Randy Travis is back on the country radio charts… you love to see it.
For the first time in 15 years, Randy is charting on the Billboard Country Airplay chart with his new AI-generated single, “Where That Came From.”
Travis suffered a stroke in 2013 that almost entirely took away his voice, and severely limited his ability to walk, so it’s pretty wild to hear his voice again on a brand new song in 2024. The single debuted at #45 today, which was written by real people (not generated with chat GPT) in Scotty Emerick and John Scott Sherrill.
Travis’ last time on this specific chart was in 2009, when he teamed up with Carrie Underwood for a duet of “I Told You So.” This also marks the first solo charting single for Randy since “Angels” in 2005 (which debuted #45 on Mediabase and #48 on Billboard), according to chart inside Chris Owen.
The song has of course stirred up a more serious conversation about the use of AI and music, because in this particular situation, Travis was able to not only consent to it, but be part of the process, though that obviously won’t be the case for artists who have either passed away, for example, should an estate decide to put out a fully AI-generated album
In order to perfect and mimic Randy’s distinctive baritone voice for this new song, producer Kyle Lehning thad his work cut out for him. Randy’s vocals were isolated from over 40 of his original tracks, and after the music was stripped away leaving only Randy’s voice, it was then overlaid onto the track from Dupre to create the final product.
They had to go “syllable-by-syllable” to get the sound right, and like I mentioned, many fans of Travis, as well as music in general, are divided on not only this song, but the future of what something like this means for music in general.
I guess we could potentially be looking at the first AI-generated #1 hit in music, too, if this one does well at country radio and fans continue to listen… stay tuned.
“Where That Came From”
