Country music superstar Randy Travis lost the ability to sing after suffering a stroke in 2013, but has now released his first single in more than a decade.

With the help of artificial intelligence, the 7-time Grammy winner dropped the new song “Where That Came From” on May 5th.

Listen on YouTube here

The song was created through a combination of actual vocals, provided by James Dupré, and an AI model built from 42 raw Randy Travis recordings.

Dupré originally recorded the song in 2011, but it was never released.

“This song in particular was one of my favorites that I had ever recorded.” Dupré said. “I was always kind of bummed out that it was never released.”

Dupré now tours the country with Travis’s original band, sometimes with Randy too, performing several of the Country Music Hall of Famer’s 23 No. 1 singles. Two months ago, Dupré said he was called in for a meeting that he thought was about the tour.

“It was actually to sit me down and show me this song.” Dupré added. “They wanted to present it to me and ask me if I was willing to work with them on this project moving forward and of course I said yes.”

Dupré said he had initially been on the fence about the use of artificial intelligence in music, but said he’s in a good place about it in this case.

“The fact that Randy is unable to sing, but he is still able to make decisions for his career and for his music and to be involved in producing this project... he gave it his blessing and he was involved in it from the beginning.” Dupré said. “To be able to say ‘no he can’t do that’ I don’t think that’s right.”

Travis’s longtime producer Kyle Lehning worked with Dupré on the original recording and on this version. He told CBS Sunday Morning he worked syllable-by-syllable to make the track sound the best it could.

Dupré said he’s involved in the creation of at least two more songs with Randy Travis.

Listen to our full interview with James Dupré here

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