Background and career
Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He played in a number of local bluegrass bands in the 1970s, and from 1978 to 1982, he achieved his first mainstream attention after taking over as lead singer of the soft rock band Pure Prairie League. Gill sang lead on their hit single "Let Me Love You Tonight" in addition to writing several of their songs. After leaving Pure Prairie League, Gill briefly played guitar in Rodney Crowell's backing band the Cherry Bombs before beginning a solo career in country music in 1984. Gill recorded for RCA Records Nashville from then until 1988 with minimal success. A year later he signed with MCA Nashville and has recorded for them since. Gill's commercial peak came in the first half of the 1990s, starting with his breakthrough album When I Call Your Name. He has made 65 entries on the Billboard country music charts, including four solo number one hits: "I Still Believe in You", "Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away", "One More Last Chance", and "Tryin' to Get Over You", all between 1992 and 1994. He has also had number-one singles as a guest on Reba McEntire's "The Heart Won't Lie" in 1993, and Chris Young's "Sober Saturday Night" and the multi-artist collaboration "Forever Country", both in 2016. All of Gill's albums released in the 1990s were certified platinum or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with I Still Believe in You (1992) his highest, at quintuple-platinum. Gill has won 22 Grammy Awards, the most among solo male country music artists. Gill was a member of Western swing group the Time Jumpers from 2010 to 2020, and joined the rock band Eagles in 2017 following the death of founding member Glenn Frey. He has also participated in a variety of collaborations, including songs by Patty Loveless, Brooks & Dunn, Kelly Clarkson, and Maren Morris. Additionally, Gill has written songs for Alabama and Ty Herndon, and holds a number of credits as a backing vocalist and session musician. From 1980 to 1997, he was married to Janis Oliver, one-half of the country duo Sweethearts of the Rodeo; after they divorced, he married contemporary Christian music singer Amy Grant in 2000. Gill is known for his songwriting, his tenor singing voice, and his lead guitar work, with many critics noting his proficiency in both emotional ballads and uptempo material. He plays guitar, mandolin, banjo, and Dobro.
Vincent Grant Gill was born April 12, 1957, in Norman, Oklahoma, as the youngest of three children to Jerene and Stan Gill. Stan Gill was a judge who also played guitar and banjo, both of which he taught his son how to play. Jerene also sang and played harmonica. The Gill family often listened to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio, as well as contemporary rock and roll artists. Both parents also enjoyed golf, a pastime that Gill himself would develop as well. As a child, Gill began playing a guitar his grandmother owned, and learned how to play "Old Shep" on it when he was five years old; three years later, he and his half-brother Bob played the Beach Boys' "Long Tall Texan" on a local radio show. Gill also took guitar lessons from a local guitarist named J. Julian Akins. Additionally, Gill brought his guitar to school for show and tell a number of times, where he would entertain students by playing "The House of the Rising Sun". Gill also learned how to play Dobro, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and bass guitar during his teenage years. He developed an interest in bluegrass music after becoming friends with the son of his father's friend, who was a fan of the genre and also played mandolin. After graduating from high school, Gill founded his own bluegrass band called Mountain Smoke, which opened for the hard rock band Kiss at a concert on March 4, 1976. According to Gill, the crowd began booing and throwing objects on the stage during Mountain Smoke's set, to which he responded by flipping the bird and mooning them before leaving the stage. After Mountain Smoke disbanded, Gill moved to the state of Kentucky. There he played in the bands Bluegrass Alliance and Boone Creek, the latter of which also featured Ricky Skaggs as a member. Later in 1976, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he briefly joined fiddle player Byron Berline's backing band, Sundance.
