Randy Travis’ New Song an Answer to 11 Years of Prayer, Wife Says
By Movieguide® Contributor
Although AI is controversial for its ability to imitate people and create deepfakes, it has been a blessing to country star Randy Travis.
In 2013, Travis suffered a stroke which has sadly impaired his ability to sing or speak. However, that hurdle has been alleviated thanks to AI in his new song “Where I Came From.”
“When I first heard it, I couldn’t hear much because I was crying so hard,” Travis’s wife Mary told Fox News Digital while on the red carpet for the Academy of Country Music.
“When Randy watched it, it was beautiful because I watched him go from listening real intently to this pensive emotion to a smile and then an all-out laughter. It was just an overwhelming feeling to hear his voice and a new song because he had heard his own voice so many times with the old songs, but this one was a brand-new one. And so it was just beautiful,” she added.
Mary is thankful for what AI has done for her husband.
“It’s given Randy back the ability to make the music, to do the things that he loved to do more than anything in the world. And if people could just imagine if their greatest passion was taken from them, what would you hope for? So, our hope and our prayer for 11 years was ‘Please let us make music again,’ right?”
Thanks to the new technology, Travis was able to use his creativity despite his disability.
“We like to call it ‘artistic intelligence’ because to watch he and [record producer] Kyle [Lehning] work together, to make this song out of 42 song stems of his, with James Dupree laying down the [vocals], it was amazing to watch,” Mary noted.
“Where That Came From” has been a hit with fans, too.
“‘Where That Came From’ debuts at No. 2 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart this week. This is an impressive placement for a musician who has been working as long as Travis has and who has been away from the Billboard rankings for many years,” Forbes reported.
Movieguide® previously reported on Travis’ new song and how his wife fought for his life:
Country star Randy Travis is getting ready to release his first single since his 2013 stroke, a song called, “Where That Came From.”
“It’s been a while since my last new recording, but I’m excited to share that this Friday, May 3, I will be releasing my first brand new studio recording in more than a decade, ‘Where That Came From,’” Travis posted on Instagram.
He continued, “You’ll hear much more about the special team of folks who came together to help make this magical moment in my career possible in the coming week. In the meantime, just know that when it comes to me singing songs for you, there’s always more where that came from. Thank you for singing along all these years…”
Travis suffered a massive stroke in 2013, and doctors were not confident he would survive. His wife Mary was forced to make a decision about keeping him on life support.
“Even in his state, his semi-coma state, he squeezed my hand,” Mary told TODAY. “And he laid there, and I just — I saw this tear just fell. And it was, you know, one, two at a time. And I just went back to the doctors and I said, ‘We’re fighting this.’”
