There’s a whole century’s worth of reasons why emotions will be running high at NBC’s Opry 100: A Live Celebration, hosted by Blake Shelton, but perhaps especially as country icon Randy Travis makes a special appearance more than a decade after surviving a life-threatening stroke.
RELATED: Everything to Know About NBC’s Opry 100 Special — Hosted by Blake Shelton
Ahead of the three-hour live 100th anniversary event on March 19, Travis, 65, surprised country fans at the Grand Ole Opry, almost exactly 39 years to the day after he made his debut at the Nashville institution. Joined by country artist Clay Walker on stage, Travis announced that an upcoming biopic, titled Forever and Ever, Amen!, is in the works to tell the inspiring story of his life. The film will be executive produced by him and his wife Mary Travis.
In 2025, Travis will also travel to more than 40 cities for his More Life Tour with his original band and special guest vocalist James Dupré. “The More Life Tour celebrates something so much more than a musical moment in time — it’s a gift to me to spend time with my fans, and my band, as James Dupré perfectly presents the songs that best define my career,” he said in a statement.
Randy Travis waves to the audience during the Concert For Carolina Benefit Concert
Travis’ recovery journey has been remarkable, as is his legacy in country music. Read on to learn more about his extraordinary career, his health, and more.
Randy Travis’ country music career began over 40 years ago
Fans from the 1980s onward know Randy Travis as the man behind the microphone for some of the biggest country hits of the decade — and well beyond. Charting in 1985 with his first hit single (“1982”), Travis would become known as one of the leaders of the emerging “neotraditional” country style, which revived the genre’s most simple and traditional elements in an admiring homage to artists from earlier generations.
Travis’ initial radio success opened the floodgates for an ensuing deluge of what critics and fans today regard as stone-cold country classics. Beginning with his smash 1986 re-release of “On the Other Hand” and continuing through hit after hit (“Forever and Ever, Amen,” ‘Too Gone Too Long,” “Diggin’ Up Bones,” “Deeper Than The Holler,” “Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart,” and many more), Travis became one of the brightest stars in all of country music.
Travis was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1986 at the age of 27 and entered the Country Music Hall of Fame three decades later in 2016. Along the way, he’s notched one of country’s most successful solo careers, scoring seven Grammy Awards, 16 Billboard No. 1 hits, more than 25 million records sold, and his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
RELATED: Inside the Moment Reba Gave Lainey Wilson a Grand Ole Opry Invite on The Voice
Randy Travis’ 2013 hospitalization: Overcoming stroke and aphasia
Months before the 2013 release of his first-ever covers album singing alongside a long list of country greats (Influence Vol. 1: The Man I Am), Travis entered the hospital with viral cardiomyopathy — a chronic heart condition that required the insertion of a permanent device to help his heart pump on its own. But only three days after being admitted, the singer also suffered a near-fatal stroke; one that placed him on life support, required immediate surgery to relieve swelling around his brain, and signaled a long and uncertain path to recovery.
While the singer had been on life support, Travis’ wife Mary shared with TODAY that he had given her a sign to keep fighting. “Even in his state, his semi-coma state, he squeezed my hand,’’ she said in a 2019 interview, while reflecting on the harrowing choices that lay before her as her husband faced less than a 1% chance at survival. “And he laid there, and I just, I saw this tear just fell. And it was, you know, one, two at a time. And I just went back to the doctors and I said, ‘We’re fighting this.’”
That’s exactly what the couple did. Shortly after his hospitalization, Travis was admitted to a physical therapy facility, where he was subsequently diagnosed with aphasia — a condition that affects a person’s ability to communicate.
“Randy has aphasia from the stroke. One in three people that suffer from a stroke have aphasia, but we had no idea what it was,” Travis’ wife Mary told Woman’s World in 2023. “Aphasia has taken a lot of Randy’s speech and of course the singing away … I want people to understand that Randy understands everything, it’s just that he can’t communicate as effectively as he once did.”
How is Randy Travis’ health today?
Over the years, Travis has since relearned how to walk, as he did at the Grand Ole Opry House in March 2025, though he relies on a wheelchair for extended outings. But the speech-limiting effects of aphasia persist to this day. Remarkably, he is able to sing a few bars, though he has difficulty speaking and his wife often joins him in interviews to help communicate.
Living with aphasia and the lingering effects of stroke has profoundly changed Travis’ life. But his signature smile has shone through it all, marking an unmistakable optimism as he continues to find new ways to connect with fans. In 2024, Travis released his first new music since suffering his 2013 stroke, recording the single “Where That Came From,” aided by AI technology that scanned his previous vocal work to faithfully recreate his voice for the song.
“All I ever wanted since the day of a stroke was to hear that voice again,” Mary told the Associated Press about “Where That Came From,” adding that listening to the song was an emotional experience for Travis.
“Randy, I remember watching him when he first heard the song after it was completed. It was beautiful because at first, he was surprised, and then he was very pensive, and he was listening and studying,” she said. “And then he put his head down and his eyes were a little watery. I think he went through every emotion there was, in those three minutes of just hearing his voice again.”
Randy Travis smiles on stage during “A Heroes & Friends Tribute To Randy Travis”
How to watch the Opry 100: A Live Celebration
You won’t want to miss NBC’s 100th anniversary event as a full pantheon of country greats mark the genre’s biggest achievements — both past and present — live from the Nashville.
Opry 100: A Live Celebration airs on Wednesday, March 19 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET on NBC. The three-hour special, featuring a star-studded lineup of performances and a special appearance from Randy Travis, will also be simulcast on Peacock.
