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Amy Grant
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Amy Grant
I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything.
Ryan Seacrest
It's the rage bait.
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It feels like it's trying to divide people.
Amy Grant
We got clear facts. Maybe we could calm down a little.
Buzz Knight
NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the Facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America.
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Catch the red eye or take the
Amy Grant
6am Make a new hire or promote internally.
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Ryan Seacrest
Big props to this team.
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Buzz Knight
Taking a Walk I'm Buzz Knight and
Narrator/Interviewer
welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast. Now there are artists who have a career and then there are artists who have a life. And somehow they managed to turn every chapter of it into music that connects with millions of people.
Buzz Knight
Amy Grant is the latter.
Narrator/Interviewer
She's a five time Grammy winner, the 2020 Kennedy Center Honoree, and the first artist in contemporary Christian music history to go platinum, hit number one on the pop charts and perform at the Grammys. 30 million albums sold, over 2.2 billion streams, more than 50 years in music. But numbers don't tell the whole story, especially not Amy Grant's story. In recent years, Amy faced open heart surgery and a traumatic brain injury from a serious bike accident. The kind of experiences that make you stop and ask some pretty fundamental questions about who you are, what matters, and what's left when everything gets stripped away. The answer, it turns out, is a new album. Her first collection of all original songs in 13 years. It's called the Me that Remains, produced by the great Mack McInally. And it is something special. 10 songs about healing, connection, endurance and grace rooted in hard won perspective and a voice that has never sounded more honest or more free. Coming up next, Amy Grant on Taking a Walk.
Buzz Knight
Amy Grant, welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast. An honor to have you on.
Amy Grant
Thank you so much. Buzz.
Buzz Knight
The new album Congratulations is called the Me that Remains. Now, that is a phrase that carries a lot of weight. I wanted to ask you about that phrase and what it means to you right now.
Amy Grant
So the me that Remains appeared to me as a poem. You know, I always say creativity comes to us and through us. I was encouraged. In the summer of 2024, two years after a horrific bike accident, I was encouraged by a neuropsychologist that I was seeing to lean into my life. I'd done some testing at the hospital to kind of get my new baseline. And some of the scores were really good and one was really low. And I was going, that's what's wrong with me. That's why I feel like I'm down the hall in another room. I can't. I don't feel like I'm participating in the immediate conversation. There's no, like, bam, bam, bam. And he said, how's that affecting you? And I said, well, I feel myself with drawing. And he said, I'm going to give you some advice. This my professional opinion. Lean in, lean in. And so I started writing again because music has always been a therapeutic tool for me. And I created a space in my home where I could close the door and be vulnerable, at least with myself. And, and anyway, I sat down in a child's chair and started writing what became the lyric to the Me that Remains and just writing how it felt. And it really was Specific to my recovery from a head injury two years out. But then I just thought, you know, everybody's recovering from something and all you have on any given day is the person looking back at you in the mirror and you go, well, this is what I've got and I'm going to lean in and live this day.
Buzz Knight
So that's powerful. And that leads into a very powerful creation that you have made with this music. We're going to talk about it in some detail. It's the first album of all original songs in 13 years. What finally made it the right time and how did it ultimately come that you'd be working with Mack McInally?
Amy Grant
Well, it's always a great time to be creative, always. Unlike my husband, I mean, Vince is all about music all the time. Every day, different times of the day, he's got his hands wrapped around the neck of a guitar and strumming. He's always thinking about songs. Me, like, creativity happens in so many different arenas. How I throw a pot of soup together is creative. What's in the pantry, you know, how you navigate what you're going to wear in a day. It's like, what's clean and does it match? And to me, conversation is creative. And I honestly had just used my creativity in so many other ways For a decade. We hosted two weeks of a camp that was 60% scholarship. Just trying to get people from all different kids from different backgrounds for their first experience with somebody that looked different from them, that it was positive. It's called Barefoot Republic. So so many different racial, socioeconomic, cultural differences in those kids. That was so much fun. But it took a lot of energy and I donated the use of our farm. But it kind of took energy all year long because a lot of the workers were volunteer. You know, I'm 65. I had friends that helped me for 10 years. And so that ended the summer of 24. That was our last summer. And then shortly after that is when I started writing for this record. Because it was like, you only have so much resource, you only have so much time. And I feel like my creativity was just going to very specific things that needed my time and attention. And I finished that 10 year commitment. It was like, whew. What did I used to do with my time? And writing just was natural. I was leaning in, honestly. I sent that lyric, the me that remains to Mac. We had worked together a few times, but we'd never written together. And I did have issues with short term memory. And so I just said, hey, I'm struggling A little bit with music, but I'm writing lyrics a lot. Any chance you want to help me with a song? And he said, I'm so busy, you know, give me a few months. And in the meantime, I had two other songs that I just really wanted to record. I didn't have a record contract, but in the fall of 24, I said, any chance you could help me put together a rhythm section and go in the studio? And he said, give me till January. I said, yep. I mean, nobody's holding their breath waiting for a record. And so we recorded two songs in January, and six weeks later, I said, hey, I've got some more songs. Any chance we can pull that same group together again? And he said, yeah. And then another month went by, and I said, hey, can we do that one more time? Like, we never signed a production contract. And after that third day of recording, he said, you know, we have enough songs for a record. And I said, wouldn't it be great if I had a record deal? And I found. I mean, I had a catalog deal, you know, for music that was 30 and 40 years old, but. And then we kind of took our time, and everything fell into place, and it was just so much fun to do a project without any pressure. I mean, zero pressure from a company. Yeah, it just felt very organic and fun.
