“CBS News Sunday Morning” gets an exclusive look inside the making of singer Randy Travis’ new AI-created song

Legendary nation music star Randy Travis hasn’t launched a new single since struggling a stroke in 2013 that robbed him of his cherished singing voice. Until now. “CBS News Sunday Morning” correspondent Lee Cowan gets an exclusive inside look at how cutting-edge synthetic intelligence enabled Travis to as soon as once more increase his voice in song in a narrative to be broadcast Sunday, May 5 on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.

“There’s just so much chatter about all the negative sides of AI,” stated Cris Lacy, co-chair and president of Warner Music Nashville. “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.”

Doctors gave Travis (“Forever and Ever, Amen,” “Deeper Than the Holler”) only a 2% probability of surviving the stroke. Besides paralysis, the space of his mind controlling speech and language was broken virtually past restore.

Cowan talked with Travis and his spouse, Mary, and in addition bought a behind-the-scenes look at how Travis’ longtime producer, Kyle Lehning, with Travis’ blessing, crafted a song utilizing the chart-topping singer’s previous audio tracks as a place to begin. With the assist of one other singer, a specially-designed AI program overlayed Travis’ voice on the new recording. With Travis’ enter, Lehning painstakingly molded the AI-generated vocal right into a song that felt genuine to the nation icon. “It’s not about how it sounds. It’s about how it feels,” Lehning stated.

“Him being here and him being able to be, you know, a vital part of the decision-making process makes all the difference to me,” Lehning stated.

“It’s Randy Travis,” stated Lacy. “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 that, that’s unconscionable to me.”

Cowan was there when Travis’ nation music family and friends heard the song for the first time. Travis’ single, “Where That Came From,” was launched to the public on May 3.

“It’s so weird to try and explain everything that goes through your head when you’re listening to it,” stated his stepdaughter, Cavanaugh Mauch.

Watch a preview clip from Lee Cowan’s report above. 
     

To hear the new Randy Travis single, “Where That Came From,” click on on the video participant under:

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