Randy Travis on How AI Helps Him Make Music Again + Perez Hilton Situation

**Adam Carolla** (0:00)
Well, in this episode, country legend superstar, Randy and Mary Travis. That's right, his wife joins as well.
We'll talk to them. Also, news with Rudy, and we'll do that right after this.

**Dawson** (0:22)
From Carolla One Studios in Glendale, California, this is The Adam Carolla Show.
Adam's guest today, Randy and Mary Travis. Plus the news with Rudy Pavich, and now, Adam Carolla.

**Adam Carolla** (0:36)
Yeah, get it on. Got to get it on. No choice but to get on mandate. You get it on. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for telling a friend. The ratings been going up. I like that. Of course, you know who Randy Travis is. His wife, Mary Travis and Randy have joined us via Zoom.
Randy suffered a stroke in I think 2013, and it's affected his ability to speak. But I watched some tape. I don't know. I understood what he was saying. There's a tour coming up. There's albums. There's all kinds of stuff. Randy's sold more than 25 million records worldwide. Big part of all our, I don't want to say childhood, just a younger version of us. So good to see you guys.

**Mary Travis** (1:23)
Good to see you too. Thank you for having us.

**Adam Carolla** (1:26)
Yeah. So a very interesting story and an interesting story. So Randy, of course, the household name Country Singer, paved the way for so many people ushering in a new brand of country.
Traveling, playing, selling millions of records has a stroke. And what originally was the prognosis with the stroke?

**Mary Travis** (1:56)
The original prognosis, the first day we went to the doctor, they said it was pneumonia, walking pneumonia. The second time we went back, they said full-blown pneumonia. Then it went into, he flatlined.
And that's when they feel like he threw the clot for the stroke, but he was in a coma for three days. When they pulled him out, found out that he had had the massive stroke, then the heart hospital, Dr. Michael Mack, he diagnosed viral cardiomyopathy, which was a virus that hit the heart, that shut down the lungs. So it was viral cardiomyopathy that started the whole thing.

**Adam Carolla** (2:35)
And how has the rehab and recovery been, for instance?
What was the hope? I mean, obviously, the original hope is that you live. And then the second one is, will you be able to walk? Will you be able to communicate things of that nature? Where was it shortly after the stroke?

**Mary Travis** (3:01)
Well, once they realized that he was paralyzed on the right side, the hope was just, like you said, survival, number one, after five and a half months in the hospital.
But I think what the prayer was, was just to have life and be able to live a life that's... We knew it would never be normal again, because anybody that has had a stroke or had a loved one with a stroke, every single stroke is different because there's billions and billions of brain cells that get affected in different ways. So the aftermath is always different. Ours was just that he would not be bedridden and in and out of the hospital the rest of his life as they supposed it would be. And we hadn't been back to the hospital and we're not bedridden. And we get to go out and still be with his fans. So I think it's the best that it can be under the circumstances, and we're very grateful for that.

**Adam Carolla** (4:06)
So Randy, I saw you were inducted into the Country Hall of Fame and I think you gave a speech and you were able to get through that.
So what can you... I know you kind of communicate through Mary and... But what can you say to us?

**Mary Travis** (4:32)
At the Hall of Fame induction, I gave the speech, but he sang Amazing Grace.

**Adam Carolla** (4:39)
Oh, that's what it was.

**Mary Travis** (4:40)
And he sang all four verses of it. And I think that just lends to the fact that with a stroke, depending on the hemisphere of the brain that's affected, the music is something that's ingrained. It comes from the memory side and not the, the conversational side, if you will.
So his left side was affected and that is what allows us to carry on the conversation. Plus, he was left with aphasia, which is the inability for the brain to send signals to the mouth, even though he knows what he wants to say, he can't say them, and that's aphasia.

**Adam Carolla** (5:20)
People didn't know he was going to sing during the induction.

**Mary Travis** (5:22)