Country gospel legend Randy Travis fights on after Devastating Stroke

Country gospel music legend Randy Travis suffered a devastating stroke in 2013 that left him clinging to life. Today, he still has difficulty speaking and walking, taking wife Mary Travis arm as he moves around.

When asked if it was a miracle that he’s still alive today, Randy simply said, “Yeah.”

The stroke put Randy in a coma for 72 hours, leaving people wondering if he was even going to make it through. Doctors gave Travis a 1% chance to live but said he let his wife know he was still fighting with a squeeze of her hand and a teardrop. 

“I went to his bedside and I said, ‘Baby, you gotta let me know if you wanna keep fighting this battle. And he just squeezed my hand and I knew then he wasn’t through fighting,”

Mary said.

Randy’s life in 2019 is a far cry from when he topped the country music charts, with songs like 1987’s hit “Forever and Ever, Amen.” He no longer performs due to the limitations from his stroke.

But when he celebrated his 60th birthday on 4 May at the Grand Ole Opry, which he was inducted into in 1986, he lit up the revered stage, reminding fans that he’s still the same Randy Travis they’ve fallen in love with over his three-decade career. As the band played a rendition of “Forever and Ever, Amen,” Randy crooned the final “Amen” of the Grammy-winning song to roaring cheers from the crowd.

Randy has chronicled these challenges and others, like his struggle with alcohol abuse, in a new memoir, appropriately titled “Forever and Ever, Amen: A Memoir of Music, Faith, and Braving the Storms of Life.”