Buzz Knight
Now, I've only spoken to you for about seven minutes, but I have a feeling when you ask of a friend or a potential collaborator, you have such a wonderful way about your style and your elegance and your way of asking. I think it's pretty easy to say yes to Amy Grant on a project, don't you think?
Amy Grant
I don't know what it feels like to be asked. I'm asked a lot by it from other people. I love. I just love the community that is created every time anybody does anything, because nobody does much by themselves. I will tell you that I reached out to Tom Douglas, a great Nashville songwriter, with a lyric that I had written about my mother's passing. And I just said, hey, I know we've never written together, but I have a lyric. Any chance you'd help me with some music? And do you know what he said?
Buzz Knight
No. What?
Amy Grant
He said, yes. Send me the lyric. I'll let you know in five minutes.
Narrator/Interviewer
Really?
Amy Grant
And I. Yeah. And I said, no. Sacred cows. Feel free to change anything. But I thought, well, this is what the Gong show feels like.
Buzz Knight
Well, we often say it's better if you're asking to get a quick no, right?
Amy Grant
Yeah.
Buzz Knight
Yes, rather than nothing, because so much Goes into silence, radio silence with people. So, yes.
Amy Grant
You know, in fact, I'm. I mean, to me, the all somebody people should always be able to ask anything. And we also have to be able to say yes or no. Years ago, it was the year that Ray Charles died, and I was part of an entourage doing the Fourth of July celebration in D.C. on Capitol Hill. And Cissy Spacek was part of that celebration honoring Ray Charles. And she and I found ourselves in the workout area. I'd never met her, and we were the only two there. We were two treadmills apart, and I was going, oh, my gosh, just. Just ask her if you can talk to her. Don't assume, just ask. And so I finally got my guts up And I said, Ms. Spacek, would you mind if I ask you a question? And she said yes. And I went, thank you. And then I thought, well, I asked her yes or no? And she said, she. I mean, it was just so. And I was like, okay. And we just both kept walking. And there it went. There it went. Yeah. You'd never be afraid to ask and always be ready for a no.
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Yeah.
Buzz Knight
Yeah. What I note on the new music is how stripped down it is, really very singer songwriter, which I love. Very intimate. Was this a conscious decision from the start, and was this part of that organic development of everything that you described earlier?
Amy Grant
I think we tend to return in the course of our lives. We return to what we. What is most familiar and what our sort of first. I think we sort of return to our roots in a way, musically. Singer, songwriter. I mean, that was how I spent most of my listening time. I would spend hours as a kid just playing records. I needed no other entertainment, just watching it spin and listening. And all the singer songwriters that came up through the 60s and 70s and, you know, everybody from James Taylor, Carole King, Bob Dylan, early Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Seals and Cross, Dan Fogelberg. You know, there are just so many. Nobody sounded like anybody else then Jackson Brown. I mean, I had all the Beatles records. I had Jackson 5, I had Aretha Franklin, I had. But, you know, I feel like I'm returning to what is most my DNA. And also Mac just brought such a great collection of players together. And so some tracks we cut with a click, some we didn't, which was lovely. It was just so much fun. He did some overdubs and had Eric Darken do some percussion. But, you know, so much of it just happened in the studio right there. So that was lovely.
