Randy Travis
Randy Bruce Traywick (born May 4, 1959), known professionally as Randy Travis, is an American country music and gospel music singer and songwriter, as well as a film and television actor. Active since 1979, he has recorded over 20 studio albums and charted over 50 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including sixteen that reached the number-one position.
Randy Travis
Randy Ray
- Singer
- Songwriter
- Actor
1979–present
- Vocals
- Acoustic guitar
- Paula
- Warner Nashville
- DreamWorks Nashville
- Word
- Gaither Music Group
Travis's commercial success began in the mid-1980s with the release of his album Storms of Life, which sold more than four million copies. Travis followed up his successful debut with a string of platinum and multi-platinum albums. By the mid-1990s, Travis saw a decline in his chart success. In 1997, he left Warner Bros. Records for DreamWorks Records; he signed to Word Records for a series of gospel albums beginning in 2000 before transferring back to Warner at the end of the 21st century's first decade. Travis sold over 25 million records and has won seven Grammy Awards, eleven ACM Awards, eight Dove Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2016, Travis was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Major songs of his include "On the Other Hand", "Forever and Ever, Amen", "I Told You So", "Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart", and "Three Wooden Crosses".
Travis is noted as a key figure in the neotraditional country movement, a return to more traditional sounds within the genre following the country pop crossovers of the early 1980s. He is considered an influence on later generations of country singers, and is noted for his baritone singing voice. Nearly all of his albums were produced or co-produced by Kyle Lehning, with frequent co-writing credits from Travis, Paul Overstreet, Don Schlitz, and Skip Ewing. Since surviving a near-fatal stroke in 2013, which severely limited his singing and speaking ability, he has released archival recordings and made limited public appearances. James Dupré has toured singing his songs with Travis's road band.
Travis also holds several film and television acting roles, including the television movies Wind in the Wire and A Holiday to Remember, episodes of the television series Matlock, and the Patrick Swayze movie Black Dog.
Biography[edit]
Randy Bruce Traywick was born May 4, 1959, in Marshville, North Carolina.[1] He is the second of six children to Bobbie Traywick (née Tucker) and Harold Traywick.[2][3] Harold Traywick worked as a meat packer and also built houses.[4] He also enjoyed listening to country music such as Ernest Tubb and Patsy Cline, in addition to singing, playing guitar, and writing his own songs. By the time Randy was eight years old, his father would send him and his brothers to the house of a friend named Kate Magnum, who would teach him and his brothers Ricky and David how to play guitar.[5] Harold also constructed a stage behind the family house, where he would invite friends over to hear his sons sing.[6] Randy and Ricky performed publicly for the first time in 1968 at a talent show held at the local elementary school; while the brothers did not win, they continued to perform at local talent shows, with David later joining to accompany them on bass guitar.[7]
Randy dropped out of school in the ninth grade.[8] As a teenager, he committed a number of criminal offenses. These included reckless driving after he crashed Ricky's car in a cornfield, breaking into a church to hold a party, driving under the influence, resisting arrest, and stealing knives and watches from a local store.[8] On his seventeenth birthday, Randy was arrested for public intoxication and faced imprisonment.[9] Despite his charges, Don Cusic noted in the 1990 book Randy Travis: The King of the New Country Traditionalists that his parents still supported him, as they would pay his bail and support him in court whenever he was arrested.[9]
In 1977, the Traywicks entered a talent competition held in Charlotte, North Carolina, after hearing an advertisement for it on the radio. The grand prize for the contest was $100 cash and a recording session.[10] The contest consisted of eight semi-final audition rounds held every Tuesday at Country City USA, a nightclub co-owned by Randy's then-future wife, Mary Elizabeth "Lib" Hatcher.[10][11] At the performance, Randy played rhythm guitar and sang, while Ricky played lead guitar. However, Ricky had to drop out of the competition partway through because he had to serve time at a youth detention center, leaving Randy to continue as a solo act. Randy ended up winning the competition.[12] After doing so, he began to hold a conversation with Hatcher about his then-impending arrest charges for hot-wiring a neighbor's truck.[13] Hatcher and disc jockey John Harper, who also worked at the club, chose to represent Randy in court, which led to him serving probation and coming under the custody of the Hatchers in lieu of a jail sentence.[13][14] Additionally, Hatcher employed Randy as a singer at Country City USA.[13] During this time, Hatcher advised him on his singing and performance. Harold would attend Randy's performances in this timespan, but was later banned from the club after altercations with patrons.[15]
