The Story Behind the First Song Vince Gill Wrote with Wife Amy Grant

Shortly after Vince Gill and Amy Grant performed on the televised holiday special, Christmas With Vince Gill, in 1993, the two also shared a duet, their first, on “House of Love,” the title track from Grant’s 1994 album. That year, both also had their first co-writing collaboration on Gill’s sixth album, When Love Finds You.

Written by Grant and Gill, who were married to other people at the time, “If I Had My Way” is a dialogue about unity and the end of suffering, and marks the first time the couple co-wrote a song together. Grant also provided backing vocals on the track.

If I had my way, we’d love one another
If I had my way, we’d all live as brothers
There’d be no more fussing and fighting
No more hungry innocent dying

I’d make it all go away
If I had my way

If I had my way
I’d carry your burden
If I had my way
No one would be hurtin’
And there’d be no more hatred and lying
No more lonely little kids crying

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[RELATED: The Ballad Vince Gill and Amy Grant Wrote About Her Ex-Father-in-Law Became a Eulogy for a Friend and Bandmate]

By the time they recorded “If I Had My Way,” the two had feelings for one another and eventually found their way to each other by the end of the decade.

“I knew from the tips of my toes that he was unlike anybody I had ever met,” said Grant of her feelings for Gill early on. “I related to him on such a cellular level [and] was just so overwhelmed by him as a person that I finally came up behind him and wrapped my arms around him and said, ‘I’ve needed to do this all night.’ He went, ‘Woah! Woah! Woah!’ It was weird. It was all caught on film, too.”

In 1997, Gill divorced his wife of 17 years, Janis Oliver, and two years later, Grant also split from her husband, Gary Chapman.

More Gill and Grant Collaborations

By the time Grant and Gill started dating in 1999, following their divorces, they continued writing and appearing on one another’s albums, and would continue to do so in the decades to follow.

In 2000, the couple were married a month before the release of Gill’s ninth album, Let’s Make Sure We Kiss Goodbye, which features two songs they co-wrote: the love-affirming ballad “When I Look Into Your Heart,” and “Look What Love’s Revealing,” revealing how faith helped the couple get through their divorces and unite.

In 2011, Grant and Gill worked on what became a more heartbreaking ballad after its release. Appearing on Gill’s twelfth album, Guitar Slinger, “Threaten Me With Heaven” was co-written by Gill and Grant, along with musician Dillon O’Brian, and Grant’s touring guitarist and Gill’s close friend, Will Owsley.

Originally inspired by Amy’s ex-father-in-law, who once joked, “Well, what are they going to do? Threaten me with heaven?” after receiving bad news from a doctor, the song took on new meaning for the couple when Owsley took his life several months after its release. Gill performed the song at Owsley’s funeral. The song was also nominated for a Grammy for Country Song of the Year.

“I have learned so much from Vince,” shared Grant in a 2013 interview. “We’ve written together some, but I feel like the role that we cherish in each other is having a musical sounding board that we trust.”

Gill said he has also pulled from his wife’s expertise within the Christian circuit when writing more religious songs. “She operates all of her life in the most truthful way of anybody I’ve ever seen,” said Gill. “I’m not as knowledgeable about the history of Christianity or the Bible or that stuff like she is. Every now and then, I’d write a song that was pointed in that direction, and I’d have to go ask her, ‘Is this right?’”

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