It sounds like a cliche, but country legend Randy Travis' life
really has been a country song. He has been arrested,
found God, and had more than a few hardships. This is the untold truth of Randy Travis.
Randy Travis was born Randy Traywick. His father Harold Traywick was a country
singer who wrote a few songs and even got on the radio in Monroe,
a town near the family's home in Marshville, North Carolina. Harold paid for all three of
his sons to take music lessons and built a music room with a stage in their home.
But he was also a tyrant. Harold reportedly forced the boys to play even when they didn't want to.
Harold had a bad reputation for drinking, and he was known to have a violent temper.
As his sons got older, they all acted out, getting in trouble with the law.
Randy was arrested multiple times for breaking and entering, drinking and driving, and larceny.
In 1977, Randy Travis and his brothers entered a music contest at a bar in Charlotte,
North Carolina. The contest was organized by Lib Hatcher. In the book
"Randy Travis: King of the New Country Traditionalists" by Don Cusic, she said,
"When I heard Randy, I just sort of dropped the papers, and thought, 'This is something special.'"
He won the contest, and Hatcher offered him a job, and a place to stay in her and her
husband's mobile home. But Randy was waiting for a court date after being arrested for stealing
cars and breaking and entering. Hatcher talked to the judge and convinced him that she would take
custody of Randy, who was only 17 at the time, so the judge let Randy off with probation.
Travis told CBN,
"Having her in court the last time, saying that I was not drinking, not using drugs,
not running with the same people anymore [—] that kept me from going to prison."
Randy Travis sang at Country City USA six nights a week. Lib Hatcher put all her energy and money
into furthering his career, to the point of it leading to her divorce from her husband.
Hatcher then became Travis's manager, and in 1981 they moved to Nashville. She began
managing a club called the Nashville Palace, where Travis worked as a singer and dishwasher.
In Nashville, country music was going through an "Urban Cowboy" movement — an attempt to cross
country music over to the mainstream by mixing it with elements of pop and rock. Travis's sound,
though, was old school country. According to Randy Travis' website, when he pursued a record deal,
he was turned down by every label in town at least once for being, quote, "too country."
"There wasn't a place for what I was doing, being just traditional country music."
While working at the Nashville Palace, Randy Travis recorded an independent album,
"Live at the Nashville Palace," which helped him gain the attention of a major label. In 1985,
an A&R executive with Warner Bros. took a chance on Randy,
but only on the condition that he change his name from Randy Traywick to Randy Travis.
One of his first singles was "On the Other Hand," a song about a married man turning down an affair.
It entered the Billboard charts in August 1985
and stayed there for about 12 weeks, peaking at No. 67.
Randy's team was disappointed with the lackluster results, but when his second single,
"1982," was released later that year, it entered at No. 6. Emboldened by this new success, Warner
Bros. decided to re-release "On the Other Hand" to radio as a single again. It went to number one.
His first album with a record label, "Storms of Life,"
also became a No. 1 hit, and Randy was on his way.
According to "Randy Travis: King of the New Country Traditionalists," Randy Travis had
for years dreamed of playing at the Grand Ole Opry, the legendary weekly country music concert.
Lib Hatcher courted the Opry crowd, but it didn't seem to get Randy anywhere.
Then, in March 1986, he was invited to sing on the revered stage.
Randy was introduced by Little Jimmy Dickens and sang a classic Hank Williams song,
"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." He was a hit. The Grand Ole Opry asked him to return on December 20,
and that night he was made a member of the Opry - at the time, the youngest singer ever inducted,
according to The New York Times Magazine.
1986 turned out to be a huge year for Randy Travis. His album sold two million copies,
and he also opened for large acts including Conway Twitty, George Jones, and Barbara Mandrell.
According to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Randy Travis was the first solo artist to debut with a
platinum album. And not just platinum — his 1986 label debut "Storms of Life" went multi-platinum.
After this hugely successful album, he released "Always & Forever," which includes his most
famous song, "Forever and Ever, Amen." "Always & Forever" went on to sell four million copies
and earned Travis his first Grammy award, for best male country vocal performance.
In 1988, he released his third album with a label, "Old 8X10," which earned him his second Grammy.
He continued to produce successful albums for the next few years. By 1992,
Randy had so many big hits that Warner Bros. ended up releasing two Greatest Hits compilation albums.
And by then, Travis had married his manager and one-time legal guardian, Lib Hatcher.
In 1988, Randy Travis got a taste of Hollywood when he took a small role in the film "Young
Guns." Then in 1993, after recording back-to-back albums and touring endlessly for years,
he decided to take a year to focus solely on making films. He worked on five movies,
four of which were Westerns: "Maverick" with Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson,
"Dead Man's Revenge" with Bruce Dern, "Frank and Jesse," and "The Legend of O.B. Taggart"
with Mickey Rooney. He also acted in "At Risk," the only non-Western in the group.
In 1994, he returned to his music career with the album "This is Me." Four singles from that album
made it to the top ten on the Billboard charts. But Randy Travis didn't stop acting. He had a part
in the film "The Rainmaker," starring Matt Damon, in 1997, and made numerous guest appearances on TV
shows including "Matlock," "Touched by an Angel," "Frasier," and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch."
