Interviewer: For the last 20 years she has defined CCM....

Cindy Morgan: We were rehearsing in this rehearsing hall and Amy was there rehearsing with her band for the tour. I said "Hey" to her and she asked me which room we were in and she said "Come over before we leave" and I was like "alllllllright" Sure enough, accross my heart it was 10:30 and I knew she was worn out. She come over and she was so nice and we played our little song and she came behind and she was listening and I was thinking wauw... talking about full circle. I have grown up listening to this woman. She is just unbelieveable but in her character and her music and she is nice enough to sit here and listen to us playing our song. She was worn out and tired from rehearsing all day and she is a precious person and probably a great friend and I think that's a lot of what she is...

Interviewer: That was Cindy Morgan sharing a personal experience....

Interviewer: From the earliest songs like "I am gonna fly", "My Father's Eyes" Amy Grant begins to capture the hearts of CCM lovers everywhere. Over the years we have watched from a distance as she has grown over the years. She has grown and so has her music. Songs like "El Shaddai", "Sing your praise to the Lord", "Angels", "Find a Way", "Saved by Love" and "That's what love is for". Not only defined the moment they raised the musical standard as well. It hasd been said that Amy's music has been part of the soundtrack of our lifes. As we sat down with Amy on her farm outside of Nashville TN. We began our conversations by discussion her records companies compaign that focusses on real life music.

Amy: I thint that is a pretty good angle for Myrrh records to have. I think that music in general right now, whether it is in Christian music or pop music people are so hungry for genuine. And we are kind of been through influence of the 80', and the angst of the 90's and with the year 2000 just around the corner I think people are saying I am not asking for perfect. I am not looking for everything to be right but genuine would certainly be nice...

Interviewer: "Takes a little Time" the first single from the project "Behind the Eyes" from Amy Grant. Much of the music on Amy's new album topically grapples with the hopes and struggles coming to a soul. For example the song "Missing you" talkes about the memories that stay with us.

Amy: The heart holds on to what it wants to hold on to and you can... It's just like anything, you do what you are able to do at the time and I guess that depending on what it is you are holding on to, if it's something that is keeping you from living your life the chances are that you do not need to hold on so tight. And if it's something that adds meaning and value to your life in the present than it's worth holding on to cuz someday we are all going to have our head on a death bed someday and chances are that things that mean the most to us are not going to be within sight or within reach. But all those things are what make live valuable and so why let go of it unless it a real deterred(??) from embrassing of what is happening at the moment my feeling is what we remember is all that we have got, that is what your life is.

Interviewer: Up next Amy will talk about the importance she places on friendship. She will also talk about leaving it all behind.

Bonnie Keene from First Call: Amy I just gotta publically say this you know you really did not have to do this and Gary did not have to do it. Actually nobody, none of the artists had to do this. And the heart of the heeling experience for Marty (??) and I was that inspite of some oposition that you've been within their onw ranks with scheduling and time commitment and other things they all made sure they did this for us. It wasn't a lot of things that we were negotiating around conference tables with managers and record company people, it was Amy calling my house and saying what do you need? She heard that we needed some help and that we needed some friends.

Marty: There have been people who haven't been totally supportive of us since the trouble that we have been through over the last year and a half. We really needed the support and it was like the Lord just came in and said "I will support you"

Bonnie: Through these people.

Marty: And so it was very powerful to us because of that...

Interviewer: Bonnie Keene and Marty McCall from First call gratefully remember how Amy Grant along others stepped forward to help them in a time of need. One of the highlights on BTE, the new CD from Amy Grant is a fun cut entitled "Leave it all behind" which as Amy explains seems to be the secret desire for a lot of women.

Amy: You know it really, it's funny to think about escape songs like I was noticing with a friend of mine that so many female generated escape songs have to do with getting in the car and leaving. That was the whole movie "Thelma & Louise". You know we're just outta here. I am reading a book right now called "The pull of the moon" by Elisabeth Burgh and it's just women like real escape for them is leaving the responsibility of the moment. And I don't know if you can say it but it seems like a real escape song for a man is the ideal woman-relationship. And you know, and the original version of that song that William Owsley wrote the lyric to was all about finding the right girl and making this thing happen. Obviously I would not be singing about finding the right girl but for me, I was sitting there going real escape is not about finding the right guy, it's just about leaving the pressure behind. And I think that there is something about a woman that ...??? pressure for a man and there is something about a man that simply add more pressure to a woman (laughter) So a really total relief is going to involve car keys and some money..

Interviewer: "Leave it all behind", a wishful thought from Amy Grant. If you ask people who know Amy well to best describe her you're most likely to get the response "she is a good friend". Amy places a high priority on having and maintaining close friendships. Perhaps then it will be no surprise to find a song like "I will be your friend" on the new album.

