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Randy Travis is known as one of country music's greatest success stories, having sold more than 20 million albums in his career.

His music awards keep on coming—three Grammy Awards, five Country Music Association Awards, eight Academy of Country Music Awards and 10 American Music Awards. On top of his musical talent, Travis is also a well-known actor in several motion pictures, and will be seen this spring in the new Miramax film, "Texas Rangers."

But there's a new project, Inspirational Journey, that stands out from the rest. It reveals a deeply spiritual man who has counted on God, he says, to "find freedom to enjoy my life without all the guilt and misery I used to carry." Thanks to his wife and his manager, Travis is a changed man from his teen-age years, when he was trapped by drugs and alcohol and scrapes with the law.

"I recognize my weaknesses now," he says, "and I struggle against them. Things like my terrible temper still haunt me. But when I was baptized four years ago it was evidence of how far I've come. I pray every day now. I finish every day by reading my Bible. I know I'm weak and I know I need the hand of God holding mine on a daily basis."

He says that his new album, Inspirational Journey, reflects the centrality of God in his life.

FamilyChristian.com: Inspirational Journey is your first inspirational album. How long have you wanted to do something like this?

Travis: We started working on this four years ago, if you can imagine that. Probably a month ago, we recorded the last track that was a song called, "Don't Ever Sell Your Saddle." But we started that about four years ago and had been talking about it at least a year before that. I don't know why it took so long.

FamilyChristian.com: What's going on in your life that this album is being released now after five years of thinking about it?

Travis: It was just something we wanted to finish. When we originally signed with Dreamworks, which was 3 years ago, we told them that this project had been started and we wanted to finish it. Dreamworks did not have the contacts with Christian radio and those kinds of outlets to sell Christian music, so they said no, but they told us to go ahead and finish it and do whatever we have to do. So we began to work on it again. It's turning out to be great timing.

FamilyChristian.com: With the exception of "Amazing Grace, " you didn't include any hymns on the album.

Travis: I wanted to go mostly with original material. We recorded a few things that everyone would recognize—"Amazing Grace," "Old Rugged Cross" and "New Kid in Town." For the most part, I wanted to go with original things and wanted to help write some of it, and was able to co-write three of the songs. Since we had so long to work on it, we looked at a lot of material, but I really feel good about the quality of songs we have here.

"...I finish every day by reading my Bible. I know I'm weak and I know I need the hand of God holding mine on a daily basis..."

FamilyChristian.com: Which songs did you co-write?

Travis: "I Am Going," "But More," and "I Wrote" are the songs that I co-wrote. The song "The Carpenter," was written by on Avis, Chip Taylor and me, and I co-wrote "Walk With Me" with Les Bohan.

FamilyChristian.com: Tell us about the special trio on this recording.

Travis: That's "The Carpenter" with Waylon Jennings and Jessie, his wife. There again was one of those accidents. Producer Kyle Lehning and I said it just sounds like an old Waylon record. Kyle was working with Waylon, finishing a live album. He was helping to overdub and do the mixes and we thought it would be a great idea to have him on here. So we asked, he listened to the song and then he and his wife both sang on it. She had hit records on her own as well as singing with Waylon. "I'm not Lisa," was a hit she had back in the `70s.

FamilyChristian.com: How is this record different from a traditional country record? How will you promote it and tour it?

Travis: As far as promoting it, I don't know because it's a new world for me. I've never dealt with the business side of a spiritual, gospel or inspirational album. I don't even know if the record label calls and promotes a single or if they just send an album out. So, I'm learning as I go here.

As far as promoting the album itself, we are doing things like Christian-oriented shows such as Pat Robertson and the San Antonio preacher named John Hagee whom I've watched a number of times. We're going to perform on his show. The folks at the Crystal Cathedral wanted us to come and sing a couple of songs there too. As always, for 15 years of touring and recording, I just let my wife who manages everything and the guys who promote the shows handle it. I'm kind of like, "OK, point me in the right direction."

FamilyChristian.com: A lot of people would credit you as somebody who has stayed true to country's roots, which have a lot of gospel in them. Is that true?

Travis: I'm very much a country-sounding singer. What else am I going to do with this voice? So I kind of have to stick with what I do and we really work in that direction finding material with the message that we want in the song. The songs I can sing are obviously more country-sounding songs.

FamilyChristian.com: Christian music is really defined by its lyrical content. How important are the lyrics in the new Christian sounds coming forth?

Travis: It doesn't matter what sort of feel the instrumentation is; it's lyrical content that matters. There again is something it has in common with country music, although not quite as important as it used to be.

Many big country songs have a religious or gospel twist. For example, Hank Williams and "I Saw the Light." I've done a few too, like "Forever and Ever, Amen" and "Walked on Water."

FamilyChristian.com: You've been doing quite a bit of acting in the last few years. Are you working on anything right now?

Travis: We have two things finished. There's a movie Miramax made called "Texas Rangers," about something that happened after the war in the 1870s down around Brownsville, Texas. A man was hired to put together a small group of rangers and stop people from crossing the border who were killing people and stealing horses, cows, whatever. So Dylan McDermott plays the lead. James Van Der Beek plays one of the guys, and if you remember Terminator 2 where Robert Patrick played a character, he's in there. It's quite a cast. I'm actually a Texas Ranger. They wanted one character to be more like a gun fighter, not just a Texas Ranger, so I got to play that character.

Inspirational Journey Ordering Information

There's another movie we did last year, an independent film, which is going around right now to film festivals. Again, it was something that was based on a true story, about a man who was raised in a little town in Mississippi. He had very few friends to play with, so his main playmate was a 30-year-old mentally retarded lady. The father was verbally abusive to the kid and his wife and physically abusive to his wife. I played the kid's dad, so it was an interesting part. The story is about how children are raised by their parents, and how it affects what they turn out to be. It's called "John, John in the Sky."

We have a couple of scripts right now, but with a schedule of 57 tour dates, there's no way I can also work in filming.

FamilyChristian.com: What do you hope your legacy to country music will be?

Travis: I don't know. I guess that I was a pretty good singer.

Jen Abbas, a writer in Grand Rapids, Mich., originally conducted this interview for Family Christian Stores' All Access music catalog.

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