Taking nothing for Granted

Shane Gammon

Friday, March 27, 1998 | 9:36 a.m.

First, Amy Grant experiences an awakening. Then, she has a change of heart while preparing to start her tour -- reopening the refurbished Las Vegas Hilton Theatre -- this weekend.

When Grant released her latest album, "Behind The Eyes," in 1997, she said she had reached a "crossroads" and after "a complete self-examination from head to toe," she said she felt a new awareness of the human condition, reflected in the album. She also characterized the album as a return to her musical roots, with more personal songs.

But as the press trumpeted her new "awakening" with great fanfare, Grant was re-awakened to a new reality.

"When I was collecting songs, going back to listening to old records to put together a song list for this tour, it was funny, every record struck me as vulnerable," Grant says. "I think there is a vulnerable feeling as you're putting out a record. Just because you worked so hard on it, hopefully, the songs are heartfelt. I think in most people's bios -- like if you read Madonna's new record, everybody is like, 'Most vulnerable she's ever been!' I think that holds true for every record that every artist does. You know it's vulnerable just to make a record.

"I sort of laughed at myself about the things that I said because when I listened to old records, it all seemed like the same stuff coming from the same person -- just in new songs," Grant continues. "I am not saying that I wasn't going through whatever process my life held at that time, but I guess, just in retrospect, I kind of go, 'Oh God, how embarrassing.' It just seemed kind of overblown."

Critics pegged her as a Christian singer gone pop after her "fun, catchy" hit single "Baby, Baby," followed by the equally upbeat "Every Heartbeat (Belongs to You)," brought her national attention. "It was fun, just from a songwriting standpoint, to flex a different kind of muscle," she says. "It was just fun to go, 'Wow, this makes me feel like music made me feel when I was a kid.' "

So why is a gospel singer starting her tour in so-called Sin City? "I don't know," she says. "I knew I would play there at some point. It just worked out that we started there. Sometimes, when you play a vacation setting, a crowd can kind of have a feeling of, 'Oh, they are just trying to fill up another night with something to do.'

"It can feel that way at Disney World -- they kind of put you on the Cinderella stage and you go, 'Well, as people were passing from the carousel to Space Mountain, they wandered by the stage.' But I have played several concert stops in Las Vegas and every one has been a really unique audience."

Tickets for the concerts, at 9 p.m. today and Saturday, are $59 and $49 and can be purchased at the Las Vegas Hilton box office. For more information, call 732-5755.