Randy Travis’ Health Issues
Randy Travis, the famous American country and gospel music singer-songwriter and occasional actor, experienced difficulty breathing at his home gym in Texas in July 2013. He was hospitalized and diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy. While being treated in hospital, he suffered congestive heart failure and a stroke.
He was placed on life support when his lungs collapsed due to the infection and given a one percent chance of survival. Moreover, his troubles at the time included three bouts of pneumonia, two tracheostomies, two brain surgeries, and the stroke caused aphasia, vision issues, and, especially tragic for a performer, the loss of the ability to speak and sing.
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Randy Travis’ Impressive Recovery
Remarkably, by November 2014, Travis was making an impressive recovery. He walked short distances independently – and even learned to write and play guitar again. By all accounts, at 65, he’s doing very well, considering the ordeal he’s been through.
He still can’t sing like he used to but has made sporadic on-stage appearances to perform in a limited capacity. He’s also getting out and about and appearing on television. In 2015, one of his first post-stroke appearances saw him make a guest appearance at the Academy of Country Music Awards. This year, he appeared as a special guest on an episode of the game show The Price Is Right in February and, more recently, was seen sitting near Post Malone – a massive fan of Travis – and cracking up to his jokes at the ACM Awards.
Randy Travis’ First Post-Stroke Single
Perhaps most pertinent, however, is that Travis has released his first post-stroke single with the help of artificial intelligence – and the story of how the track came to be is fascinating.
Cris Lacy, the co-president of Warner Music Nashville, approached Travis and his wife, Mary, and asked, “What if we could take Randy’s voice and recreate it using AI?” In a conversation with The Associated Press over Zoom last week, Mary said, “Well, we were all over that, so we were so excited,” as her husband smiled in beaming agreement by her side.
CBS News revealed that record producer Kyle Lehning created the track using voice cloning technology, utilizing AI software to recreate Travis’s voice digitally. Lehning trained the software using 42 recordings of Travis’s voice and the voice of James Dupré, who has toured singing Travis’ songs with the star’s road band since his stroke.
“Where That Came From” was released on Friday, May 3, and debuted at Number 45 on Billboard’s Country Airplay survey.
The news of Travis’ AI-led comeback has gone down well with his fellow performers, with Luke Combs telling Taste of Country, “I think that’s the best used case scenario for what it has the potential to do.”
We wish Randy Travis well in his ongoing recovery and hope he gains further success in his performing career.
