Randy Travis is a country and gospel music legend who topped the charts for more than three decades.
But his musical career appeared to be over after he suffered a debilitating stroke.
And Randy Travis made one big decision about his career after going through hell.
Randy Travis announces that new music is coming
Country music star Randy Travis delivered some of the genre’s biggest hits during the 1980s and 1990s.
He scored 16 number-one hits with timeless classics like Forever and Ever, Amen, Deeper Than The Holler, and Diggin’ Up Bones.
In 2000, he transitioned to making gospel music where he continued to find success.
Tragedy struck in 2013 when Travis suffered a stroke and heart failure.
Doctors gave him slim odds for surviving when he was in the hospital, but he managed to pull through.
But the stroke robbed him of his ability to speak or sing.
It appeared that the book was shut on Travis’ ability to release new music.
Now the 64-year-old singer is releasing a new song, 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 wrote on social media.
And he let fans know that he would explain how this miraculous comeback happened.
“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,” Travis added. “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.”
Randy Travis uses AI to recreate the voice for his new song
Randy’s wife, Mary Travis, does the talking for him these days.
“Music is what he’s made of,” Mary said. “Music is his heart, it’s his soul.”
Warner Music Nashville co-chair and co-president Cris Lacy said that he heard artificial intelligence (AI) that tried to replicate Travis’ voice, but none of it was any good.
“We started with this concept of, what would AI for good look like for us?” Lacy wondered. “And the first thing that came to mind was, we would give Randy Travis his voice back.”
Kyle Lehning, who produced almost all of Travis’ albums, didn’t think it would work.
“It sounded like a parlor trick or something,” Lehning said.
Travis agreed to try and recreate his voice using AI.
So Lehning used the vocals of Travis signing on 42 songs to get the sound of his voice down.
Country music singer James Dupré would sing the song, and Travis’ voice would be laid on top of it.
“It’s not about how it sounds, it’s about how it feels,” Lehning said.
Lehning worked with AI to recreate a voice that he thought was Travis’ soul.
“It’s Randy Travis. Randy’s on the other side of the microphone. It’s still his vocal. There’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to make music, and to deprive him of that, if he still wants to do that, that’s unconscionable to me,” Lehning said.
For fans of Randy Travis, hopefully there is more music to come.
