Chords for Amy Grant, 1981 Interview Part 1 / Jim Bakker Show

Hi.
How you doing?
Really, I'm kind of nervous to be really [Eb] honest about this.
Don't be nervous.
[E] You've had so much happen in such a short period of time,
you've probably already lived a lifetime of gospel music for most artists.
Well, I am [Bb] sort of young in my field.
I'm 20 and I've been singing for about five [Bb] years.
What caused all this phenomena to hit you?
Jim, I don't know exactly except for the Lord.
A lot of people would call it coincidence,
but when I was 14, I really gave my heart to Jesus Christ.
I grew up in a Christian home, but
it's got [Gb] to be a personal decision.
You'll find that out as your kids get older.
You just have to love them through it.
My parents had to love me through a lot of things.
I started writing songs when I was about 15.
_ _ Unbeknownst to me, someone took a tape of my
little songs and showed them to a record producer.
They came to me with a contract and said,
please sing for us.
I thought they were making a joke.
Me?
[Bb] _ It just started from there.
What was it like to be in school and be a recording artist? _
Especially a gospel recording
artist.
Well, my first album didn't come out until my senior year.
I didn't tell anybody I was doing
one.
I was afraid that if it flopped, they would all feel sorry for me.
That was the last thing I
wanted. _
[Bbm] If it was a success, I didn't want them to think that I felt any differently about them
[Bb] or myself.
So I didn't tell anybody until it was out.
Then they thought, why did you keep this from
us?
Because we wanted to be excited for you.
I realized friends want to have a part in what you do. _ _ _
You _ talk a lot from time to time about your mother and your parents.
I think a lot of kids
relate to the fact that you're so open with them and sharing some of the things that you've
gone through. _
Tell us about the time you told your mother that you were going to [E] _ smoke pot.
I knew you [Bb] were going to say that. _
_ _ _ I would guess that _ probably the average audience to this program
would be more my parents' age.
Am I guessing right?
Probably.
I want to say this to both of
everybody, especially to moms and their kids.
_ The most important thing that happened to me when I
was growing up was the fact that my parents loved me.
I know I say that again and again, and yet
that has really made the difference.
Whether it was a date that got a little bit wild or
a party that maybe my parents would have been ashamed of had they shown up, my parents somehow
made me feel real comfortable to come home and say, I was so embarrassed.
I shouldn't have done
that, Mom.
Guess what happened?
The first time I was really on a date where I got frightened
because of my date, my mother was the first one I told.
I didn't know it wasn't cool to come home
and tell Mom everything.
_ I remember when my friends started, everybody goes through the crazy
[Gb] stages, and a bunch of my friends started smoking marijuana.
[Bb] I came home just like everything else,
why not tell Mom?
We were sitting down on the bed, and I hadn't done it.
My sister was there.
She's almost two years older than me and tends to be sort of like my mom.
I've got three older
sisters.
We were sitting on the bed talking, and I thought, well, I might as well tell her now.
I
want to tell her before it happens.
I said, Mama, I've really thought about it, and I've decided I'd
like to try smoking pot.
I didn't know it at the time, but she said her reaction, she's told me now
years later, my first reaction was, Lord, please don't let her see that I am shocked to death.
Just let me appear very calm, and then somehow give me the words to say.
Well, God used Carol,
my sister.
She said, You idiot!
If all your friends jumped in a fire, would you jump in
right after them?
Mama was going, Thank you, Lord.
I didn't have to say a word.
_ _ I thought about it,
and I thought, I guess that really is kind of stupid, and I never did.
But it was still the
open policy.
She didn't say, Amy, we don't love you.
She just said,