Amy Grant doesn’t like labels. Not 'the Queen of Christian Pop.' Not even 'evangelical.' After nearly 5 decades in music, she’s earned the right to choose her own title.
"'The Queen of Christian Pop.' I don't know what that means!" Grant told KCLU. "I mean, if I heard that label about somebody, I would not be curious about their music."
Grant was only 15 when she signed a record deal after her friend played her demo over the phone to a record executive in Texas. The verdict?
"'Not that good, but she sounds sincere,'" laughed Grant. "And that's how I got my deal!"
Maybe that's not the expected origin story for a six-time Grammy winner who went on to sell millions of records. Baby Baby was the big '90s hit that thrust Grant into the spotlight — and the pop music charts — around the world. It also introduced her to an audience far beyond the Christian music world.
The 'baby' she was singing about was her daughter Millie, who's now all grown up.
"She's a mom, twice!" said Grant.
"It's a gift and a mind-bender to sing these songs that I have sung my whole life," said Grant. "I've never stopped touring. I get to go out and sing these old songs. I just watch the music peel the years off the audience like I'm peeling an onion."
She’s never sought the spotlight, and said that at the height of her fame, she often avoided telling strangers what she did for a living.
"I'm naturally a shy person. Even at the time in my life that I was selling out the largest spaces I've ever been able to sell out, if I were on a flight next to somebody and they said, 'What do you do?' I would just say, 'I'm a songwriter.'"
And at home, there’s another musician to talk to, her husband, fellow musician Vince Gill.
"We run things by each other because we respect each other's opinion. It's just fun to be in a home where so much music is being made, because I'm as happy in the audience as I am on stage. I just wanna be around it," said Grant.
Gill duetted with late singer Dolly Parton, who passed away last month at age 80.
"One of my favorite times being around Dolly was when Vince and Dolly were both performing, and of course they were gonna sing the song, I Will Always Love You together," recalled Grant. "I had our daughter with us, and she was little, maybe two. She followed Dolly Parton around like a puppy dog. And everything about Dolly smelled good, sparkly, shimmery, a lot of beautiful dangling glitter on her personality, and on her outfit, and so I wound up following Dolly a lot of the day just because I wasn't trying to control my toddler.
"Over a decade later, Dolly asked me to be a part of a fundraiser for relief for the fires that happened in East Tennessee. And I guess our paths had not crossed in that decade, but when I saw her, she said, 'Now, where is that magical child of yours?'"
Amy Grant performs in Thousand Oaks on Saturday, September 25.
