SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Each week, a guest draws a card from NPR's Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. Amy Grant put out hit albums every few years ever since she was a teenager in the '70s. In 2013, she stopped releasing original music. She's finally back next week with her first album of original songs in more than a decade. It's called "The Me That Remains." She says she was inspired by her audience.
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AMY GRANT: I went back on tour, toured in 2023. But I'm just looking at all those people in the audience. A lot of them, you know, if they're not coloring their hair, like I am, it's gray, and they're my contemporaries. And I - and at some point, I thought, am I doing us all a disservice by not writing about what life feels like now?
PFEIFFER: Grant spoke with Wild Card host Rachel Martin about getting older.
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RACHEL MARTIN: What have you found surprising about getting older?
GRANT: I don't think I want to say this in an interview.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: Sure you do.
GRANT: (Laughter).
MARTIN: Sure you do.
GRANT: Oh, man. I actually enjoy moving my body more now than I think I did 10 years ago. There's something about - yeah, I actually love that about getting older.
MARTIN: Yeah.
GRANT: In September, I was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I had been on a walk with a musician friend who - we tour together. Gene Miller - he's a guitar player. And he's all about fitness. He's always lifting weights. He's doing - he's, like, doing me through all these movements. He said, get barefoot on the grass, and...
MARTIN: Yeah.
GRANT: So I went back to my hotel room, and I thought, fitness should not require a personal trainer, a membership to the Y.
MARTIN: Yeah.
GRANT: And I'm just - out of curiosity, I said, what if I just, like, picked a couple of movements that put a smile on my face? What if I did these 100 times a day for 100 days? Would it be enough? Anyway, so I thought, well, what makes me smile?
MARTIN: Yeah.
GRANT: And so I wrote down these seven exercises. And first day, I did 100 in a row, and it was too much. And I thought, well, that's - I don't want to do that again. And then the next day, I tried splitting them morning and evening. And I thought, well, that's - I don't want to be that sweaty. And so the next...
MARTIN: (Laughter)
GRANT: The next day, I broke it up and did it four times, 25 repetitions before my first cup of coffee, 25 repetitions before I closed my eyes...
MARTIN: Yeah.
GRANT: ...And two other random times during the day.
MARTIN: Was it enough?
GRANT: About three weeks in, the sound engineer who mixes the house sound said, hey, what are you doing different? You're singing better. And I went, good. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. And by then, I was so - I was smiling every time I did it. It was not a chore. And so, I haven't missed a day...
MARTIN: Huh.
GRANT: ...Since September 10.
MARTIN: Wow. Good for you.
GRANT: Yeah. And so, you know, it's just - I don't know. I think I just always - I was not that - as intentional.
MARTIN: Yeah.
GRANT: And I love that about getting older.
PFEIFFER: You can watch the full conversation with Amy Grant on YouTube - @nprwildcard. Her new album, "The Me That Remains," is out next Friday.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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