '70s and early '80s. Grant was young, gifted and gorgeous, yet managed to avoid getting trapped with a goody-goody image. That made her more identifiable to a loyal audience, which readily embraced her.

"She's always kind of communicated what I've been going through in my life," says Felicia Norris, 44, a Phoenix flight attendant. "She's my age. She writes about things I could relate to, the struggles and the fun, sweet times. It's all there, in her writing."

Writing from the heart

In Hats, from Heart in Motion, Grant wrote about the struggles of juggling motherhood with being a wife and holding a career. In 1988's Faithless Heart, a wife deals with issues of temptation. On the 2003 song Out in the Open, she sings, "For the sake of never making waves/I kept my secrets to myself." It seems an odd sentiment from a woman who shares so much of herself.

"That's one of the things about her that makes her unique," says Yarlott, who jokes about an "Amy Grant shrine" at his Phoenix home. "She really allows us to see the things that are going on in her heart and her head. It's not about what's going to sell an album; it's about who she is as a person."

Indeed, her 1997 album Behind the Eyes is remarkably melancholy. A sample lyric from the disc's wistful Cry a River: "How do you live with a feeling in your bones/About what is and isn't meant to be?" Two years after the disc's release she divorced Gary Chapman. A few months later, she married country singer Vince Gill, sparking an unwanted shower of tabloid headlines. No wonder some fans call the disc "the Divorce Album."

Cook says Grant's crossover recordings, coupled with the turbulence in her personal life, caused many Christian-radio programmers to stop playing her music. At his station, for example, only her early tunes get any spins. But he says her legacy is so rich, she doesn't need airplay.

"It's the total of her work that draws people," he says. "Her music . . . that's a key part of a lot of people's spiritual lives. You had tons of people out there who were singing Amy Grant songs and who were hearing them in churches and on the radio. People have an emotional and spiritual investment in those songs."

Her audience's loyalty means her albums always sell fairly well, with her current Rock of Ages . . . Hymns & Faith topping the Billboard Christian chart this year. But you have to go back to 1997's anthemic Takes a Little Time to find her last big radio hit, in either the secular or Christian market.

"I had to take sort of a long look at what doors do I still have the opportunity to walk through," Grant says. "I think there's sort of a wasteland every artist goes through. Right now, I have zero radio expectations but a lot of personal support for my music."

Indeed, Grant's recent works are among the richest of her career. The 2003 disc Simple Things was a mature collection, mixing soul-searching with joyous optimism. Last year, she released Come Be With Me, a bluesy, sensual duet with bluesman and fellow Grammy winner Keb' Mo'.

Still, she doesn't sound particularly frustrated at the fact that her music doesn't get the massive exposure it once did.

"I guess the way I look at myself, it was never about any kind of star trip," she says. "When I got into singing, my expectations for success were very low. When your fame expectations are low and musical expectations are high, you don't mind going whichever way the wind blows."

She's realistic about her place in the musical climate.

"We're not doing arenas anymore," she says, without a trace of nostalgia. "But you just come to the table and bring what you bring. I've played for 40,000 and I've sung for 400. As long as you can go with the flow and keep doing what you're doing, you're OK."

1st pick for 'Wishes'

Late last year her manager got word of the TV show, in which she'll travel to different towns and help make people's wishes come true. Even though her profile wasn't particularly high at the time, Three Wishes executive producer Andrew Glassman says she was his first choice for the job.

"She was the only person we ever considered," he says. "On the first day of working on the show, we kind of sat down before we had any idea what the show was exactly going to be. We thought, 'Whose public persona represents the warmth and compassion that we want the show to be about?' Amy's name was the very first thing that popped into my mind."

So far, the show has filmed episodes in Northern California, Iowa and New Mexico. Everywhere the crew goes, Glassman says, the reaction is the same: People are drawn to Grant not only for her fame, but for her unforced natural warmth.

He recalls meeting some adolescent girls while taping the pilot. Grant left for four days for other commitments, he says, but when she returned she remembered the name of each youngster she had met.

"When she's there with you, she's really there," he says. "She really listens."

Grant's fans say the same thing, talking about how she recalls names and faces and always takes time to chat. She's unfailingly polite: During her time on the phone, another line rings. "I can hold if you need to get that," she offers.

She seems content and optimistic, saying the TV show is injecting new energy into her career.

"Everything in my career felt scattered," she says. "I hadn't had any radio success for a while. I feel artistically I'm at the best place I've ever been, but activity-wise I felt like I was dumbing down, because there was not enough juice behind me. It all felt disorganized."

Plus, she says, Three Wishes may inspire some new music.

"I'm hoping that these will be good experiences doing the television show," she says with a laugh. "I'm counting heavily on that for being good inspiration for some new songs."