Country’s comeback kid

Randy Travis, Fri. Aug. 20, 8 p.m., Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs (1280 Route 315, Plains Twp.). Tickets: $15.99-$19.99, Mohegan Sun’s Valet Lobby noon-8 p.m. or Ticketmaster outlets. Info: 1.888.WIN.INPA, www.randytravis.com

With a sense of disbelief in his voice, Randy Travis recounts “the most amazing story that anyone has ever told me.”

“This man came up to me after a performance one night, and he said, ‘I need to talk to you,’” the country legend says in a phone conversation with the Weekender. “And he was a big ol’ boy, he was about 6-5 or something. … And then he started to cry, and I thought, ‘This is getting uncomfortable.’”

The man’s son was engaged to a woman who had been raped and decided to give birth to the child. He told Travis, “I’ve been telling (my son), ‘It’s not your child, it’s not your problem, don’t marry her, that’s not my grandkid.”

“But he said, ‘After hearing “Raise Him Up” tonight, I’ll tell him, ‘I support the decision you made, and (you should) raise that child like it’s your own, and I’ll love it like a grandkid,’” says Travis.

PAYING HIS DUES

Writing and singing songs that literally change people’s lives has been a magical part of the nearly 25-year career of Travis. The music industry at first thought he was “too country” for a record deal, but he went on to sell more than 20 million records and rack up seven Grammy Awards, nine Academy of Country Music statuettes, 10 American Music Awards and a laundry list of other honors.

Born Randy Bruce Traywick in North Carolina, the singer/songwriter dreamt of making it in country music, following in the footsteps of his heroes like Hank Williams Sr., George Jones and Lefty Frizzell. But the record labels, caught up in the hype that pushed country music into the mainstream on the heels of the 1980 hit movie “Urban Cowboy,” weren’t biting.

“I got turned down by every record label in Nashville, some of them three or four times,” says Travis, who will perform at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs Friday, Aug. 20. “I got turned down by Warner Bros. twice before finally getting signed by them.”

Traywick and his manager/wife Elizabeth moved to Nashville, where she ran a nightclub called The Nashville Palace. She hired Traywick to work there.

“I was cooking and washing dishes, but I was singing 10 til 2,” says Travis, when one night in 1985, Martha Sharp from Warner Bros. watched him perform.

“She listened to us, and we talked a little bit — actually she said very little, and at the end of the night, I thought, ‘That’ll be another no,’” Travis recalls, laughing. “But within a month we were signed to Warner Bros.”

The label changed his last name to the more pronounceable and marketable Travis. He’s still with Warner Bros., Elizabeth and Kyle Lehning, who has produced nearly all of his albums.

For the singer, who has released several gospel albums in addition to his country music, the long road might have been a blessing.

“It was slow. It was a building process. I don’t regret it at all. My wife and manager, we started pursuing this career by the time I was 18 years old, and to be honest with you, if I had been signed and succeeded in those days, I would’ve killed myself,” Travis says, laughing hysterically but making a serious point. “I’ve always been honest with everybody in the press about the early years of my life, starting with heavy drug and alcohol use very early on. So if I had free reign or carte blanche, I wouldn’t have lived to be 25.

“And we all need to pay our dues, and I’m really, truly grateful for what we do.”

LOVE FOR UNDERWOOD

Last year, Travis released “I Told You So: The Ultimate Hits of Randy Travis,” a retrospective that looks back on a remarkable career that wouldn’t have blossomed if he had taken “no” for an answer. It includes two new songs — “You Ain’t Right” and “Love’s Alive and Well” — as well as a reworking with Carrie Underwood of his 1987 country chart-topper “I Told You So.” Before they collaborated, Underwood recorded a version of the song for her 2007 “Carnival Ride” album.

Calling Underwood “wonderful,” Travis notes that the starlet asked for permission to record “I Told You So,” even though it wasn’t required.

“Yeah, and anything else I might have in the catalog!” he says he told the hitmaker. “She did that vocal performance, and the first time we heard that was over the phone. And I was amazed even just hearing it on the phone. My comment then was, ‘You know, it was far more suited for her as a vocalist than it was for me.’ She’s remarkable.”

FROM SONGS TO SCREENS

Travis’ life story of perseverance seems scripted for the big screen. It’s interesting, then, that he has pursued TV and movie acting since Elizabeth told Andy Griffith that her husband and client would like to appear on Griffith’s then-show “Matlock.” “(It) didn’t cross my mind — anyway, she’ll do things like that,” Travis says of Elizabeth, laughing again.

He turned up in a few “Matlock” episodes, then a few installments of “Touched By An Angel” and later landed in several films, most recently the supernatural dramas “The Visitation” (2006) and “The Wager” (2007). He calls the movie roles “bit parts.”

“It’s been fun,” Travis says. “I’ve enjoyed it. I’m certainly not a trained actor. I enjoy doing that, have since day one.”

THE STORYTELLER

Next year, Travis’ career as a major-label artist will turn 25. To celebrate, he’ll release a new album of collaborations.

“I’ve been in the studio already quite a few times at this point,” he says, “and have recorded with Josh Turner, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson.”

The release will be a mix of old and new. For example, Travis says he recorded a new tune with Tim McGraw and did a medley and a new track with Jackson. Another collaborator is John Anderson. With Anderson, a friend for nearly 30 years, Travis redid his song “Diggin’ Up Bones.” “I didn’t know this,” Travis says, “but when it was written, there was actually a third verse to the song, and we added that on the record, and it’s hilarious.”

Underwood, too, is “gonna be in the studio with us,” he says. “She wants to do something old, and I don’t even know what we’re going to do yet.”

The album should be out in 2011 at the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter, Travis says.

Whenever it is available, it’s a safe wager that listeners will again find their own personal connections to the songs.

“You know, country music is all about telling stories, regardless of where we’re from,” says Travis. “Some would tell you it’s just usually (about) the working man, but it’s not just that. I don’t care where you’re from, it’s about you’re life, what you live through each and every day, no matter where you’re from and what you might do for a living.

“The music is something very, very special. It’s amazing how a song can touch people in so many ways. It can bring back good memories, and in some cases help get through some hard things that are going on.”

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