
The CMA and Grammy awards came in 1996, and Gill’s interpretation also earned him another Grammy that year for Best Country Male Performance. And that means way more to me than where it landed on the charts,” Gill said. “When people are hurting the most, in the worst place they can be, they’re reaching out to that. 14, it made a deep impression on fans and critics alike. Though the song was only a modest hit on the Billboard chart, as it peaked at No. “Go Rest High on that Mountain” debuted on Gill’s album When Love Finds You in 1994, and it was released as a single the next year. Still, Gill had no intention of ever recording the song, but when long-time producer Tony Brown heard it, he talked Gill into it. “Then, the second verse was obviously about my brother’s passing, and so away it went.”

“Then the ‘go rest high on that mountain’ came,” he recalled. His older brother, Bob, died of a heart attack, and grief made Gill retrieve the snippet of lyrics. “And so I put it away,” he said.įour years later, a heart-breaking death in his family made him finish the song.

You were no stranger to the rain,” Gill sings.īut Gill can’t find the right melody for it, and since he was only a casual friend of Keith Whitley, he felt awkward about even writing the song. “I know your life on earth was troubled, and only you could know the pain. The last line of the first verse comes with the title of Whitley’s biggest hit, “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.” Gill began writing the song in 1989, after the death of country singer Keith Whitley due to alcohol poisoning.

It Took Vince Gill Four Years To Finish Writing The Song With its uplifting message of eternal life, Vince Gill’s “Go Rest High on that Mountain” has long been considered a multi-platinum-selling artist’s masterpiece, the one he himself is confident he’ll be most remembered for.Īnd ever since its debut in 1994, it became a funeral and memorial service standard in the minds of many.