Amy: A friendship song is the greatest thing in the world you know because friendship happens in real time unlike romance. You know unlike a chemical reaction to another person. Friendship.. you get a result because of real investment and a couple of friends over a lifetime make a person of you which you'll be

Interviewer: Amy Grant with the musical decoration of I will be your friend. Another song that gives us cause to stop and reflect a moment is a track simply entitled "Every Road". Amy described the song as one of acceptance and not so much resignation.

Amy: It is not supposed to sound as conclusive as it does. You know we all... we all wind up were we do one step at a time by either accepting responsibility or making commitment or blundering into a situation. And I think that "Every Road" is basically just.. I don't have the lyrics right infront of my head right now but you just can't short circuit life... You know there is a purpose to all of it. That is really what it's about. I think the song is more about not being afraid of seeing what is really there.

Interviewer: "Every Road" featuring Amy Grant. Still to come Amy recalls the time she spend on a park bench with a homeless man and she will talk about whether or not she will talk about whether or not she feels she has come full circle.

Cavemen's Call: Amy Grant, LMO is definitly in my top three albums of all time. I think that album is revolutionary and it's unbelievable. And I think lyrically everything was revolutionary. She was so honest and it's things that we as a band and our songwriters strive for too is that honesty. She was so honest about so many things in that album and I think that her honesty at that time was just so bold. That's the kind of stuff that will last forever and that CD I my mind will go down in history as one of the best. It's uneblievable and I think revolutionary albums are born to last a long time so thanks Amy.

Interviewer: The up and coming young band "Cavemen's call" acknowledging the impact that Amy Grant has had on their music. Many times it helps us as listeners to understand the idea or concept behind a particular song. In the case of the Amy Grant song "Turn This World Around" that concept had a face, a homeless person named Johnny.

Amy: "Turn this world around" is a song that tries to capture that we change the world a little bit at a time as we respect ourselfs and other people. And you respect the path that they're on for being the unique path that it is. Just like yours is and mine is. And I was very motivated by a homeless man named Johnny that I met in Santa Monica and got to spend about 3 hours sitting on a bench talking. We talked and talked and talked ...... and talking to him on one hand scared me to death and at the same time despelled a lot of unspoken fears that I had about somebody in his position with his life style. And when I finished this conversation and we left and talked and some of the things that he said really scared me. I saw how one choice leads to another and that our life really is the sum of all the choices that we've made in light of God's love and mercy. You know you can only walk so far down a path and unless you have a real change like the gathering demoniac God meets you where you are and you'll proceed from there. You know it's just one step leads to the next step and the steps that I've made and the steps that Johnny has made were really different but I just felt such great companionship with him that afternoon and I went back to my hotel room and called my sister Carole and said "Gosh I didn't even realize how lonely I was for something really real, real conversation and not somebody that is positioning it in a way that in case I repeated the conversation Johnny could care less about what I thought about his life and in turn I could care less about what he thought about mine. When he asked me a honest question I knew he didn't know me and I gave him a honest answer. It was a real conversation that I had in a long time" and she used the phrase the shelter of eachother and how you never where you're going to find it. Of course I thought "Carole should have been the writer in the family" but I wrote down that phrase and it's in that song and it starts of "We're all the same it seems behind the eyes, broken promises and dreams in good disguise and all we are really looking for is the shelter of eachother in the storm" So hats off to Johnny, good inspiration...

Interviewer: Amy Grant and the story song "Turn This World Around" As she began writing for BTE Amy went back to a familiar place Caribou Ranch, the studio where she recorded a number of albums many years ago. We asked her if coming back signified that she somehow had come full circle as an artist combinating with the new project. Amy: I was glad to get back to Caribou. I had a lot of good memories there and some bad memories there. I recorded 4 albums at the Caribou ranch and you know the details of my life are probably as interesting as the details of your life. You know, there is... it all means something to you like mine means something to me but that place for me meant a lot because I made a lot of music there and wrote a lot of songs there and but there are bitter sweet memories. And it was just on a whim that Mike Blanton and I went back there and we stood out under a near full moon and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground and breathe that mountain air and I felt like a much stronger woman going back to a place where I first spread my little wings a bit. i didn't feel like the same girl that showed up there back in 1981. I didn't want to be but I needed to be confronted by somethings that that kid understood that I had a kind of lost along the way. So is that full circle or not really?? I don't know what it is, it's something..

Interviewer: "Somewhere Down The Road", a song of honest emotion and hope from Amy Grant.

Amy: What I wanted to experience making music is to capture whatever it is that I am in treat to capture at the time and I think that I've tried to honestly say that what is it that I just have got to try find in music right now and right now I think it's just the human experience and being in the middle of life and trying to capture that. That is all I am feeling as I make it. That is what it is, it's true experience. It's not contrived and not manipulated and so if you hear it and relate to it then it's because it's real.