“You’re the Person I Want to Return To”: The Quiet, Enduring Love Story of Amy Grant and Vince Gill
Amy:
I remember this moment—so clearly that I wrote it down. I looked at him and said, “I feel like you understand me. Like, when I start thinking something, you already know how to finish the thought. I feel like you really get me.”
And Vince, he just smiled a little and said, “I think you’re giving me more credit than I deserve. I don’t know that I do all that… but I welcome you, Amy. However you are, I welcome you.”
I hadn’t even said thank you yet. So I said it. Quietly. Thank you.
Vince:
The first time I ever heard her voice, I was driving down 8th Avenue. The radio was on, and a voice came through that made me pull the car over. I’d never met her, but I just sat there thinking, That voice is so interesting.
Every time her name came up in conversation, people said the same thing: “You’d love her.” My friend Rick Byrd, who coached basketball at Belmont University, used to rave about her. “You’d really like Amy,” he’d say. “She’s something special.”
Amy:
A friend of mine had stopped by the Green Hills Mall where they were running this Hanes promotion. If you bought a couple T-shirts, they’d give you a free Vince Gill CD. She handed it to me and said, “I just wanted the shirts, so I’ll leave you this.”
It was I Still Believe In You.
I played it, and I was hooked. I had this little jam box, and I carried it from room to room like a soundtrack to my day. That voice—it stopped me the way mine had stopped him.
Vince:
Not long after, our managers started talking. She needed a guest for something local. I needed one for a TV special. And they just said, “Why don’t we put them on each other’s shows?”
I was hosting a Christmas event with the symphony. Amy walked into rehearsal, looking a little unsure. I went over, put my arm around her and said, “Unknit that brow—it’s going to be okay.”
That’s all I remember—that smile. That smile was… something else.
Amy:
He had this kindness that caught me off guard. I didn’t know what I was stepping into, but the way he looked at me, the way he said that—it stayed with me. Still does.
Vince:
I went back to my buddy Pete Wasner, and we were writing songs. He asked, “What do you want to write about today?”
And I said, “Let’s write a song about Amy Grant’s smile.”
He kind of laughed and said, “Do you even know her?”
I said, “Not really. But she’s got a smile that’s worth writing about.”
And that’s where Whenever You Come Around came from.
Amy:
I remember hearing that song and thinking, What a lucky girl. I asked him to play it again. And again. There was something electric between us from the very beginning, but it wasn’t orchestrated. We weren’t chasing it.
Life orchestrated it.
Vince:
December 1993—that’s when our paths kept crossing. And look, it wasn’t a fairy tale. I had a family—Janis and our daughter Jenny. Amy was married to Gary. She had three kids.
There was a lot of respect between all of us. We tried so hard to honor the families we had, the lives we’d built. It wasn’t perfect. But there was so much grace.
Amy:
The hardest part? People assumed the worst of us. And that was painful—because it wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t true. But you can’t undo what people say. You can’t erase what they believe.
We didn’t try to convince anyone to love us or hate us. We just tried to live the truth we knew.
Vince:
I learned a long time ago—half the people don’t care, and the other half just pretend to. Give it a few months, they’re chasing the next headline.
But here we are, thirty years later, twenty-five years married—and what’s beautiful is that the voices around us have softened. They’re not angry. They’re not bitter. They’re just… quiet.
That’s a gift.
Amy:
I’ve never had such an open invitation to just be—however I was. Vince made space around us that wasn’t for public consumption. It was for us.
We don’t work together that often—some Christmas shows, a little recording here and there. But we didn’t want to be Donny & Marie or Sonny & Cher. That’s not who we are.
We just gave each other the grace to be who we’ve always been.
Vince:
She once said, “When we butt heads, it’s because we’re both used to getting our way.”
And it’s true. I’m used to picking my songs, my keys, my setlist. She’s the same. So yeah, sometimes we don’t see eye to eye.
But when that happens, I’d rather be kind than right.
And she would too.
Amy sees the best in people. Always. Even when they don’t deserve it. Me? I can be sharp-tongued. But she teaches me how to soften. How to listen. How to be a kinder old soul.
Amy:
A couple years ago, Vince started getting winded going up stairs. So we went to the cardiologist. After all the tests, the doctor looked at him and said, “Your heart is fantastic. You’re just… fat and out of shape.”
We both laughed.
Then the doctor turned to me. “I want to see you too,” he said. I felt fine. But he insisted.
They found a congenital heart condition—something from birth that could have turned catastrophic.
I had surgery. Vince couldn’t be there when I went in. But when I came out, and he walked in the room—I was still asleep, still under anesthesia—he looked at me and said later, “You were so peaceful. I knew you were going to be okay.”
Vince:
She faced that moment—and every hard moment since—with grace and grit.
One at a time. “We’ll get through this,” she’d say.
And we always did.
Amy:
I had a bike accident not long after. Everything changed. Things got simple.
I started to look at my kids, my life, my time… differently.
I’ve always loved my kids. But I worked so hard. Work was my rhythm. My identity. My duty.
And now, I get to know them as adults—and be known by them as an adult. That’s a gift I never saw coming.
Vince:
One of our daughters has two little ones now. A six-month-old and a toddler. It’s like drinking from a firehose. They’re tired all the time.
We look at each other like, “Yep. Been there.”
But now? This chapter feels magical.
Amy:
We’re in the fourth quarter now. We’ve got more wisdom, more clarity, more purpose.
He’s focused. His list is short—music, golf, sports, family.
I’m more restless. Let’s hang glide! Let’s try something new!
But we meet in the middle. We always do.
Vince:
At the end of every hard season, every joy, every sorrow… she’s the one I come home to.
Amy:
And he’s the person I want to return to.
