Vince Gill reveals he threatened radio host Don Imus during on-air confrontation over wife Amy Grant remarks

Vince Gill said he once nearly came to blows with a good friend after he “flipped” on him and started disparaging his wife, Amy Grant.

“Everybody that meets her is crazy about her,” the country star told Phil Rosenthal and David Wild on their “Naked Lunch” podcast on Thursday. “I remember when we were first getting married, I was really good friends with [legendary radio host] Don Imus … And he was, you know, he was a character, and he’s loved me forever and me and Delbert McClinton were his favorite, two of his favorite singers.”

But Gill said after he and Grant married, Imus “flipped” on him and “kind of turned on me and started running me down and ragging me on his show every morning.”

Gill said Imus would say, “’I can’t believe my favorite singer, Vince Gill, lost the Baby Jesus, married that Christian girl,’ and blah blah blah. So, he was just wearing my a– out.”

Shortly after, when he had a new record come out, he said he told his publicist he wanted to get booked on Imus’ show.

“And they said, ‘Are you nuts?’ I said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘I want to go do the show.’ And they said, ‘Well, he’s ragging on you every day.’ I said, ‘I know.’ And so I got booked on the show,” he explained.

He first sang a song on Imus’ show, and then they had a little small talk, “and then finally Amy’s name came up.”

“He said something about Amy and I said, ‘I’m glad you brought Amy up,’” he continued. “I said, ‘I’ve been hearing you say some pretty ugly things about my wife, and I’m just kind of curious why.’ I said, ‘You used to be a great supporter of mine’ and this and that.”

The “When I Call Your Name” singer confronted Imus with the fact that he had never met Grant.

“I said, ‘Well, if you ever met her, you’d never say an unkind word about her,’” Gill said, adding that he told Imus, “‘I’m going to shoot you straight.’ I said, ‘I really only came on this show for one reason.’ I said, ‘We’re either going to talk this out, straighten this out,’ I said, ‘or I’m going to crawl across this desk, and I’m going to kick your a–.’”

Imus’ “eyes got big,” Gill said, figuring they’d better “figure this thing out.”

“I said, ‘Good choice, Don,’ you know, and so we had a great visit, and I left the studio and was headed home, and I turned on his show and he was still on, and I heard him say, ‘I don’t know why I was giving that guy so much crap. I love that guy,’ you know, and he completely turned, and we stayed great friends until his passing.” 

Gill and Grant married in March 2000 and will celebrate their 26th anniversary this year.