Simply Complicated II

ChristianityToday.com interviewed Grant on the day before Simple Things released. Here's what she had to say:

This is your first pop album in six years. Some are calling it a comeback. Would you agree?

Grant: That depends on how well it does! (Laughs).

Even though it's titled Simple Things, your life has been anything but simple for the last few years. Why didn't you call it Complicated Things?

Grant: Because that's not how I feel. The hard times are several years behind me now. This is probably the most peaceful stretch of life I've known as an adult.

You've decided to focus on the simple things that bring you peace?

Grant: A good friend once described me to somebody by saying, "She's actually a very simple person." I wondered if I should have been insulted. I said, "Look, I'm highly educated. I've traveled the world. I work hard." But then I got to thinking, It's true. I'm a simple person. Some people tend to live from trauma to trauma, and that energizes them. I have a hectic schedule, but my mind seeks simplicity—like being in nature, a long bike ride, or sitting on the back porch. My son Matt, who's almost 16, is just a whirling dervish of energy. One plan is ending, and he's always making five more plans. But if I wake up and have a great cup of coffee first thing in the morning, I have pegged the Thrill Meter for the day. I'm not looking for the Next Big Thing.

Many Christian media kind of backed away from Amy Grant stories after your divorce. Many Christian radio stations and bookstores stopped carrying your music. And many of your fans were disappointed in what had happened in your personal life. Do you understand why people felt that way, and do you think it was fair?

Grant: I would rather not comment on any of that. Anybody who's ever gone through a hard time—any outsider's perception, no matter how much information they're given, they have no idea what the person's life is like. It's two different worlds. But my energy was focused on trying to find my way out of a deep, dark wood, and getting good help that I trusted, and being involved with the people I was responsible for and responsible to. Beyond that extended family/friends/church base, there was no energy to consider who was putting the ban on me. If somebody made that choice, I totally respect that. But I had no interest in trying to justify anything to anybody.

You didn't feel like you had to do any kind of damage control?

Grant: With so much public perception, that's like trying to put out a grass fire. And whenever I thought I was being dealt with unjustly, I would think, Some day, this is all going to play out in heaven, and everybody will see the full picture, and it won't even matter. That was always my thought process, just doing the things I felt I needed to do, and letting other people do what they felt they needed to do.


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