Amy Grant on the 2022 bike wreck that 'changed everything' and her return to touring

It was a beautiful summer day in July of 2022 when Amy Grant and a friend went on a bicycle ride through Percy Warner Park. She was in the best shape she'd been in since before she had kids.

The singer and friend Mel Cox stopped to take in an overlook when she confided to her friend that she needed to make change in her life.

"I feel spread so thin," she told Cox that day. "I feel like I'm not giving the most energy to my family."

Cox responded, "If you were hit by a bus today, what would matter to you?"

She responded, "My family."

Ten minutes after that conversation, Grant's front bicycle wheel dropped hard into a four-inch deep pothole, sending her catapulting over her handlebars and into an unconscious state that would result in a traumatic brain injury and memory loss. Had it not been for her helmet, the outcome could have been worse.

The only reason Grant remembers any of the pre-wreck conversation is because Cox took the time to write down all the details of the day for Grant when she was ready to read it. It was nine pages of text that Grant didn't read until much later.

Another detail Cox shared with Grant (who still has no memory of that day) was what she said in her hospital room shortly after the wreck.

Cox told Grant that she kept saying over and over in the hospital, "I can't believe I still have all my teeth." Grant had landed on her face and was badly bruised. Then she said something unbelievable.

"I needed this."

The accident, as Grant said during our interview at her home earlier this month, "changed everything."

'I had to re-learn the words to my songs.'

Grant had to relearn how to sing. She had to relearn lyrics to songs she's been singing effortlessly for decades.

"The very first thing I did was I had the Christmas shows with Michael W. Smith," she said. "I couldn't remember... I had to re-learn the words for my songs. I had a teleprompter. My balance was messed up. I was scared to death. I tried to sing a song in soundcheck and it triggered tears and I couldn't stop them. I felt so vulnerable."

She didn't get much more recovery time before having to appear on a national stage as she was being inducted as a Kennedy Center honoree — just five months after her accident.

"I couldn't have done it if I'd had to sing," she remembers. "I'd done a handful of shows and each one felt better, but I did feel like I had worked my way on a treadmill up to about a 3.5-mile walk and I was merging onto the interstate."

It was the understanding of Grant and her longtime manager Jennifer Cooke that there would be no singing or speeches at any of the events. Then at the medallion dinner at the state department the night before the ceremony, each honoree got up with notes to speak.

"Jen is looking at me like, 'dear God, you've got to say something," Grant said, laughing.

"They told us no written speeches," Cooke remembered. "I'm like, she has a freaking brain injury and she has to get up and speak. She has nothing prepared."

What happened next would set the trajectory for Grant's continued healing and recovery. She stood in front of the crowd with no notes and no preparation and spoke just like she would have before her accident.

"She couldn't have written something in advance better than what she said," Cooke said. "It was beautiful and powerful and I remember thinking 'It's ultimately going to be OK.' That makes me cry to this day because during those few Christmas shows, it felt a little different and then that happened and I was like, 'OK. She's still there."

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'Wiggle your toes and speak your truth'

Grant credits Cooke and fellow musician Sheryl Crow with some sage advice that helped her get through the nerves of that impromptu speaking engagement. Remember, among her fellow honorees in the room were George Clooney, Gladys Knight and U2.

Cooke said to Grant before her speech, "Wiggle your toes and speak your truth."

Grant, who can't remember what she said that night, said years ago when she was preparing to speak at her mother's funeral, she told Crow she was afraid she would get choked up while speaking. Crow's response was this: "I'm going to tell you what my mom told me. Wiggle your toes. Just wiggle your toes and it will ground you in the moment that you're in."

Cooke reminded Grant of this before her speech at the Kennedy Center dinner. It worked.

"I did that that day and I tell people all the time, 'if you have to present, whatever it is, if you start getting overwhelmed, just wiggle your toes.' I give the credit to Sheryl."

Trauma can manifest change and recovery takes time

The bicycle accident isn't the only thing Grant has had to overcome in the last four years. During COVID she discovered a birth defect in her heart that required open-heart surgery. In 2022, the bike accident required her to have a shoulder surgery. Then while re-training her voice, her vocal coach noticed a lump on her throat that would ultimately also require surgery right after the Kennedy Center Honors in January of 2023.

The cyst turned out to be non-cancerous, but was growing and affecting her vocal chords. She considers this just another blessing that came from the bike accident, which sent the cyst into "hyper growth" mode so it was discovered and remedied early.

"That cyst was keeping company with my vocal cords and was slowly making it impossible for me to hold pitch to sing. It felt like too much work. Singing wasn't fun anymore. I was trying, but I hated the way I sounded. The sound my vocal cords would make when they rubbed together was the same, but my ability to control it was awful."

After the wreck brought the cyst to her attention and it was removed, Grant said, "It gave me my voice back. How amazing. I'm so grateful for that."

Grant's husband Vince Gill said of Amy, "It didn't matter if it was a heart surgery or a bike wreck, you can't faze her. She's fearless every step of the way. It's pretty inspiring to watch. She's always had that aura around her that's contagious. It's remarkable."

Today Grant is learning to embrace the process of healing and recovery, which she has learned doesn't happen overnight. Both take time and she's taking life a little slower to make sure she creates space to heal. After all, isn't this exactly what she needed when she confided in her friend before the wreck?

"I'm going to enjoy the process of regaining balance. I'm going to enjoy the process of healing. And like for me with singing, my vocal coach Laura said you've got to strengthen the little tiny muscles in your vocal folds. And she said, pick any low note and see how long you can hold it. I went from getting to 'three Mississippi' and now I've got 'eight Mississippi.' The human body is incredible in response to attention."

'The View from Here'

In February of 2024, just two years after her accident, Grant embarked on a 33-city tour that will hit Nashville's Ryman Auditorium for two shows just in time for Mother's Day on May 10-11. It will be the first time in 25 years Grant has headlined a Nashville show outside of her annual Christmas residency at The Ryman.

The show has been billed as a walk down memory lane through her remarkable career. Contemporary Christian music's female pioneer's proverbial mantle of awards boats a whopping six Grammy Awards and 26 Dove Awards (including four Artist of the Year Awards). She was the first CCM artist to have a platinum record, the first to hit No. 1 on the pop charts and the first to perform at the Grammys.

She has total career album sales in excess of 30 million and over 1 billion global streams. And she isn't done yet.

She has released two new songs “Trees We’ll Never See,” and “What You Heard” that she says will ultimately be part of an entire album she will call "A View From Here" even though its title track has yet to be written. It's her first new music in 10 years.

"So much of my touring life is singing old songs. That's what people want to hear. You can't recreate your musical past. And I love that people still are willing to buy a ticket, and they want to come and join us, and they know the words. But the view from 63 is a lot more in-depth. At this stage of the game, to me it's so much more meaningful to fall in love with the process. You know, if I fall in love with the process of cooking, it doesn't matter who is at the table."

Melonee Hurt covers music and music business at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK — Tennessee. Reach Melonee at mhurt@tennessean.com, on X @HurtMelonee or Instagram at @MelHurtWrites.

If you go:

What: Amy Grant

When: May 10-11

Where: The Ryman Auditorium

Tickets: www.ryman.com/event/2024-amy-grant

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Amy Grant relearns songs, turns to family after Nashville bike accident