Vince Gill and Amy Grant Reflect on 25 Years of Marriage
Vince Gill and Amy Grant recently released their new holiday album, When I Think of Christmas, just in time for their annual Christmas residency at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, starting November 29.
They also have another reason to celebrate. Their 25th wedding anniversary is just around the corner.
Gill and Grant are considered an iconic couple in the music world, but it was a long journey to get there. They first met in 1993 when Gill invited the Christian artist to appear as a guest on his Christmas TV special.
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Although their romance wouldn’t blossom for years, Gill shared in a conversation with PEOPLE that Grant immediately caught his attention.
“I just remember the smile,” Gill said about Grant. “That’s all I can remember. It was a staggering smile that just stopped me in my tracks. And that had never happened to me before like that.”
In fact, Gill later wrote a song inspired by Grant’s smile. That’s how one of his biggest hits, “Whenever You Come Around,” came to life.
“I was writing songs with a buddy of mine, and he said, ‘What do you want to write about today?’ I said, ‘Let’s write a song about Amy Grant’s smile.’ He said, ‘Do you even know her?’ I said, ‘Not very well, but she’s sure got a great smile,'” Gill recalled.
Unknowingly, Grant felt the same way at the time. She even remembers hearing the lyrics to “Whenever You Come Around” for the first time and thinking about how lucky the woman Gill had written about was.
Vince Gill and Amy Grant were both still married to their former partners at the time. According to Gill though, “the energy was palpable to all of us.”
However, their connection to each other was not the main reason for both artists eventually separating from their spouses, despite what many have speculated over the years.
By that time, both Vince Gill and Amy Grant had faced significant struggles in their marriages.
“What was painful was most people assumed the worst of us, and it was not fair, and it was incorrect,” Gill said. “You couldn’t go back and undo what people said, and what people thought. Sadly, it’s human nature in a way to assume the worst. It couldn’t have been further from the truth.”
Gill and Grant began their relationship in 1998 after both had gone through their divorces. Just two years later, in 2000, they got married.
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Now, more than two decades later, Grant and Gill still describe their life as feeling “magical.”
“He’ll say all the time, ‘Would you marry me now?’” Grant said about Gill, to which she always replies, “Yeah.”
Vince Gill and Amy Grant will perform at the Ryman Auditorium for their annual holiday residency, with a series of shows running until December 21. Their first-ever Christmas album together, When I Think of Christmas, is available now.