Carrie Underwood Congratulates Randy Travis on 'Forever and Ever, Amen' Memoir

Randy Travis just released his memoir, Forever and Ever, Amen: A Memoir of Music, Faith, and [...]

By Gayle Thompson

Randy Travis just released his memoir, Forever and Ever, Amen: A Memoir of Music, Faith, and Braving the Storms of Life, telling his life story, from his humble – and troubled – beginnings, through his iconic music career, and his more recent legal and health challenges. The Grand Ole Opry member has received praise from several in the country music community, including from fellow Opry member, Carrie Underwood.

"Congratulations [Randy Travis] on your book!" Underwood tweeted. "Sending lots of [heart emoji]!"

Travis sang with Underwood on her cover of his classic hit, "I Told You So." It was also Travis who invited Underwood to become a member of the Opry in 2008.

This isn't the only time Underwood has reached out to Underwood. The Oklahoma native also recently sent a video message to Travis, as part of his all-star 60th birthday bash at the Grand Ole Opry.

"Hey, Randy! Carrie here," Underwood said in the surprise video. "Happy birthday! Happy 60th birthday. You know I absolutely love you. I adore you. As an artist, as a human, you are such an inspiration to me and to so many others. I just hope you have the best birthday ever."

Travis didn't hold anything back in Forever and Ever, Amen, which he co-wrote with New York Times best-selling author, Ken Abraham.

"It's good to have this story out there," Travis' wife, Mary, shared with PopCulture.com. "There's lots of questions that people wanted answered. I feel like the book does that. It was exhausting going through the writing of it. Just emotionally and spiritually and physically, as Ken will tell you. But Ken made a daunting task very tolerable.

"We laughed a lot," she continued. "We cried a lot. We spent a lot of time on the phone, in person, going through articles and magazines and pictures, and just re-creating the life of Randy Travis. That's a challenge, because he had such a life and lived it in full color."

Forever and Ever, Amen gives a new perspective on one of the most troublesome facets of Travis' life, when he was arrested after being found naked and drunk in the middle of the road. For the first time publicly, Travis reveals in the book that he had not had too much to drink, but instead made the fateful decision to mix a little bit of wine with Ambien to help him sleep.

"Everybody assumed that Randy had gotten drunk and went out and had a car wreck," Abraham said. "That wasn't the story. But how do you defend yourself against that? Once something gets out there nowadays, it's almost hard to counteract that. Partially, that's why we wanted to face that story head on in the book and tell the truth about how it happened. And these guys were great. They didn't flinch at all about doing that. It's in the book."

Purchase Forever and Ever, Amen: A Memoir of Music, Faith, and Braving the Storms of Life on Amazon.

Photo Credit: Instagram/carrieunderwood

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