Randy Travis recently joined Josh Turner to record a new version of Travis’ hit “Forever and Ever, Amen” for Turner’s upcoming album, Country State of Mind, and the two visited The Bobby Bones Show last week to perform the song live. In a video shared by the show, Turner played the song while sitting on a small stage and accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar, while Travis sat to the side of the stage in his wheelchair.
At the end of the song, Turner paused before the last “Amen,” smiling as Travis delivered the signature closer into the microphone next to him. Turner recently told reporters that when he was deciding which Travis song to sing for his new album, he chose “Forever and Ever, Amen” for “a couple of reasons.” Travis’ appearance on the song marks his first recording session since his 2013 stroke.
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“One, it’s his signature song,” Turner said, via Everything Nash. “And two, I wanted to kind of recreate what I had seen live on the record. So that’s what we did. I gave Randy the option of singing more than just the last word of the song, but he was like, ‘Nope!’ So Randy Travis literally got the last word. And then when I realized that this was the first time he had been in another studio since a stroke, that was when I realized that we had made history and it was a pretty emotional, bittersweet moment. It was good for him and everybody involved.”
Country State of Mind will be released on Aug. 21 and also includes collaborations with John Anderson, Kris Kristofferson, Chris Janson, Allison Moorer, Runaway June and Maddie & Tae. The album includes 12 cover songs in which Turner pays homage to a number of country music icons including five men who were influential in the singer’s own musical journey: Travis, Anderson, Johnny Cash, Vern Gosdin and Hank Williams. “I’ve always said that any song you hear coming from my voice, you’re going to hear bits and pieces of those five guys,” Turner said in a press release. “They taught me how to be Josh Turner.”
Travis recently released a new song of his own, “Fool’s Love Affair,” which was originally recorded as a demo in 1984. “Here we have ‘Fool’s Love Affair’ that sat on the shelf for so long, and it got tired of sitting on the shelf,” Travis’ wife, Mary, told Today. “It needed to be heard.”
