Randy Travis sings “Amazing Grace” as wife Mary Davis looks on; Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame & MuseumRandy Travis stunned the audience at his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame Sunday night in Nashville by singing a chorus of “Amazing Grace.” Rendered unable to walk or speak by a stroke in 2013, the country legend demonstrated how far he’s come by walking onstage with the help of Brad Paisley and delivering a surprise rendition of the classic hymn.
Earlier, Brad paid tribute to the North Carolina native credited with turning country music back to its roots by doing a solo acoustic version of “Forever and Ever Amen.” Randy’s contemporary Alan Jackson sang “On the Other Hand,” while Garth Brooks did Randy’s most recent number one, 2002’s “Three Wooden Crosses,” before inducting him into the most exclusive club in country music.
“Today the world is spinning right! It is so good!” Garth said earlier, as his wife Trisha Yearwood laughed in approval. “Never will you ever have to say, ‘Randy Travis isn’t in the Hall of Fame,’ ever again. It’s long overdue, well deserved and I would not be standing here. I would not be her husband, I would not be in this town if it wasn’t for Randy Travis. He was the forefather who kind of laid it down. Tell me some other artist in some other genre ever in the history of mankind who’s taken a format, turned it around back to where it was coming from and made it bigger than it was. It’s never happened. It’ll never happen again.”
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