I was around seven or eight years old, when I first heard Amy Grant sing.

We were living in Lathrop, California, living in our big motorhome until the yellow house was ready for move-in.

It was during the day, and I was laying on one of the top bunks listening to music on the radio.

I can remember that exact moment, as if it was just yesterday.

Amy’s sweet voice and the sweet melody captured my attention.

She was singing, My Father’s Eyes.

Turns out, My Father’s Eyes captured my dad’s attention too, and he bought the album it was on.

It was Amy’s second gospel album, and I loved listening to it.

I think I was in the 6th grade when dad came home one day and handed me Amy’s, Straight Ahead album.

We were living in Tucson, Arizona there on Tetakusim.

He told me it was for me.

It was a wonderful surprise, and I asked him if I could put it on right then and there.

I can still see myself there in the living room, tearing off the plastic wrap and walking over to my dad’s record player that stood next to the front door.

And I can still see myself walking away from the record player, album cover in hand when the first song, Where Do You Hide Your Heart, starts playing.

I instantly loved it and to this day when that song’s intro starts, I can get weak in the knees.

Later on, dad would buy the album, Never Alone which came out before the Straight Ahead one.

He also bought Ageless Medley, “One great song combining 8 of Amy’s favorite tunes.”

Amy doesn’t know this, but one day she saved my older brother’s life.

My parents had taken off one day and left us kids at home.

Well, my brother and I got into a silly argument and as I was walking back to my bedroom, I closed the door in his face and he punched it, leaving a nice dent.

I freaked out. My parents were gonna kill us.

That nice dent put a stop to our argument as we shifted to what can we do so dad and mom won’t find out?

I don’t know how I had the wherewithal to think of the cardboard poster of Amy that was included with her Straight Ahead album, but I did.

All this time I had kept it in the record jacket so it wouldn’t get ruined.

I was never interested in hanging it up in my bedroom, and I wondered if taping it on the outside of my bedroom door would raise my parents’ eyebrows.

I put tons of tape on the back of the poster and smacked Amy there on the outside of my bedroom door.

When my parents got home, their eyebrows stayed in their usual places.

I was surprised that they didn’t tell me to take it down and hang it up inside my bedroom instead.

But they didn’t, and it remained there until I switched bedrooms.

By then it was too late for reparations-ha!

As some of you know, Amy became a huge contemporary Christian artist, and like some of you, I enjoyed listening to her music on our local Christian station in Tucson, Arizona.

During high school when Center Stage, a recording studio/store was all the rage at Tucson Mall, I recorded one of Amy’s songs, El Shaddai.

This was well before I studied Hebrew at the UofA, so I’m pretty sure I sang some words wrong.

During my senior year in high school, Amy broke my heart when she put out secular music for the first time for the masses.

What? Christian music wasn’t good enough?

I felt betrayed and being the sinner that I am, instead of praying for her, I declared to myself I wouldn’t even listen to her gospel music anymore.

(Give me a break dear reader, I was only 17!)

I can’t remember how long my strike lasted, but within time, I realized the words to Amy’s secular songs are fine and we were friends again!

When Shawn and I got married, I put together several love songs to be playing while guests arrived.

One of the song’s was Amy’s, Whatever It Takes from her House Of Love recording.

To this day, as soon as it starts playing, I start to swoon.

Throughout the years, I have kept tabs on Amy.

Her divorce, remarrying, another baby, open-heart surgery, she had a bike accident that left her unconscious for several minutes…

Oh how the years go by… (See what I did there?)

If you would have told the little girl listening to Amy Grant for the first time there on the top bunk of the motorhome, that when she was 51 years old she would see her in concert, she would have scoffed because she wouldn’t have been able to picture herself that old.

Then, she would have felt dismay for having to wait that long.

But on February 25, 2025, 51-year-old Missy sat in the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall in Tucson, Arizona, waiting for Amy to come on stage.

And I wasn’t alone.

My husband isn’t a fan, but he came because I wanted him to.

Of course I invited my dad for old times’ sake. My mom wasn’t interested but my sister, Amanda was so she came too.

It was so exciting to see my girl on stage for the first time.

My seat was perfectly centered with her microphone stand.

The first song she sang was, Stay For A While. Remember that one?

Dad and I were both hoping she would sing, My Father’s Eyes…

An Evening With Amy Grant lasted around two hours with a 15-minute intermission.

Amy appears to be the kind of person who wouldn’t hurt a fly.

She is lovely and has a young spirit about her.

While she was singing, I googled her age. She is 64 years old.

Amy ended her concert with, I Will Remember You.

But she was teasing.

She came back on stage and sang two more songs.

The last one was, Say Once More.

“Let me say once more that I love you/Let me say one time, maybe two/That I love the way that you love me/And I wish I knew more of you”

We walked out of the building, and I linked arms with my dad.

Dad commented that he was surprised to see as many people as he did around his age there.

I told him that I had thought the same thing. That I was expecting to see more people there around my own age.

Then we lamented over her not singing, My Father’s Eyes.

Amy had talked about how she is not able to hit certain notes anymore.

Her voice does sound deeper and raspier to me, but it’s okay because she still has her Father’s Eyes.

~missy salcido wead