Randy Travis to Finally Tell His Life Story

Saving Country Music ^ | 1/27/2019 | Trigger Coroneos

[cowpoke]

Country music legend and Hall of Famer Randy Travis suffered a life-altering bout of viral cardiomyopathy in 2013 that led to a massive stroke and brain surgery, leaving him unable to speak and sing like he did when he was amassing 18 #1 hits and selling over 25 million records. But friends and family of Travis say he still has a steel trap of a mind, and though he may not sing as much as he once did, he can still write.
On May 14th, Randy Travis will release his long-awaited memoir called Forever and Ever, Amen: A Memoir of Music, Faith, and Braving The Storms of Life...Forever and Ever, Amen is said to include candid, never-before-told details from Randy’s life, including recounting his troubled youth, drinking and stealing cars, a tense relationship with his father, and the rollercoaster ride of more than 40 years in the music and acting industry, going from a working-class childhood in North Carolina to the Country Music Hall of Fame, and from a broken marriage to a miraculous daily recovery from his stroke

[ExNewsExSpook]

Saying Randy has had a “roller coaster” life is an understatement. He had so many appearances in juvenile court that a judge warned him, “next time, bring a toothbrush, because you won’t be going home.” Got a job washing dishes in a country music club where the manager (Lib Hatcher) discovered he could sing and took him to Nashville. She became his first wife and helped guide him to the early, ground-breaking success Travis had in the mid-80s.

If you were listening to country music back then, you can remember what a rut the genre was in; “Storms of Life” was a game changer that put country music back in touch with its roots, and set it on a new trajectory, opening the doors for many of the neo-traditionalist acts that followed.

Randy managed to keep the demons at bay for a long time. After moving to Hawaii, he began having an affair with the wife of his dentist. He divorced Lib (and paid her a huge settlement) then resettled in Texas with Wife #2 after she divorced her husband. Reportedly, she didn’t see anything wrong with Randy having a drink, so he began boozing heavily and was arrested a couple of times, once for driving around naked in his truck.

Then came the heart attack and stroke that largely robbed him of his voice and left him impaired. I’ve heard that much of his fortune is gone, and he did the book because he needs the money. He still has income from sales/downloads of his past hits, but earns very little in songwriting royalties, because he wrote very few of his own hits.

A sad story for one of the seminal country stars of his generation. Something right out of country song.

[Albion Wilde]

[McGarrett]

Just a Matter of Time is his definitive hit...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNKrBQCzQOI

[ro_dreaming]

Paul Overstreet did,

Paul Overstreet also wrote one of my other favorites, ‘I’m Seeing My Father In Me’. That song reminds me of my dad, while technically my step-dad.

[Harpotoo]

Met him at MSG NYC in 88. Friend got us back stage. Got chitfaced on Jack and don’t remember the show:-)

[I_be_tc]

We rented one of his houses in Hawaii several years back. Only for a week. Very nice. They had a huge bouquet of fruit and candies awaiting us as a “thank you” gift. House had a bunch of his record awards all over the walls.

[Tanniker Smith]

That might’ve been the show I was invited to. It was sometime before I was married. My friend was excited to go and had an extra ticket. At the time, I figured he’d be wasting the ticket on me, not thinking, it would still be a nice night out for two friends.