The family of Amy Grant and Vince Gill are mourning a huge loss.
On Sunday (July 1), Grant revealed on social media that her father, Dr. Burton Grant, passed away. The contemporary Christian singer posted a sweet photo of her kissing her dad’s cheek, and wrote the following statement:
“Walking our dad home has been a ten year journey, taking our family places we never imagined. We are all closer because of it. I’m so grateful for my dad. My grandfather passed away when my dad was a teenager. When my dad decided to become a doctor it was his mother, my grandmother, who paid his way through school. Years after my grandmother passed, I found his graduation program in a box of her things with a note from my dad. It said, ‘Mother, I hope I will serve mankind in such a way as to justify your faith in me. Love, Burton’. Well done, Dad.”
Family is extremely important to Grant, who is a mother of four, stepmother to Gill’s daughter Jenny, and grandmother to Jenny’s two children.
The youngest of four girls, she was also very close with her father. When it came time to name her second album in 1976, it made a lot of sense to call it My Father’s Eyes, after the song “Father’s Eyes,” which was written by Gary Chapman.
Several years ago, Grant performed the moving song at Brentwood Hills Church of Christ.
“This song really kinda has a double meaning,” she said introducing the song. “It’s about a father. And I think about my Heavenly Father, and I also think about my brown-eyed dad, Burton Grant.”
While she does have brown eyes, just like her father, that’s not exactly what the song is about.
“She has her father’s eyes,” she sang. “Eyes that find the good in things/when good is not around/Eyes that will find the source of help/when help just can’t be found.”
Watch her incredible performance in the video below. Our thoughts and prayers are with Grant and her family.
