Born in Norman, Oklahoma, Vince started playing guitar as a young boy. Taught by his dad who also happened to be a lawyer and appellate judge, Vince performed with local bluegrass groups and at one point played with then unknown Ricky Skaggs. He was inspired by his father who was also a guitarist and banjo player, but only with friends and at parties.
In these early childhood years Vince progressed very quickly with the guitar, from the 4-string to 6-string. At ten years old and playing like a professional his parents bought Vince a professional guitar, the semi-hollow ES-335 Gibson Electric. This launched him and his appetite for instruments, leading him to learn the mandolin, banjo and fiddle. Vince learned to play these instruments from listening to records with no formal musical education.
Gill was a member of Pure Prairie League from 1978–1982 and sang lead on their hit "Let Me Love You Tonight." During this time he met his wife Janice, another aspiring musician, and they married in 1980. After Pure Prairie League, Gill joined Rodney Crowell's backing band, The Cherry Bombs.
At this point Vince decided to settle in Nashville where the opportunities were many for a good vocalist and guitarist, but his main focus was to become a solo artist. He was signed by RCA in 1983, and landed his first big hit in 1985 with "If It Weren't For Him," a duet with Rosanne Cash.
Gill often shows up on duets with female vocalists. Some examples:
1993: "
The Heart Won't Lie" with Reba McEntire
1999: "If You Ever Leave Me" with Barbra Streisand
2016: "
Dear Hate" with Maren Morris
He and Dolly Parton teamed up in 1995 to record her classic song "
I Will Always Love You." He's also done a handful of duets with his wife, Amy Grant, the first one coming in 1994 (five years before they were married) with the somewhat prophetic "
House Of Love."
Vince hosted 12 consecutive seasons of the Country Music Awards starting with his first appearance on September 30, 1992.
The 1990s were very difficult years for Vince, with the death of his father and the breakup and subsequent divorce from his longtime wife Janice Oliver. He had a career resurgence at the end of the decade with the release of his traditional country album The Key, with the hit "If You Have Forever In Mind."
Gill has at times stepped out his country music comfort zone. He sang a duet with Barbra Streisand called "If You Ever Leave Me" in 1999.
He became the only performer to win five consecutive Country Music Awards for Best Male Vocalist, taking the trophy from 1991-1995.
His 1989 album When I Call Your Name was his first on MCA Records. A more traditional country album, it earned him lots of new fans and also his first Grammy Award: The title track won for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
In 2000 he married the singer Amy Grant (Vince Gill's middle name: Grant), and a year later the couple had a daughter named Corrina. His enjoyed professional success at this time as well with the release of his album Let's Be Sure We Kiss Goodbye and the single "Feels Like Love."
In 2006 Vince Gill released These Days, a 4-disc set with 43 songs of all original material in a range of genres, including jazz, folk, pop, rock, bluegrass and acoustic. This was a very ambitious project with a lot contributors, including LeAnn Rimes, Bonnie Raitt, Guy Clark and Sheryl Crow. It won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album.
He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
Talking about how his songwriting has evolved over the years, Gill said in
his Songfacts interview: "I feel like as I get older I get better at writing songs. I'm finding better ways to write and I'm more willing to edit myself a little bit more. I'm more willing to be patient to wait for the right thing to come, the right words to come."
In the late 1980s, Vince Gill was a struggling musician when he got an offer from Mark Knopfler to join Dire Straits. He recalled to Radio.com: "It would have solved all of my financial problems. I was struggling to pay the house note, and keep food on the table. It was a tough stretch. This would have solved all that. But then I said to myself, 'Well, if you do that, that's kinda like admitting failure. You're gonna bail on what you tried to do for a good long time.' And I said to myself, 'If you don't believe in you, who's gonna?' So I turned down the sure thing.
Lo and behold, [my] next record was a career record, [1989's] When I Call Your Name, and on a dime, things flipped and just went the other way. It was amazing."
Gill added that he sometimes thinks about what could have been: "Deep down, I wish I could have done that [joined Dire Straits]. I regret not getting to do that. But I made the decision that I thought was the right one for me, and got lucky."
Vince Gill joined the Eagles on tour in 2017 and 2018, singing the lead vocals once sung by the late Glenn Frey. It was such a good fit, he became an official member of the band.
Vince Gill first met Amy Grant when he invited Grant to perform in his 1993 Christmas special on TNN, Christmas With Vince Gill. "I was doing a Christmas special and made a record and my guests were my heroes Chet Atkins, Michael McDonald, and then we needed somebody that would be a good guest so people would actually watch," Gill quipped during the couple's 2023 Christmas at the Ryman residency. "We met and I made the best friend I've ever had."
Vince Gill can't remember a time when he wasn't playing music, but he does remember the exact moment he knew it was his true calling.
In a chat with Musicians Hall of Fame founder Joe Chambers, he reminisced:
"The first place I played in front of people was in grade school. I can't remember what grade it was, but I went over and they let me play '
The House Of The Rising Sun.' in grade school."
He laughed, "I'm playing a song about a house of ill repute in grade school and I knew the die was cast. I knew that I was meant to be a heathen musician for the rest of my life."
Speaking in November 2024 with friend and fellow country legend Clint Black on Talking in Circles with Clint Black on Peacock TV, Vince Gill surprised fans by admitting he doesn't like many of his own records.
"I go back and look at my records, and I don't like a lot of them," Gill revealed. "I like some of them, but I don't like them all. I don't like every song; I don't like every record. I think that's part of the process."
"I listen to an old record, and I won't like the snare sound, or I won't like the reverb," he explained. "You should get better the more you do it."
Reflecting on his evolution, Gill said he believes he's singing, writing, and playing better now than ever before.
Early in Vince Gill's career, while performing with the country-rock band Pure Prairie League, they opened for Kiss at a show where the audience was, let's just say, not receptive. Frustrated by the hostile crowd, Gill dropped his pants and mooned them as a parting gesture.
In 2025, Gill became just the 10th person to win the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award at the CMAs, an honor that's gone to Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Alan Jackson. "I'm pretty confident I'm the only one who's won this award that's never smoked any weed," he joked when accepting.