In 1978, soft rock band Pure Prairie League was auditioning for new lead singers after their previous vocalist Larry Goshorn departed. Gill attended the auditions at the recommendation of a friend, as he had served as an opening act for the band while in Mountain Smoke. By October 1978, Gill had begun performing in concert as guitarist and vocalist for Pure Prairie League. He appeared on their 1979 album Can't Hold Back in addition to writing several songs on it. During Gill's tenure as lead vocalist, the band had a top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Let Me Love You Tonight"; he also wrote its follow-up "I'm Almost Ready", as well as five other songs on the corresponding album Firin' Up. Of this album, Joe Viglione of AllMusic thought that Gill's contributions to the album were "highly entertaining" and showed more of a country pop and adult contemporary influence than his later works. By comparison, Jim Worbois wrote of Can't Hold Back on the same site, "By this time, they are [Pure Prairie League] in name only as there is no resemblance between this and the original band." Overall, Gill recorded three albums as lead singer of Pure Prairie League. In 1982, Gill was invited by singer Rodney Crowell to play guitar in his backing band, the Cherry Bombs. Gill had previously been offered the opportunity to do so during the success of "Let Me Love You Tonight" and declined, but chose to accept Crowell's offer the second time because the following singles and albums had not been successful. As a result, he quit Pure Prairie League and was replaced by Gary Burr. His role as guitarist in the Cherry Bombs also led to him briefly playing guitar for Crowell's then-wife, Rosanne Cash. Because of these roles, Gill moved to Nashville, Tennessee, a year later.
Another member of the Cherry Bombs, keyboardist and record producer Tony Brown, became the president of artists and repertoire at RCA Records Nashville in 1983. As Gill wanted to become a solo artist, Brown recommended him to Joe Galante, then an executive of the same label, who signed him that same year. Shortly before his signing with RCA, Gill also appeared as a guest vocalist on David Grisman's Here Today, and sang backing vocals on Steve Wariner's "Midnight Fire", on which Brown was a producer. Gill debuted on RCA in 1984 with a six-song extended play titled Turn Me Loose. The project accounted for three singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles (now Hot Country Songs) charts: "Victim of Life's Circumstances", "Oh Carolina", and the title track, all of which peaked just within the top 40. Delbert McClinton wrote the former of these, while Gill wrote the title track. The album was produced by Emory Gordy Jr., also a member of the Cherry Bombs at the time. Following the album's release, Gill won Top New Male Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music in 1984. Word of mouth within the Nashville community towards Gill's extended play also led to him serving as a backing vocalist and session musician for a number of other country singers. He served in this capacity for Conway Twitty and Lee Greenwood, in addition to providing backing vocals on Rosanne Cash's 1985 album Rhythm & Romance. After Turn Me Loose, Gill performed a number of shows at Nashville's Bluebird Café, a popular venue for songwriters, as a means of refining his own songwriting. His first full album for RCA was 1985's The Things That Matter. While the lead single "True Love" underperformed on the Billboard country charts, the follow-up "If It Weren't for Him" (a duet with Cash) became Gill's first top-ten country hit the same year. This song was originally to have been included on Turn Me Loose, but was delayed until The Things That Matter due to legal complications between Gill's and Cash's labels. The Things That Matter accounted for another top-ten in "Oklahoma Borderline", which Gill wrote with Crowell and Guy Clark. "With You", the final single, was less successful. To promote the album, Gill began touring as an opening act for Ricky Skaggs. Author Jo Sgammato stated that while Gill's first two projects for RCA were not commercially successful, both were well-received by music critics and fans. For his third RCA release, The Way Back Home (1987), Gill wanted to choose a new producer to vary his sound. He selected Richard Landis, who had previously worked with Juice Newton. Gill recalled Landis as being "outspoken" and initially thought Landis would make a "slick pop record", but ultimately noted that Landis was open to production suggestions from Gill. In particular, Landis allowed Gill to play mandolin, banjo, and Dobro, as well as guitar. Crowell provided backing vocals, as did Sweethearts of the Rodeo, a duo consisting of Gill's then-wife Janis and her sister Kristine. The Way Back Home produced four singles. First was "Cinderella", written by Reed Nielsen, which peaked at number five on the United States country music charts in 1987. The album's second and third singles "Let's Do Something" and "Everybody's Sweetheart" were both top-20 hits, but the final single "The Radio" stopped at number 39 on Billboard's country music charts. After this album, Gill ended his contract with RCA as Galante wanted him to record only songs by other writers. Sgammato believed this decision was made because most of Gill's songs had not been as successful as those written by others. Despite this disagreement, Gill stated that he left RCA amicably and still considered Galante a friend. During Gill's departure from RCA, Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler invited Gill to join the band on their then-upcoming world tour, but Gill declined as he wanted to stay within country music.
