Randy Travis’ intense health journey started with a symptom of the common cold.
During a recent interview with Fox News Digital while at The Nashville Palace — where a celebration took place on June 3 in honor of the 40th anniversary of his first album “Storms of Life,” the 67-year-old and his wife, Mary Travis, spoke about a time in his life where he leaned on his faith the most, noting he initially went to the doctor after having issues with “congestion,” but ended up finding something much more serious.
The “Forever and Ever, Amen” singer was hospitalized in 2013 for congestive heart failure tied to viral cardiomyopathy. A blood clot that formed in his heart then caused a massive stroke, which left him with partial paralysis and affected his speech.
“Obviously, during the stroke, that was probably the closest life or death, if you will, situation,” she said. “We were there for five and a half months. We left home one morning thinking we were just going to go to the critical care and get something for congestion that he had, and we didn’t walk back in the house for five and a half months.”
While in the hospital, Mary shared that Randy spoke with the Lord “all the time,” saying that while Randy has “always been close to the Lord,” they “leaned hard on the Lord” in those moments.
WATCH: Randy Travis went to the doctor for congestion and ended up in the hospital for five months
When looking back at that time, Mary said, “We hit that brick wall at 100 miles an hour, and things changed overnight,” but said that in terms of their relationship, it “definitely made it stronger.“
“There was never any question that we were gonna go in any other direction. It concreted it, is what it did. I knew that I was put in his life and he was put [in] my life right where we were, how we were,” she said. “Everything was in a plan, and it strengthened it because I needed him more than anything, and he needed me more than anything. And you know what? That was a great place to be for both of us.”
After going through his health crisis together, Mary urges others not to “take for granted the people closest to them.”
“I think that’s what we’ve learned is just embrace every single one,” she said. “I tell people, I say, put the phone down, turn the TV off, go out to the country, sit by a stream, eat peaches, enjoy life, and thank God for more life.”
CARRIE UNDERWOOD’S TRIBUTE TO RANDY TRAVIS MOVES GRAND OLE OPRY AUDIENCE TO TEARS
The event will not only celebrate the country legend’s debut album, but will also include a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the naming dedication of the Randy Travis Room at the venue.
WATCH: Mary Travis admits her husband Randy Travis’ health crisis made their marriage ‘stronger’
“I think what amazes us is when he and Kyle Lehning finished putting that album together, they agreed that if they sold 40,000 copies of it that maybe Warner would let him make a second album,” she said. “Of course, that followed up with ‘Always and Forever,’ so we know what happened with that. That was even bigger than ‘Storms of Life.'”
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While Randy has gone on to become one of the most legendary performers in country music, Mary explains, “He had no plan to be the legend that he has become,” and had never planned on being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and just thought “if I could make a living maybe out of making music, that’ll be okay with me.“
“He just came by it naturally because of his God-given natural talent,” she said.
WATCH: Randy Travis is celebrating the 40th anniversary of his debut album ‘Storms of Life’
Throughout his 40 years in country music, Randy has won seven Grammy Awards, 11 ACM Awards, 10 American Music Awards and many others, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016. He has also had four albums go platinum, one go double platinum, another go triple platinum and a third go Quintuple Platinum.
“I think every artist dips their paintbrush deep down into their soul, and then they paint on their palette their own different way, and they hope that it touches somebody’s life somewhere along the line. Boy, Randy, he did that. He had a string of masterpieces, if you will, with his music and his songs, and Storms of Life, there’s not a bad song on it.”
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She continued: “There’s three or four of them that became hits, but if you take any of those songs, they could all be hits, if there was just room enough for that many hits. So Randy got to pick a lot of the great music that he wanted to pick because he was singing traditional country music and most of the artists weren’t singing that. So he said, ‘I had pick of the litter as far as the music.’ He said, ‘My time was just right.’”
