The Humbling Advice Vince Gill Gave Amy Grant After Her Brain Injury

One could say Christian singer and songwriter Amy Grant has been dealt some pretty lucky cards in life, considering how successful she’s been in her musical career. But it’s also fair to say she’s been handed a difficult deck when it comes to her health given everything she’s faced since 2020.

There’s the open-heart surgery she underwent that year to correct a rare, congenital heart defect known as Partial Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return (PAPVR), per the Florida Heart Research Foundation.

Then came a traumatic brain injury in 2022, followed by throat surgery in January 2023, and even shoulder surgery.

In the midst of all of it, Amy says her husband, Vince Gill, shared a piece of advice that completely shifted her perspective. Here’s what he said.

During her visit on NPR’s Wild Card with Rachel Martin on April 30, 2026, Amy Grant revealed what her husband told her after she suffered a brain injury and was on the mend, something she says changed her entire point of view.

For context, the brain injury Amy suffered happened after she fell off her bicycle while riding with a friend in Nashville. A rep told People she had struck a pothole and was hospitalized, though they noted she was in stable condition after the accident occurred.

Amy told Rachel, “I just remember in the fall of 2022 when my world was very quiet. I just remember saying to Vince, ‘What if this is all I get back? What if this is it?’ Because, to me, it’s like the world is in a conversation, and I am down the hall and in a back bedroom. This is like my response time.” Essentially, Amy says that in terms of cognitive processing, she was “three steps behind the rest of the room.”

She then recalled the humbling advice her husband, Vince Gill, gave her that helped her view her injury from a different lens. “[Vince] just said, ‘Amy, life happens to every one of us every day. A virtuoso musician could have a stroke and never be able to pick up their instrument again. All you do is you just take the hand you're dealt that day and live the life that you get,’” she said.

While Amy was able to start writing again and eventually went back on tour, she noted she had some “creative limitations” and even reached out to fellow creatives to see if they wanted to help with her music.

While Vince was certainly there for Amy when she suffered a brain injury, the two had been together for quite some time before that happened. The country musician and the Christian musician met in 1993 and even performed together for the first time, though both were married at the time. After their respective marriages ended, the two found their way back to each other and started dating in 1999. They married in 2000, marking the start of a blended family.

Amy came into the marriage with three kids from Gary Chapman, and Vince had one child from his ex-wife, Janis Oliver. The couple also welcomed a child together, Corrina.

Vince and Amy have now been together for over 26 years, and both continue to pursue their musical careers, with Amy still releasing music and Vince still touring.