Forever And Ever, Amen: A Memoir Of Music, Faith, And Braving The Storms Of Life

By Randy Travis with Ken Abraham

Randy Travis, singer, songwriter, and Country Music Hall of Fame member, worked for ten years to become an overnight success. The son of an abusive alcoholic father and “a saint” of a mother, Travis was a teenager headed to jail when Lib Hatcher took him under her wing in 1975. They moved to Nashville, where they built his career into stardom. The pair married in 1991, when he was 32 and she was 50; they divorced in 2010.

That is the first part of the story told in Travis’s newly released memoir, Forever and Ever, Amen: A Memoir Of Music, Faith, and Braving the Storms Of Life. The title refers to his signature song. The second part of the book describes the major stroke he suffered in 2013 and his post-stroke life with his second wife, Mary Davis, whom he married in 2015.

Among those offering praise for Forever and Ever Amen is Garth Brooks. In a major compliment from one superstar to another, he says, “Randy Travis saved country music. I wouldn’t have had a career if it weren’t for him and his music.”

Unable to write the memoir himself, because he has recovered only part of his speech, physical dexterity, and memory, Travis selected Ken Abraham as co-author. Travis states in an author’s note, “I have relied on a number of individuals to help describe and fill in some details of this story.” He says he draws upon recollections of music industry personnel, medical experts, and family and friends “to present this story as accurately as possible.” Abraham, who has co-authored best-selling books with Chuck Norris, Bob Dole, Buzz Aldrin, and others, does an excellent job of tying together the dozens of recollections and producing a story told in Travis’s voice.

Travis doesn’t make excuses for his behavior or place blame elsewhere. Talking about his early relationship with the married Hatcher, he says, “I had no strong moral compass as a teenager, and I had few qualms about sex before marriage as a seventeen-year-old. So often as soon as Frank took off on another business trip, we hopped into bed.”

Few positive things are said about Hatcher in Forever and Ever, Amen. There is no photograph of her, in spite of their 35-year relationship. This isn’t surprising, considering their acrimonious end and the presence of Mary in his current story. He gives credit to Hatcher by saying, “Lib Hatcher turned out to be a great influence on me. . .. Had it not been for her, I might easily have continued a life of petty crime and ended up wallowing in obscurity.” Following that acknowledgment, the next sentence reads, “Of course, at that time, I was too young and naïve to see Lib’s controlling and manipulative characteristics.”

I’ve been a diehard Randy Travis fan since first hearing his recording of “On the Other Hand” in the summer of 1986. I’ve listened to his music and followed his career and the news stories about him. When he and Hatcher divorced after so many years together, I wondered who had divorced whom, and which one cleared out their office. When did Mary Davis come into the picture? What was going on when Randy made headlines for lying on a highway, naked and apparently drunk, in 2012? Why was he fighting with Mary’s husband in a parking lot? All those questions are answered with complete and matter-of-fact explanations in the book.

Travis was preparing to leave for a Canadian tour when he was hospitalized July 7, 2013. A misdiagnosis of pneumonia turned out to be viral cardiomyopathy, a virus of the heart that sent him into a coma, during which time he suffered a massive stroke.

Forever and Ever, Amen describes his hospitalization, most of which he doesn’t remember, told in his words but using the memories of others. For example, when Mary decided to bring him from Texas to Nashville for treatment, Travis says, “Her thinking was that my band members and so many friends were there, plus there was so much support in the music community, and she assumed the hospital would have an excellent music therapy program that might be helpful to me.”

For his 2016 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Travis prepared a surprise. “No one at the ceremony other than Mary had known that I was going to sing—or that I could sing,” he writes. “Although I couldn’t pronounce all the words perfectly, the audience didn’t seem to mind.” He sang the four verses of “Amazing Grace,” a song he and Mary had been practicing for weeks. Garth Brooks stood next to him. “I was grateful for Garth’s presence, but I started the song strong all by myself,” he writes. “He joined me in singing but let me take the lead.”

Other events described in the book include the three-hour, thirty-act tribute show in 2017, billed as “One Night, One Place, One Time: A Heroes and Friends Tribute to Randy Travis.” The title referred to his 1991 album, Heroes and Friends. When Garth Brooks closed the show with “Forever and Ever, Amen,” Travis writes, “I didn’t expect him to do so, but Garth saved the last ‘amen’ for me. He held the microphone in front of me, and I gave it my best ‘Aaa-aa-amen.’ The audience, already on its feet, went bonkers.”

Forever and Ever, Amen: A Memoir Of Music, Faith, and Braving the Storms Of Life is a story of perseverance and humility, the story of a well-loved but imperfect man. I highly recommend it.

“I’m getting stronger every day, and I’ve adapted to my new lifestyle,” Travis concludes his memoir. “There are some things I can’t do—yet. Maybe someday I will be able to do those things again. I hope so.” He adds, “I’m going to love my fans forever. And I’m going to love you ‘Forever and Ever, Amen.’”