Personal life[edit]
For much of his career, Travis was managed by Elizabeth "Lib" Hatcher, a former nightclub owner. The two of them lived together for several years at early points in their career.[175] The couple secretly married on May 31, 1991 and bought a house on Maui soon afterward.[176] Because of the secrecy of their marriage and the relocation to Maui, Travis later noted that many fans theorized he was gay and had contracted HIV/AIDS.[176] In early 1991, the tabloid National Enquirer ran an article alleging that Travis was gay. In response, Travis considered suing the publication until a lawyer convinced him otherwise.[176][177] Journalist Michael Corcoran noted that their marriage was seen as controversial at first, due both to its initial secrecy and the fact that Hatcher was 18 years older than Travis.[176] Travis and Hatcher divorced in October 2010, citing incompatibility. Despite this, Hatcher continued to serve as his manager at the time.[178] After a period of engagement, he married Mary Davis on March 21, 2015.[179][180] The two of them live together on Chrysalis Ranch, a ranch they own outside Tioga, Texas.[179][181]
Travis underwent a number of public intoxication incidents in the early 2010s. He was arrested in February 2012, when he was found in a parked car outside of a church in Sanger, Texas, with an open bottle of wine and smelling of alcohol.[182] On August 7, 2012, state troopers in Grayson County, Texas, responded to a call that an unclothed man was lying in the road. Troopers reported that they arrived to find Travis unclothed and smelling of alcohol.[183] The Texas Highway Patrol said that Travis crashed his car in a construction zone, and that when they attempted to apprehend him, Travis threatened the lives of the troopers. Travis was subsequently arrested for driving under the influence and making terroristic threats against a public servant. He posted bail in the amount of $21,500.[184] Earlier in the same evening, just prior to the DUI arrest, Travis allegedly walked into a Tiger Mart convenience store naked, demanding cigarettes from the cashier, who in turn called the authorities. According to the store clerk, Travis left the store upon realizing he did not have any money to pay for the cigarettes.[185] Travis filed a lawsuit to block police dashcam video of the incident from being released. After a five year legal battle, a judge ruled that the video did not violate his right to privacy, and the video was released to the public in December 2017.[186] On January 31, 2013, Travis pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence in the August 7 incident and received two years' probation, a $2,000 fine, and a 180-day suspended jail sentence.[187]
In July 2013, Travis experienced difficulty breathing while working out at his home gym.[154] He was hospitalized in Dallas, Texas for viral cardiomyopathy. While undergoing treatment, Travis suffered congestive heart failure and a stroke.[188][189][190] The stroke affected the left side of Travis's brain, impacting movement on the right side of his body. Travis was placed on life support after the infection caused his lungs to collapse, and was declared to have a one percent chance of survival.[190] The infection, subsequent stroke, and three separate bouts of pneumonia led to Travis undergoing three tracheostomies and two brain surgeries.[190] Travis also suffered aphasia and lost the ability to speak and sing, while also suffering vision problems. These issues were mitigated through years of therapy with Davis, to whom he was engaged at the time.[190] By November 2014, he was recovering, could walk short distances without assistance, and was re-learning to write and play guitar, according to Davis.[191]
While the stroke removed most of Travis's ability to sing, he has made sporadic onstage appearances to perform in limited capacity. In 2015, Travis made a guest appearance at the Academy of Country Music awards ceremony, one of his first public appearances after his stroke, where Lee Brice paid tribute to him by singing "Forever and Ever, Amen".[180] Travis sang "Amazing Grace" in March 2016 at an induction ceremony into the Country Music Hall of Fame, where Davis accompanied him.[154][179] Despite this, Travis's speech remained limited when he was interviewed by The Tennessean in 2017, and he remained largely confined to a wheelchair.[154] He appeared onstage with singer Michael Ray during a cover performance of "Forever and Ever, Amen" in June 2017, to which Travis contributed the final "Amen."[192] He did the same during his 60th birthday party, hosted by the Grand Ole Opry on May 4, 2019.[193]