Carrie Underwood didn’t hesitate to pour her heart out in an emotional message to Randy Travis.
The 42-year-old country singer took the stage at the Grand Ole Opry on Wednesday during NBC’s Opry 100: A Live Celebration. The event celebrated 100 years of the Grand Ole Opry, an iconic venue for country singers in Nashville. The event, hosted by Blake Shelton, included a slew of performances from country music icons, like Ashley McBryde, Brad Paisley, Carly Pearce, and Kelsea Ballerini. The evening also served as a tribute to the biggest faces in country music, like Dolly Parton and Travis, 65.
Underwood started off her performance with a speech, recalling how she discovered Travis — who invited her to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry back in 2008 — through a cassette tape that her sister had of his music.
“From the first time I heard him sing, his traditional country voice and those songs, I was hooked,” Underwood said. “And I knew my sister was not getting her tape back.”
The singer shared that when she met Travis years later, she cried, as it was “so emotional for [her] to meet this man whose voice [she] had been singing to and along with” all her life.
Underwood continued her tribute by singing two of her favorite songs by Travis, “Three Wooden Crosses” and “Forever and Ever, Amen.”
Toward the end of the second song, the “Before He Cheats” singer stepped off the stage and walked towards Travis. She sang the rest of the tune to him, before giving him the microphone to say the final line: “Amen.”
She then pointed at Travis, prompting a round of applause from the audience, before she bent down to hug her friend.
On X/Twitter, fans expressed how emotional they got when they saw Underwood’s moving tribute to Travis.
“Tears everywhere as Travis closes the Carrie Underwood performance,” one wrote, while another added: “I’M NOT CRYING YOU ARE.”
“YES, I definitely am [crying]!” a third wrote. “Beautiful touching moment between those two. Not a dry eye in the Opry or here at home. Forever and ever AMEN!”
In July 2013, Travis was hospitalized with viral cardiomyopathy, a virus that attacks the heart, and later suffered a stroke. The Country Music Hall of Famer had to relearn how to walk, spell, and read in the years that followed. A condition called aphasia limits his ability to speak, so his wife Mary Travis assists him in interviews. Following his stroke, he didn’t release new music for more than a decade.
However, in 2024, he made his return to recording and releasing music. In May of that year, he released his tune, “What That Came From,” which was a rich acoustic ballad amplified by Travis' immediately recognizable, soulful vocal tone.
The song was created with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI), as Cris Lacy, Warner Music Nashville co-president, approached Randy and Mary Travis and asked: “'What if we could take Randy's voice and recreate it using AI?”
Mary Travis told The Associated Press over Zoom in May 2024, with her husband smiling in agreement right next to her: “Well, we were all over that, so we were so excited. “All I ever wanted since the day of a stroke was to hear that voice again.”
Earlier this month, Travis announced his return to the stage, revealing that he’ll be going on his The More to Life Tour this year. He’ll be performing in more than 40 cities in the US, alongside his original band and special guest vocalist, James Dupré.
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