Buzz Knight
I love that. I love hearing about that. And I Could relate in my own world, returning to where I started, because after time in the radio business and then, you know, in leadership positions, my roots were being an on air disc jockey who liked interviews and liked other people's interviews. So I'm completely going full circle and yes, totally appreciate that and understand that for sure. So I, I love what it's manifested itself with your, with your work. Now. The title track, it references the, you know, the bike accident, obviously brain injury directly. You know, the line in there life cut me wide open when my head hit the ground. I mean, how hard was it to put that experience into words and into that song?
Amy Grant
My memory of writing that song, no kidding, was sitting down and just writing it straight through. A lot of songs are not that way, but I think I was ready to lean in to myself, to my experience, and just to overthinking it. But I was just trying to welcome what was, you know, I was not trying to be clever. I was just trying to be honest. Even just writing the me that remains, like, I don't remember laboring over that phrase. As a songwriter, the hardest song to write is one when you don't know what to say to have a clear landscape or a clear objective, you know, you might have to circle that area again and again to find the way in. You know, it has to be interesting to you, to the person saying it. If it's going to be interesting to anybody, it's got to capture the audience of one first. And I knew what I was struggling with every day. I knew that landscape of I am not what I used to be and how do I wrap my head around this and why is it this way and how is it this way anything that you give your time and attention to will emerge. That's a crazy thing about the energy of attention. And so I didn't labor over that. You know, maybe I sat in the chair 30 minutes and I had that good feeling that you have any time when you're consciously trying to capture something in a journal and you go, oh, that's what I felt. Now it doesn't have to just ramble around in my head. I freed up so much mental space because I'm not just like circling and circling and circling that unarticulated feeling. I've said it now let's move on.
Buzz Knight
You know, we produced this other podcast called Music Save Me, about the healing power of music and all perspectives of it scientifically and in words and from a creator's perspective. I have a feeling, though, Amy, you inherently, even before taking on that song, you certainly believed, I think, that music had a healing force in people's lives. Am I correct in that?
Amy Grant
Yes. Well, it's had a healing force in my life. And I was reminded, I can't remember who said this recently in a conversation, but they said, music has never let me down. I try to tell my children that music will never let you down. And so if you're struggling with how you're feeling, if you want to look at something through a different lens, I would just challenge anybody who is feeling like they're in the deepest Ruth, and their wheels are spinning. Just find the public radio station and listen to classical music, and you go, oh, my gosh. This brilliance came out of one head. Every note was a selection. It took an entire stage of musicians to create this. And then you're just reminded. None of us lives in a vacuum. And, you know, I mean, life is really just trying to discover and fulfill your purpose. And even if you don't, just having curiosity about it, you know, the people that cross our paths, it's all part of the puzzle. Our marriage is my second marriage. My first marriage was to a man from Texas and his mother, Mary Chapman. We had a conversation one time. I was right in the middle. It was early 90s. I was doing interviews all through the night. I had young children. I was exhausted. And we were over the coffee pot one morning. They were in town helping with the kids. And I said, mary, I don't think I've prayed a succinct prayer in weeks. I just, like, all I'm doing is the next thing on the to do list. And she said, oh, Amy, it just takes one good prayer. And I said, well, that runs contrary to my Church of Christ guilt, my upbringing. Please tell me what that one prayer is. And she just threw her head back and said, oh, just every day pray, Lord, lead me today to those I need and those that need me, and let something I do have eternal significance just having to do with love. And she said, you'll never know what that is, but. And I thought, what a way to look at life. And, I mean, that changed me. I don't think a day's gone by that I haven't said that. Haven't prayed that prayer. Because, you know, you go to the gas pump, and then you're looking at the person across filling their tank, and it's just a reason to say, hey, what's up? You know, you don't ever know. And, you know, what if they need me not for something big, but just something inconsequential. What if I need them? That would really be the mystery.
Buzz Knight
But the amazing thing about music, I mean, it is such a. It's a known and it's an unknown. And the unknown is, you know, the fascination of. Of. Of sonic waves and the impulses that it gives us and what it does to.
Narrator/Interviewer
To mood.
Amy Grant
Yes.