Gill had remained in contact with Tony Brown, who by 1988 was president of MCA Nashville Records and helped him sign a contract with that label in 1989. Brown would also go on to serve as Gill's producer throughout the entirety of the 1990s. Of their relationship, Brown stated that he considered himself more of a "coach" due to his perception of Gill's artistic identity. Brown also chose to put more emphasis on Gill's vocals by mixing them more prominently than the instruments; previously, both Gordy and Landis had mixed the instruments more prominently due to Gill's lack of confidence at the time over his singing ability. His first single release for MCA was "Never Alone", previously recorded by Cash on Rhythm & Romance and co-written by both of them. This was the first of four singles off his MCA debut When I Call Your Name, considered by the editors of The Encyclopedia of Country Music to be Gill's breakthrough album. When I Call Your Name featured a large number of backing vocalists, including Kathie Baillie (of Baillie & the Boys), Patty Loveless, Emmylou Harris, and Herb Pedersen. The second single from the album was "Oklahoma Swing", a duet with Reba McEntire. This charted within the top 20 in early 1990, with Sgammato noting that some stations refused to play the song due to its Western swing sound. It was followed by the number two title track and number three "Never Knew Lonely" by year's end. "When I Call Your Name" also received a music video. AllMusic writer Thom Jurek praised the singles in particular, stating that the album "serves as the testament to Gill's arrival as a star and an enduring part of the country music legacy." When I Call Your Name garnered numerous accolades. The album itself was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1996, honoring shipments of two million copies in the United States. The title track won Gill his first Grammy Award in 1991, in the category of Best Male Vocal Country Performance; it was also nominated for Best Country Song. Additionally, the song won Single of the Year from the Country Music Association (CMA), his first award from that institution, in 1990. It would win Song of the Year at the academy's 1991 ceremony, where Gill was also awarded Male Vocalist of the Year and Vocal Event of the Year. He would win the former again in 1993, 1994, and 1995. The success of When I Call Your Name led to Gill touring in support of the album, which included a concert at SeaWorld San Antonio and one opening for McEntire at Caesars Palace, along with an induction into the Grand Ole Opry.
Next on MCA was 1991's Pocket Full of Gold. The album's title track served as its lead single, and charted at number seven on the Billboard country music charts that same year. The song was inspired by an idea given to Gill by Brian Allsmiller, a friend of his who at the time was playing basketball for Vanderbilt University's college team. Although Gill wrote the song by himself, he credited Allsmiller as a co-writer. Follow-up "Liza Jane", which Gill wrote with Nielsen, reached the same peak. "Look at Us" (co-written by Gill and Max D. Barnes) and "Take Your Memory with You" also charted within the top five between then and 1992. Gill told Bob Paxman of the blog Sounds Like Nashville that he allowed Brown to select songs for the album, as he "trusted [Brown's] song sense". Once again, Loveless and Pedersen were among the backing vocalists. Another contributor to the album was pedal steel guitar player John Hughey, whose intro on "Look at Us" Gill later described as "iconic". Like its predecessor, Pocket Full of Gold was also certified double-platinum. The album accounted for Gill's second consecutive Grammy nomination in the category of Best Male Vocal Country Performance, as well as CMA Award for Song of the Year. In October 1991, Gill hosted the CMA awards telecast with Clint Black. Gill went on to host the awards ceremony every subsequent year through 2003.
