Randy Travis stunned an entire room of music industry people at his Country Music Hall of Fame induction in 2016, when he sang “Amazing Grace” from stage. For Randy, who largely lost his ability to speak, and sing, after his 2013 stroke, the event was a milestone, in more ways than one.
“We had started working on that song in rehab, and we were leaving to drive to Nashville for the Hall of Fame, a week early,” his wife, Mary Travis, recalled to the Charlotte Observer. “We’d stopped by to see my mother, and when we were pulling out after saying goodbye, Dennis, his brother, called and said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this, but Daddy just died.’ Sudden heart attack Saturday morning. We re-routed and went straight to North Carolina. His daddy was gonna be there for his Hall of Fame induction, which meant so much because his dad was such a huge part of his music.
“Making him play music when he was young,” she continued. “Making him sing because Ricky, his older brother, didn’t want to. So we got Randy’s voice, which was a blessing. We went to North Carolina and buried his dad on Tuesday and then headed for Nashville for the Hall of Fame that following Sunday. So it was kind of a bittersweet tear-in-one-eye-and-a-twinkle-in-the-other week. But on that drive, I guess — short story long — we practiced ‘Amazing Grace’ over and over.”
Mary, who has been with Randy since 2010, admits they weren’t sure he would actually be able to pull it off.
“We had talked about it, and I mentioned to him singing it at the induction,” Mary shared. “He wasn’t sure. And we hadn’t told anybody he was gonna do it — nobody knew he could sing it. But so right before the induction, I said, ‘Do you feel good about it?’ And he said, ‘Yup.’ So that’s how it happened. We didn’t know 30 minutes before we went on stage whether we were gonna do it or not, but he was ready. And he did a beautiful job.”
Randy just released a new single, “Fool’s Love Affair,” which was recorded in 1984, before he even had a record deal. Although there are several more songs that Randy hopes to release, ones that were recorded before he lost his voice, Randy’s wife refuses to give up hope that he will one day sing again.
“He doesn’t think so,” Mary acknowledged. “But I never give up hope on that. Every day, there’s a new word, there’s a new response that lets us know that that brain is still rewiring. And every stroke is different. I mean, there’s so many brain cells and synapses and all those things that of course we don’t understand. Only God knows those things. We don’t know if one day it will all of a sudden come back — and it may, I’ve heard of that — or if it’s just little by little and his confidence comes back. I don’t know.
“Like I said, every one of them is different, and every one of them affects the person differently,” she added. “So we just keep hoping and praying, keep working at it. If it doesn’t come back all the way, then we’re OK with that, too. We’re content with where we are if this is it. And if it does, then glory be — it’ll be wonderful.”