Buzz Knight
I. I could say, personally, like, two places come to mind, and I'm sure I could find 10 more where I'm. I'm thinking, God, if anybody was ever in a bad. Having a bad day, if they went to the Ryman and listened to music like I've been fortunate to do at the. The UMG lunch where your husband plays there, when the Country Radio seminar is going on. If. If you go to that event and you're in a bad mood, you will leave and you'll be in a good mood. There's no question about it. The other place I think about, too, same thing. I tell people this all the time. There's a place in New York at the Carlisle Hotel, and it's called Bemelman's Bar. And Bemelman's is this place that has small, little jazz quartets there. Very stripped down. If you go up there and you're in a bad mood, I guarantee you will come back and be in a good mood. I don't know what it is. I mean, I often think, what if a space alien was plopped on this Earth and we had to explain to them what music is about? How would we explain it? Yeah, it's amazing.
Amy Grant
How would we. I know. I mean, you can take. My cat just came in. You might have to edit around.
Buzz Knight
Oh, no. We welcome cats dogs.
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Okay.
Amy Grant
Yeah. I love being in an audience with music or being on stage with an audience and there's music and everybody is just clapping along and nobody's saying, who did you vote for? Nobody's saying, what is your opinion on this piece of legislation? No one is attacking anyone. It's just like, we are built to experience this.
Buzz Knight
That's incredible. It's something.
Amy Grant
Yeah. But I do think, you know, I think that the harmony, harmonics, all those things are. I think they're a mystery, and I think they have so much more power and place in our world. Yeah. I think it's something intrinsic in all of. In people, in nature, and it's going to remain a mystery.
Buzz Knight
We need it more than ever, though. We really do, you know?
Amy Grant
Yeah.
Buzz Knight
You co wrote the Saint with Michael W. Smith. That's a relationship that goes back decades, I think. What does it Feel like to still be creating with someone who has known you through so many, so many times.
Amy Grant
Well, you know, Michael's like family. I was born into a family of all women. And I just met Michael when I was in college and we started writing together. And, you know, your life, you sort of take on more and more responsibility when you're young. It's just like you can go anywhere, you can dive in and then you. Once you. All the circles of responsibility, I feel a little less free, you know, to. I don't know what I'm trying to say, except for Michael. And I will occasionally have a phone call or a text. I'm thinking about you. Are you writing? I'd love to see your face. But there were a lot of chapters in life that we saw each other weeks on end. And so the saint was another. I wrote the lyric following a conversation with two sisters. One was a recovering addict and one is a nun. And I just asked them would they tell their story to each other and could I witness it and write about it. And they never told each other their story. And I knew them. I've known them both for a long time and their lives are so different. But anyway, I don't know why that occurred to me, but they said yes. And I said, come over as soon as you wake up. I'll put on a pot of coffee. And that was in January of 25. And I mean, they talked and talked. We all cried. And I was just the witness, you know, because everybody, the lens through which you see a circumstance is different for every person in the room, every person in the story. And that was so beautiful. And we talked through lunch, or they talked and then they left. And the next morning I woke up before the sun came up and I went and sat in that same place. And I thought, I don't. I feel like the musk is still in the air. And I'm going to sit here until I can figure out how to capture something from that conversation. And I wound up just writing about the younger sister's story. Anyway, Michael has typically always written music and given it to me to write the lyric. And this was only the second time in our 40 year history of writing that I said, I have a lyric and I kind of know the feel. Will you create a playground for me to play on? And he said, I'm not even sure what to do with this. And I said, well, let's create a drum loop. Let's find the right tempo. I'm just. Just record me speaking the lyrics in the rhythm I said, you don't have to write a melody. Just come up with a chord progression. And he. And I'll. I'll do the rest. And he sent me the first thing and I said, I don't feel like you've captured it. He said, oh, let me go back in, let me go back in. And then he sent, you know what we wound up building the song from, And I took it to Mac and I said, do we have enough here to go to record this? And he said, absolutely.
Buzz Knight
Oh, man, that's great.
Amy Grant
But, yeah, I mean, creativity is just. It's such a welcoming landscape. There's not a right or wrong.
Buzz Knight
Right, Right. Not right, wrong. Right.
Amy Grant
Correct. Yeah, correct. Yeah, there's not. It's. I mean, really what you. The whole point of anything is just to capture a feeling, a moment, and to be moved by it. And you either move to laugh, dance, cry, shout. Anyway, but I. Yeah, I loved working with Michael on that one, but he. It was funny because usually he comes in and he's just play it. And I go, okay, let me record it. Hold on, let me work on this. It'll take me a while. And it was fun for him to go, I don't even know where to start. Let's find it together.