Still, while Randy enjoyed working in film and television,
he told The Country Daily, quote, "music is my first love, and it will always be."
After a lifetime of singing country, Randy Travis pivoted to gospel music with his album
"Inspirational Journey," released in 2000. Some were skeptical of his sincerity, though. According
to The Houston Chronicle, some fans felt as though he was turning to gospel in an attempt to revive
his flagging career, as his 1999 mainstream country album "Man Ain't Made of Stone,"
didn't produce any hit singles. The closest was the title track, which peaked at No. 16.
In an interview with CBN, Randy was asked when he started his spiritual journey. He said,
"When I got into my early 20s, I was going to bed one night. I was still drinking,
still using drugs, and probably was drunk or high or both when
I just picked up the Bible and started reading to go to sleep."
It turned out that the fan skepticism was misplaced.
In 2010, Travis was baptized alongside his wife, and ultimately he turned out
five Christian albums. His second gospel album, "Rise and Shine" won a Grammy,
and his song "Three Wooden Crosses" won a Country Music Award for song of the year.
Randy Travis and his first wife, Lib Hatcher-Travis, decided to divorce in
2010. They had been married for 19 years and partners for at least a decade before that,
though it is unclear at what point they started a romantic relationship
after meeting in 1977. The couple had kept their relationship out of the press as much as possible
until after they married in a private ceremony in 1991. According to People,
Lib remained Randy's manager after their divorce, but that relationship eventually soured, too.
Soon after their divorce, the couple began suing each other over business matters.
According to ABC News, Randy claimed that his ex-wife had tried to sabotage his career by
leaking, quote, "personal details," actions which he considered a breach of contract.
Lib, on the other hand, claimed that Randy came to her office with a truck and a team of folks
to clear out her office. She sued Randy for breach of contract, and said that his actions interfered
with her ability to manage his career properly. It was a sad ending to a 35-year relationship.
After his divorce, Randy Travis found himself in the news and tabloids for a few embarrassing
incidents. First, according to the Houston Press, there were rumors that the reason for
his divorce was that Lib Hatcher-Travis had caught him cheating with Mary Davis Beougher,
the wife of his dentist. Then, in 2011, he collapsed in the middle of a concert at a
gala in Fort Worth, Texas while touring for his 25th anniversary. His publicist
explained the incident as the result of taking multiple over-the-counter allergy medicines.
But it got worse in 2012, when Randy Travis made headlines for two alcohol-fueled incidents.
In February 2012, he was arrested after being found drunk in a car
parked in front of a church in Sanger, Texas, 25 miles from his ranch. He was charged with
public intoxication. Just six months later he was found naked and drunk next to his car,
which he had crashed. According to NBC, the police came when a convenience store clerk called 911
to report that a naked man had walked into the store asking for cigarettes.
Later that same year, he also ended up in court following an altercation with Dr. Ritchie
Beougher, the estranged husband of Travis's new girlfriend. Travis was cited for simple assault,
but he and Mary sued, claiming they were actually the victims of a premeditated attack.
Needless to say, 2012 is a year Travis would be happy to forget - and things would only get worse.
In 2013, Randy Travis suffered cardiac arrest, followed by a debilitating stroke. Doctors had
to put him on life support and induced a coma in an attempt to save his life.
"After he flatlined, he was in a coma, then they noticed he had had the massive stroke."
He was given a 1% chance of living. While in a coma, his new fiancé, Mary Davis,
was told to consider taking him off life support. Mary says that he squeezed her hand,
letting her know it was possible for him to come back from this. Travis had brain
surgery and spent six months recuperating in the hospital. At the time, he had a packed
schedule of tour dates and a potential role in a TV pilot, all of which went by the boards.
Travis had to learn how to walk again.
The stroke also damaged his ability to talk and sing. According to Everyday Health, Travis said
"I had braved numerous storms in my life and had frequently faced overwhelming odds, times
when others had advised me to give up. I hadn't quit then — and I wasn't about to quit now."
In 2015, he married Mary. In 2016, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame
and surprised his fans when he sang "Amazing Grace" at the ceremony.
While Randy Travis cannot sing the way he used to, that hasn't stopped him from working. In 2020,
he released his first single since surviving his stroke, "Fool's Love Affair," which was
initially recorded in 1984. Charlie Monk co-wrote the song and proposed releasing it.
According to The Tennessean, it took three years of searching to find the lost master tapes,
which had to be remastered to bring the song up to modern recording standards.
But even before the release of the single, Randy had been making strides to keep his career going.
In 2019, he went on tour with James Dupré, who sang all of Randy's songs. He released his memoir,
"Forever and Ever, Amen," that same year. In 2020, he released a DVD and album of live recordings of
his gospel music. And today, you can find him on TikTok singing duets with his fans.
It's been a hard road, but Travis keeps on walking it.
f you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please call the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Administration's 24/7 National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. That's 1-800-662-4357.