Randy Travis’ Wife Praises Him for Serving a “Wonderful, Inspirational Purpose” Following His Stroke

Randy Travis has always chosen to look on the bright side. During a recent appearance on Fox & Friends, Randy’s wife, Mary Travis, praised her husband for his mindset following his 2013 stroke.

“It was a detour in life, if you will. You hit a brick wall doing 100 miles per hour. We were viral cardiomyopathy and the stroke, it hit overnight. It changed life, changed direction,” Mary said. “You just have to figure out are you going to get bitter or are you going to get better? Randy chose to be better.”

“He’s such a wonderful person to get to spend this journey with,” she continued. “I hear that people get mad, and they don’t like life, and they ask, ‘Why me?’ Randy never said that. He said, ‘Why not me?’ He gets to serve a wonderful, inspirational purpose to people.”

In the years since his stroke, Randy has continued to tour and release music, much to the delight of fans.

“Randy had a voice that was so iconic. His voice, his career, the humanity in this person sitting right here, he’s a national treasure to so many in the world,” Mary said. “His life itself speaks volumes, in his voice and in his silence.”

Randy Travis’ Wife Mary Teases His New Album

On Nov. 13, Randy will release his latest LP, Same Old Way. The album is full of previously unreleased tracks, which Randy recorded between his late 20s and early 50s.

“They were vaulted because the albums that were coming out, they had so many great songs on them. They didn’t have room for everything,” Mary explained. “His career-long producer, Kyle Lehning, started digging up bones and went through the vault and found some of these songs.”

The music is both varied and impactful, with Mary calling the album “a broad brush stroke of Randy Travis and his ability to take words and put them to music and grab our hearts.”

“To me, it’s just a really great crayon box of Randy’s ability to sing anything he chose to sing,” she added. “It’s kind of like a great box of chocolates, none of them are bad, you just don’t know what you’re gonna get.”

Now that Randy is largely unable to sing or speak, Mary is grateful for the catalogue of music he made over the course of his career.

“There was 40 years when he was out there singing. He was always writing… It was his fiber. It’s what he’s made of,” she said. “The last 13 years have just been a different journey. The music that he made, it’s in his heart.”

Photo by Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images

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