Randy Travis Releases His Second AI Song ‘Horses in Heaven’

Randy Travis has released a new single, “Horses in Heaven.” The ballad, written by Jon Randall and Matt Nolen and created with the help of vocal AI, finds the country singer intoning, “There are horses in heaven/so I bet that God’s a cowboy/headin’ off into the sunset in a big white Stetson hat.”

Travis unveiled the track alongside a lyric video that showcases archival footage of him riding horses. The clip opens with the singer describing how the animals have been “therapeutic” for him since he was a small child (Travis’ late father, Harold Traywick, was a renowned horse trainer in North Carolina).

“This has been an incredibly hard 24 hours,” Travis shared in a statement “Last night, many souls were lost in the horrific plane crash in Washington, D.C. and this morning, we lost a dear member of our country music and Warner Music family, publishing giant Ben Vaughn. My prayers are with all of the people affected by these losses, including members of our team.”

He added that “Horses in Heaven” “feels like a timely reminder of God’s love and mercy.”

“I hope it brings some comfort to those of us hurting through these tragedies,” Travis said. “We have decided to continue with this release and promotion of it, but felt remiss to not share what’s on my heart right now… God Bless Ben, the victims of last night’s crash and all who are feeling the heaviness of this moment.”

Last year, Travis released his first new song in more than a decade, “Where That Came From.” The song, co-written by country veterans John Scott Sherrill and Scotty Emerick, spurred considerable excitement and curiosity from country fans as to how it was created — Travis has been mostly unable to sing or speak since suffering a near-fatal stroke in 2013.

It was soon revealed that “Where That Came From” was recorded with the help of AI, as was “Horses in Heaven.” The production team used the voice of country singer James Dupré to help build the vocals. Dupré had worked with Travis’s longtime producer Kyle Lehning around 2011 to record a demo of the song, although that version was never released. Lehning gave it a second life more than a decade later, using Dupré’s original vocal as the canvas over which to lay Travis’s AI-generated voice clone.

“Where That Came From” was perhaps the very first artist-sanctioned commercially released song to feature their own artificially-generated voice. The song later landed on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, marking Travis’s first radio-charting song in about 20 years.

Travis is currently out his More Life Tour with Dupré filling in on vocals. The trek continues through May with stops across the U.S. Last year, Dupré told Rolling Stone, “I don’t try to sound like Randy. Even on tour, I’m not gonna go out there to impersonate Randy Travis.”