What Amy Grant Can’t Live Without

My lips never chap because I put this stay-on lip color on there. And then also, it just stays on. You know, my job, I’m touching my mouth to a microphone all the time. It doesn’t smear. All kinds of companies make a stay-on, but I’ve always used Covergirl. And I always mix the colors together. I usually have on at least two or three colors.

In the last five years, I’ve had several unexpected surgeries. I was coming out of one of the surgeries — I think it might have been throat surgery because I had a growth nestled into my vocal cords. And I remember one of the nurses saying, “Look, her lipstick is still on!” And they were wheeling me into recovery! And I thought, Oh, I guess I put on Covergirl this morning.

I mean, unwanted hair is unwanted hair. I have a couple of unwanted hairs now growing out of my face. I’m almost 66. I’m like, What is up with this? But it could be anything, it could be Oh my gosh, I put on a sleeveless thing and I’d never even thought about checking my armpits. It’s the first sleeveless day of spring. I just always know where a razor is. I keep one in the glove box of my car. Legs don’t really bother me, but I’ve been through times of my life that I swam quite a bit. You got to do a little body maintenance if you’re going to come out in public in a bathing suit. You never know when that razor is going to be very essential. I tend to buy Venus, but anything works.

I have a farm. It’s not, like, a gentleman’s farm — it’s rough. It’s wild. And I’ll probably never live there, although I’ve spent many nights there. But there’s a lot of wildlife there, and we do have snakes. And so I have purchased these snake boots. I think mine are at least 25 years old. They’ve got Vibram soles, which is a great hiking-boot sole. I hike in these.

Most snake bites happen on the calf or ankle. So if you’ve got a good snake boot on, you’re just not going to get bit. The foot part is leather, but the stuff on the side is some kind of fabric that cannot be bitten through. I have seen rattlesnakes on our farm. Not so many, but I do love spending time outside, so snake boots are essential.

Well, I like that they don’t have sugar in them. They’ve got something, but my experience with Altoids is that sugar creates its own aftertaste. I’ll throw a bunch in my pocket, even if I don’t take the carrying case. And I love coffee, and so I’m always thinking, Oh my gosh, coffee doesn’t have a good breath shelf life! I like the taste of good breath, and I like those mints.

I write something every day. Because of the shape of my life, I don’t necessarily have a regular rhythm because I wake up in different places for days on end. But whether you’re making a list or doing some kind of a journal entry or writing a lyric, man, a pen with a good roll makes you want to keep writing. There were times in my life when I wrote a lot. I filled a spiral notebook in the late summer of 2022. I’d had a bike accident, and I had a brain bleed, and so I had several months that were very quiet. I couldn’t look at screens, I didn’t have my phone, I was waiting for my brain to heal so I could have a couple of surgeries for further repair from that wreck. I was writing to remember. I was trying to remember the names of everyone in my extended family. And I wrote with a pen, obviously, and I wrote in cursive because it does something different to your brain when you write in cursive. It’s a continuous thought, and I was welcome for any input that would help me on my healing journey. It’s funny — I filled that notebook, and I’ve never gone back to reread it. It doesn’t even matter, and at some point, I’m sure I’ll throw it in the trash, but that was the most intense relationship I’ve ever had with writing. And it was several months. I was really glad for every good rolling pen.

Sharpie actually has a great rolling-tip ink pen. If a hotel pen is good, I’ll write a little something. Right now, my pen box is filled with a lot of hotel pens. But I have a favorite. If it’s a level playing field, the one I always get is called Writon Gel 0.7. I buy them in bulk.

The red letters is a version of a New Testament. Some Bibles are made where all of the words of Jesus are red letters. I love to read. There are books that I’ve loved that I’ve read three or four times. But for me, I always return to the red letters. They mean different things at different times in life. There’s never been an account of anybody’s life that has captivated me the way the life of Jesus has. And I don’t understand it all — there are times I’ve been like, I don’t even know what this means! But who in the world has lived like that? That the only thing they ever did was good and true and kind and sacrificial. And, you know, in a time when women were property, he honored women. And he loved the outsider. And he just did good to everybody. To me, the whole world should at some point in life be curious to read the red letters because no human has lived that way. And I’m not proselytizing — I’m just like, if I had to read the words of anybody, these are mysterious and inspiring and life-giving. These are words that I want to read.

I inherited my grandmother’s cast-iron skillets. And I love going to antique stores or whatever junky-junk old stores, especially when I’m on the road. People are always getting rid of cast iron. And old cast iron — if you buy a new cast-iron skillet, it tends to have a grainier surface. But my grandmother’s, they are smooth. And it doesn’t matter how rusted a cast-iron skillet is, you can clean it up and condition it again and make it usable. To me, it’s a timeless, very useful piece of cookware. That’s the first thing I pull out when I’m going to cook anything. If you have cast iron that’s not precious — I have some sentimental pieces — I have a great apple-pie recipe that you make in a cast-iron skillet, and it’s lovely to be able to give the skillet and the pie. I have found some great skillets in whatever old shop is in a small town on Main Street. It’s fun to have something very specific that you’re looking for. And people have all kinds of specific things they’re looking for, but for me, it’s always cast iron.

[Editor’s note: Since Amy’s cast-iron skillets are all vintage, we’ve listed one of our favorite affordable cast-iron skillets instead, though you can find plenty of vintage ones on resale websites like Etsy and eBay.]