Buzz Knight
Friend like you features this guy named Vince Gill on it. And yes, Sarah Cannon, Karina Gill. Very personal inclusions in that part of the project. Can you talk about what those relationships to you mean at this stage of your life?
Amy Grant
Well, my relationships with my family, those you don't have to have an invitation, you know, you have to invest in your family. It's not a guarantee just because you're related by blood or marriage. There's no guarantee of the quality of relationship. I love singing Friend like you with Vince. I said, thank you for doing this. And he said, well, who else were you going to sing this with? I said, I don't know. It was so much fun. On May 8, when the album was released, we did the whole record top to bottom as the second half of the show. And everybody who had participated came, made their way to the Ryman Auditorium. And so it's one thing to do something in the studio, it's a totally other thing to do it. The experience of doing it together. And so Sarah and Karina, the two youngest of my daughters, they sang together on one of the songs and, you know, I couldn't even look at them. And so, because, you know, it's emotional. But they wound up when they walked out on stage, they had gone into the attic and pulled out some of my old tour jackets, like things I performed in decades ago, which made me laugh. And so we didn't get choked up. We were just tickled the whole time we were doing that song. But, yeah, just to get to make music with family is beautiful.
Buzz Knight
The album artwork, I want to touch on that. It's kind of a mixed media presentation there. It's got pieces of quilt and seashells and your childhood bible. It's part of the.
Narrator/Interviewer
The.
Buzz Knight
The imagery there. Talk about how that inspired you and how it sort of feels today when you think about that creation of that artwork.
Amy Grant
Well, I was not familiar with Wayne Brzenka's work when he was suggested as the artist to do the album cover. I was just thrilled that it wasn't going to be a photo shoot, which we did wind up doing, but at least not on the COVID I spent two days with Wayne, and one of those days we were working here at the house and recording in the studio. I wasn't recording, but I was cooking a meal for everybody that was in the studio. And so really it was two days of getting to know Wayne, and I had no idea how he worked. And so I'm thinking he's just a very curious person. I gave him a cutting board and a knife, and I said to me, chopping is very therapeutic. Would you like to help cook the meal? And he was like, yeah. And so everything that we talked about, he would say, could I have that? Could I borrow that? He would say, what collections do you have? And I said, well, I've collected different things through the years. I love maps. I actually love magnetic maps. And he said, show me your favorite. And I've just got a couple of. Now I give them away all the time. And he said, what are your two favorite states? Like, which states make you think the most of music? And I said, well, Tennessee. And then I. I did several records at Caribou Ranch, which is now in the Colorado Music hall of Fame, anyway. And he said, may I have the state of Tennessee and the state of Colorado? And I said, like, and ruin the map? And he said, yes, okay. And, yeah, and he did that with everything. I collect books or I love to read. And so he asked about different books. May I have that? And I said, am I going to get this back? And he said, well, maybe, you know, and he left. The second day, I was a little depressed. I was like, whew. But he actually gave me back a lot of things that I was glad to have back, like my shell collection. I actually gave him. I had found a starfish one time on Lido beach, and it was dead, but I've never found a starfish. And I had given the him that, and I was like, he's gonna, like, put it in an art piece. And he just, he actually just used very common shells and the shells that I thought were sort of special or the starfish. He gave back the special things. I do collect quilts. Probably my nicest quilt was given to me by Andre Agassi when I had sung at a benefit that he was hosting for the school that he started. I didn't give him that quilt, but I said, I've got another quilt that's over 100 years old. And he said, you're not going to get this back. And he just cut it into shreds. I said, okay, well, yeah, so interesting.
Buzz Knight
It's really unique. It really is. It's a great, great part of the whole project and the amazing work.
Narrator/Interviewer
It's.
Buzz Knight
It's wonderful. So in, in closing, we call this podcast Taking a Walk. We like to ask what we call the dream Walk question. Amy Grant, who would you take a walk with, living or dead? And where would you go, maybe, and what would you talk about?
Amy Grant
Well, I, I think you could take a dream walk with a total stranger and it would be magical because everybody's life is so unique. I thought about two different people. One is my mother's younger brother, and he died in a car wreck his senior year in high school. Two of my sisters were already born, but my next older sister, my mom was pregnant with her. But my mother was different after she lost her brother and she loved him so much and I am so curious about him and so. And the other person, I don't know why it just came to me. You only asked me one, but I'm the youngest of four girls and when I was in the second grade, we fostered little boy who was 18 months old and we, we fell in love with him. His baby bed was in my room and I'd never been a big sister and, you know, I have a widow's peak. He had a widow's peak. They're hereditary. His name was Jeff. And my parents, we just, we grew to love him very quickly and my parents wanted to adopt him. And at that time in the foster care system, if you wanted, now a lot of people foster to adopt, but because we were getting very connected to him, they removed him from our home. And so there's a lot about the foster care system that needs to be fixed. It's better now than it was then but there yeah so I would I would take a walk with him.
