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In 2024, six time Grammy winner Amy Grant found herself reorganizing a room inside her Nashville home after her daughter Corrina asked her a simple but meaningful question.

“She asked me, ‘Where’s your creative space?’” Grant recalled. The room eventually transformed into a personal sanctuary filled with her paintings, art supplies, stacks of 45 records and an old record player. “My daughter started calling it ‘craftopia,’” Grant said.

Since releasing her self titled debut album in 1977, Grant became one of the defining voices in Contemporary Christian music throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Albums including Age to Age and Heart in Motion helped her reach a mainstream audience, while crossover hits such as Baby Baby topped the Billboard Hot 100. Over the years, she has also collected more than two dozen GMA Dove Awards.

By 2024, however, more than a decade had passed since Grant released an album of original material, following 2013’s How Mercy Looks From Here. While continuing to tour, she also faced a series of serious health challenges, including open heart surgery in 2020 and recovery from a 2022 bicycle accident that caused a traumatic brain injury.

Inside that newly created artistic space, Grant began writing lyrics that would eventually become the emotional centerpiece and title track of her upcoming album The Me That Remains, arriving Friday, May 8 through Thirty Tigers.

The song features deeply personal lyrics such as “Life cut me wide open when my head hit the ground/ Wasn’t my time for dying,” reflecting on her recovery journey and her determination to embrace every stage of life.

“The first lyric I wrote for this album honestly felt more like a poem,” Grant explained. “At the time, my short term memory issues were still pretty severe. Writing lyrics was manageable because everything was written down, but creating music felt much harder. I realized I couldn’t do it completely on my own. But sometimes our limitations end up shaping the path we’re meant to take.”

Grant soon began reconnecting with collaborators and friends, including her husband Vince Gill, alongside Michael W. Smith, Tom Douglas, Mike Reid and Mac McAnally, the 10 time CMA Musician of the Year winner known for his work with Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band.

By January 2025, Grant returned to the studio intending to record only a few songs. “It all felt really natural,” she said. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is fun. I haven’t felt this in such a long time.’”

She later teamed up with McAnally, and together they slowly recorded songs over several months whenever their schedules allowed.

“At one point, he told me, ‘We’ve got an album here. We already have 10 songs,’” Grant recalled. “Honestly, it surprised me too how naturally everything came together. There was never pressure surrounding it.”

While The Me That Remains explores deeply personal themes through songs like the title track and relationship centered moments such as “‘Til We Get It Right,” the project also addresses larger social issues and the current state of the world.

Grant collaborated with Ruby Amanfu on “How Do We Get There From Here,” inspired by the tragic 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville. Both artists had previously joined a group of musicians visiting the Tennessee State Capitol to discuss gun control legislation. Their collaboration explores grief, accountability and communication.

“A group of artists and songwriters were invited to ask if there was anything we could do with our platforms to help create change,” Grant explained. “After sitting down with lawmakers from both sides, I remember thinking, ‘How does anything ever actually get accomplished?’ But I really believe that art changes perspectives and opens people up to seeing things differently.”

After drafting the first verse and chorus, Grant later reconnected with Amanfu to finish the song. “For almost a year we just exchanged texts because we were both constantly traveling and working,” she said. “Then she finally messaged me and said, ‘I think I found the song.’ I happened to be heading into the studio that same week. Somehow our worlds lined up at the perfect moment.”

Gill appears on the track “Friend Like You,” while Smith co wrote “The Saint.” Grant’s daughters Corrina and Sarah Cannon also contribute vocals to the closing song “The Other Side of Goodbye,” inspired by the passing of Grant’s mother in 2011.

“When I started thinking about ‘The Other Side of Goodbye,’ my mind immediately went to my mom,” Grant shared. “I haven’t witnessed many people passing away firsthand, but being there with her completely changed how I view death. It made me feel like we should celebrate someone finishing their life journey. The way we frame things shapes how we experience them.”

The album had reportedly been completed for around six months before Grant and her team partnered with Thirty Tigers for its release.

“We were really searching for a partner who cared about creating conversation through art,” she said. “That’s exactly what Thirty Tigers feels like to me. I’ve loved talking with [Thirty Tigers co founder and president] David Macias and everyone there. It has this independent, fearless spirit.”

Although The Me That Remains marks Grant’s first collection of original music in 13 years, she says fans likely will not have to wait another decade for new songs.

“I don’t think I have another full album yet,” she said, “but I definitely have a lot of songs in progress. People have been sending me some really beautiful material.”