Amy Grant & Vince Gill On How Their Family Heartache Has Brought Them Closer

In the new issue of Closer Weekly, country star Amy Grant opens up about how her husband of 14 years, country and bluegrass legend Vince Gill, is always there to lean on for support — literally.

“Probably not a week goes by that Vince won’t say, ‘If you need me to hold you, just sit down here beside me and put your head on my shoulder,’” Amy tells Closer. And as her father’s dementia worsens, Amy needs Vince’s support more than ever.

“It’s been a journey,” she says, noting that while her dad is healthy and on very little medication, he doesn’t remember her name.

“My dad has around-the-clock care because he needs assistance with everything — and we’ve all done it,” Amy explains of the way she and her sisters, Mimi, Kathy and Carol, have pitched in to share the burden.

Luckily, when Amy returns to her Nashville, Tenn., home, Vince has quite the knack for lifting his wife’s spirits.

“He makes me laugh and he holds me,” Amy says. “Yeah, I love the hugs,” she adds with a grateful smile.

And that just makes Vince’s heart melt. “The first thing that ever drew me to Amy was that smile,” he reveals to Closer. “I knew how kind she was and all of those things, but when she first smiled at me, that’s when my world flipped on its axis.”

“She can get on the serious side pretty easily, but I don’t get on the serious side very often,” he explains to the mag, “so in that respect, we balance each other well, because I think if you laugh every day you’ve had a good day.”

FOR MORE, PICK UP THE NEW ISSUE OF CLOSER WEEKLY, ON NEWSSTANDS NOW.