Past Internet Articles About Amy Grant

MARCH 2008
Amy Grant: The Power of a Second Chance
Quick & Simple

At the age of 47, after surviving numerous depressions and a scandal-plagued divorce, the singer has found the love she yearned for all her life

As a top-selling Christian music artist, Amy Grant has spent a lot of time basking in the spotlight's glow � but life offstage hasn't always been quite so rosy. In her recent memoir, Mosaic, she reflects on the joys that faith, family and career have brought her. But the star also talks candidly about tougher stuff, including her battles with depression, her guilt over the dissolution of her first marriage and the challenges she and second husband Vince Gill, 50, faced when attempting to blend their families.

Amy's career was launched at age 15 when a Nashville, Tenn., studio owner heard one of her demo tapes. Before she was 16, she was offered her first record deal, and from there, she quickly became a leading force in contemporary Christian music. She married singer/songwriter Gary Chapman in 1982, and for the next 17 years, she continued to write music, record albums, win Grammys and raise the three children she and Gary had together � Matt, now 20, Millie, 17, and Sarah, 14.

Happily Ever After Fails
Amy appeared to live a charmed life right up until the moment in 1999 when she and Gary announced they were divorcing. But for the singer, a devout Christian, it was hardly a quick or easy decision. "When I chose to end my marriage to the father of my three older children, there was a time when I was too wrecked and too ashamed to pray with them at night," she admits.

During the divorce proceedings, many Christian radio stations refused to play Amy's music, and disappointed fans deserted her. What they didn't know was that she and Gary had been seeing marriage counselors for 14 years, and even went through predivorce counseling when they finally realized the marriage was over.

Amy says she only discovered in hindsight that she had spent 10 years in transition, going from being "fully engaged as a wife, all systems go, to being fully engaged in a different direction." However slow the process, the effects were still devastating.

"I invested in my own family and the family I married into for 17 years -- on a daily basis. So to then say, �I can't do this anymore,' is not just the end of a marriage. That was my biggest life investment up to that point."

Amy acknowledges suffering bouts of depression since adolescence, and writes about taking antidepressants for four months in 1999, the year she divorced. "Winter is still a struggle every year. Still, I'm confronted with moods that just appear out of nowhere: feeling overwhelmed, feeling like what I have to offer is not enough, a deep sadness that is foreign to my usual optimism." But even the dark times proved to have their merits. "Because I live with these occasional extremes in myself," Amy says, "I look at other people differently. We never really know what is going on inside another person. It's a good reason to be gentle."

The Fan Club Folds
Public sentiment toward the singer, however, was anything but gentle during her much-publicized divorce, and the lack of sympathy stemmed mostly from her friendship with country mega-star Vince Gill, with whom many suspected she was carrying on a secret affair. The two had been friends since 1993, when Amy accepted Vince's invitation to appear with him on a Christmas special. "We got along like two peas in a pod and made no bones about it," she says. Yet despite their immediate attraction, the two are adamant that they didn't act on it until years later, when both were free.

Vince was divorced in 1997. And although Amy has conceded she realized she was in love with him in the fall of 1998 while splitting up with Gary, she says she never had "a getaway plan" with Vince. "I didn't get a divorce because I had a great marriage, and then along came Vince. Gary and I had a rocky road from day one."

At Long Last -- Love!
A few months after her divorce, Vince and Amy began dating. And on March 10, 2000, they married at Amy's farm in Nashville. "There's just no overestimating the power of a second chance, which is what I feel I got by marrying Amy," Vince has written. And Amy, too, discusses the transforming nature of their relationship, recounting a moment in the car with Vince in which he made her feel listened to and understood for the first time. "I was filled with relief and gratitude that here in my 40s, I was experiencing what I had dreamed of and longed for since I was a young woman."

A year after they married, Amy gave birth to their daughter, Corrina, whom Vince calls the bridge between their families. This year, though the singer will do some touring, she'll focus most of her attention on studio work and her home life. "I have a hectic schedule, but my mind seeks simplicity. If I wake up and have a great cup of coffee first thing in the morning, I have pegged the Thrill Meter for the day. I'm not looking for the Next Big Thing."