Vince Gill, Available for Bookings

Vince Gill and wife Amy Grant. Photo by Kristen Barlowe, courtesy of Morris Public Relations.

April 24, 2009 — With a string of hit records, a truckload of awards and membership in the Country Music Hall of Fame, Vince Gill is way beyond singing at weddings to make a buck.

But he still does plenty of guest gigs on other people’s albums: He’s featured on Steve Martin’s new banjo project, and he sang backing vocals on George Strait’s 2008 hit "Troubadour." You can anticipate more of those appearances in the future, too.

"I generally don't turn anything down if I'm available, and that's because I did that for a living for a lot of years," he told The Green Bay Press-Gazette. "That's how I fed my family and paid for a house. If not for being an artist and making records, I made my money by working on everyone else's records as a session player and a session singer. It doesn't feel any different doing that now than it did then.''

Except, of course, that Vince no longer has to take those jobs.

Oddly enough, the collaboration that appears most obvious — with wife Amy Grant — doesn’t happen all that often.

"We got married 20 or 25 years into our careers," he said. "It didn't make any sense to say, 'OK, now we're married. We've got to be Steve [Lawrence] & Eydie [Gorme] or Sonny & Cher or Donny & Marie [Osmond] or whoever.' On occasion, we write some songs together. On occasion, we sing together. We may make a duet record someday, but who knows. We feel like if there's one every now and then, that satisfies us.''

In the meantime, there are plenty of hits by other artists in circulation with Vince’s voice in the background. They include Carrie Underwood’s remake of "I Told You So," Patty Loveless’ "Timber, I’m Falling In Love," Sara Evans’ "No Place That Far," Reba McEntire’s "Is There Life Out There" and Conway Twitty’s "That’s My Job."