Confirmed.
I’ll be the first one to admit it – I assumed this was an older unreleased recording from Randy Travis. However, we now officially know that an AI voice clone was used to create the 64 year-old country star’s first recording in over a decade.
After a developing a respiratory infection that led to viral cardiomyopathy, and suffering a stroke just days later back in 2013, Randy Travis has had trouble not only walking, but speaking. Unfortunately since that time, the country legend has not been able to perform or record new music…that is until AI revolutionized every day normal activities.
Warner Music Nashville president, Cris Lacy, explained to CBS News Sunday Morning how AI was able to give Randy his voice back:
“We started with this concept of, ‘What would AI … look like for us?’ And the first thing that came to mind [was] we would give Randy Travis his voice back.”
Producer Kyle Lehning used Travis’ past audio tracks as a starting point, and then used AI to overlay Randy’s voice on the recording which was originally sang by someone else.
“It’s not about how it sounds. It’s about how it feels.”
Lehning
While most Travis fans are happy to hear his voice back on a new song (myself included), many on the internet (because of course) have criticized the decision to use AI. Warner president Lacy has this to say to those people:
“It’s Randy Travis. Randy’s on the other side of the microphone. It’s still his vocal. There’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to make music… and to deprive him of that, if he still wants to do it, that’s unconscionable to me.”
“It freaked me out.” In 2013 country music star @randytravis suffered a stroke that robbed him of his singing voice. Travis’ longtime producer, Kyle Lehning, gives Lee Cowan an exclusive inside look at how cutting-edge AI enabled Travis to once again raise his voice in song. pic.twitter.com/vxzXQ5k2OK
— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) May 3, 2024
Listen to “Where That Came From” here: