ReZoom

Since marrying uber-country star Vince Gill in 2000, Amy Grant has kept a fairly low musical profile. Even on the reality show she hosted on NBC, Three Wishes, she let the spotlight shone on the people the show helped, not the host. But then she got that Oprah endorsement for her 2007 book Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far (Random House).

The bestseller is the opening volley in what's looking like a major comeback for the six-time GRAMMY Award winning singer-songwriter, as she prepares to return to the recording studio for her first CD of new material since 2003.

Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Grant was a queen of pop. She was the anti-Madonna - the spiritual girl who put the cross in crossover, helping take Christian music out of church coffeehouses and all the way to heavy MTV rotation and massive arena shows. Signed to her first record deal at 16, Grant became the first Christian artist to have a platinum-selling album in 1982 with Age to Age, which included the single, "El Shaddai." Her unprecedented success helped make Contemporary Christian Music a respected radio format and one of the fastest-growing genres of the ‘80s, as major labels added small Christian imprints to their rosters. In 1991, she scored a No. 1 pop hit with "Baby, Baby," which she wrote for her infant daughter, Millie. "Baby Baby" helped power her Heart in Motion album to 5-times-platinum status and launched a sold-out tour of arenas and amphitheaters.

But her success came at a price. Grant was criticized by all sides, as religious pundits scolded her that her music wasn't Christian enough, while the secular world blasted her squeaky-clean image.

She survived it somehow, her support system including her family (her first manager was her attorney brother-in-law) and her first husband Gary Chapman, himself a best-selling CCM artist and producer. Her albums, several of them recorded at Colorado's Caribou Ranch, where her idol Dan Fogelberg also worked, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and won a half-dozen GRAMMYs.

But the pop grind took its toll, and her marriage to Chapman ended in 1999. Today she and Gill are one of Nashville's premier power couples. Together they're raising a blended family that includes their daughter Corinna, 6; Vince's daughter Jenny, 25; and Amy's children Matt, 20, Millie, 18, and Sarah, 15.

Along with her best-selling book, Grant also recently released a new greatest-hits collection and is planning a limited number of concert dates in the first quarter of 2008.

In a wide-ranging conversation with ReZoom music expert Larry Nager, Amy shares some pieces of her life, talking about her pop days and what she's doing now: her new book and the Oprah Effect; her planned album of new material, her first since 2003's Simple Things; her new songs reflecting the concerns of a 47-year-old woman, wife and mother; and, in an unexpected moment, learns that Dan Fogelberg had just passed away. Plus Grant, who appeared on Paula Deen's Food Network Christmas special, shares some kitchen secrets.