Buzz Knight
I'm touched by having you on and it's just so beautiful to talk to you. I really appreciate it. The me that remains is the new music. An honor to speak with you and thank you for what you continue to give us. Amy Grant thanks for being on taking over walk.
Amy Grant
Thanks for having me Buzz thank you.
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Date: June 16, 2026
Guest: Amy Grant
Host: Buzz Knight
Podcast: Takin’ A Walk - Music History
This episode features a deeply personal and inspiring conversation with legendary singer-songwriter Amy Grant. Grant discusses her recent recovery from a traumatic bike accident and open-heart surgery, the creative journey behind her first album of original songs in 13 years (“The Me That Remains”), and the enduring power and healing force of music in her life. The discussion delves into resilience, artistic authenticity, community, and the beauty of creative collaboration, all delivered in Grant’s open-hearted and down-to-earth style.
[04:08–06:14]
“Everybody’s recovering from something and all you have on any given day is the person in the mirror… this is what I’ve got and I’m going to lean in and live this day.” – Amy Grant [05:41]
[06:14–10:31]
“It was just so much fun to do a project without any pressure... It felt very organic and fun.” – Amy Grant [09:37]
[10:31–13:13]
“People should always be able to ask anything. And we also have to be able to say yes or no.” – Amy Grant [12:01]
[13:13–15:07]
[15:07–18:21]
“I was just trying to be honest. The hardest song to write is when you don’t know what to say… If it’s going to be interesting to anybody, it’s got to capture the audience of one first.” – Amy Grant [17:10]
[18:21–22:20]
“Music has never let me down. ... If you're struggling, just find the public radio station and listen to classical music … it reminds you none of us live in a vacuum.” – Amy Grant [19:09]
[25:01–29:39]
“Creativity is just… such a welcoming landscape. There’s not a right or wrong.” – Amy Grant [28:48]
“You have to invest in your family... There’s no guarantee of the quality of relationship.” – Amy Grant [30:08]
[31:34–34:55]
“He did that with everything… Everything we talked about, he would say, ‘Could I have that?’” – Amy Grant [32:23]
[35:19–37:08]
“I think you could take a dream walk with a total stranger and it would be magical because everybody’s life is so unique.” – Amy Grant [35:23]
On Recovery and Self-Acceptance
“Everybody’s recovering from something and all you have on any given day is the person looking back at you in the mirror.” – Amy Grant [05:41]
On the Creative Process
“Anything that you give your time and attention to will emerge… that’s the crazy thing about the energy of attention.” – Amy Grant [17:00]
On the Power of Music
“Music has never let me down… I try to tell my children that. Music will never let you down.” – Amy Grant [19:09]
On Collaborating with Michael W. Smith
“Creativity is just… such a welcoming landscape. There’s not a right or wrong.” – Amy Grant [28:48]
On Working with Family
“You have to invest in your family... There’s no guarantee of the quality of relationship.” – Amy Grant [30:08]
| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------| | 04:08 | Amy explains "The Me That Remains" and recovery | | 06:40 | The years away from songwriting and return to music | | 10:31 | Asking, “no’s," and the value of community | | 13:13 | The album’s intimate singer-songwriter sound | | 15:07 | Writing the title track & processing trauma | | 18:21 | Music’s healing power & family wisdom | | 25:01 | Co-writing “The Saint” with Michael W. Smith | | 29:39 | Family involvement in the album, live performance | | 31:34 | The creative process behind the album artwork | | 35:19 | “Dream Walk” question—the uncle and foster brother |
The mood is warm, honest, and introspective, with frequent laughter and moving personal stories. Buzz’s questions invite deep reflection, while Amy’s openness and generosity of spirit shine throughout. There’s a focus not only on the music, but the lived experience behind it: recovery, connection, and the unexpected gifts of community and creativity.
For listeners interested in music’s deeper meaning—and the wisdom of a true artist surviving, adapting, and creating anew—this episode is highly recommended.