The American Idol winner’s show at Billy Bob’s on January 26, 2017 was extremely special for many reasons. One of those being that a country legend stopped by to take in his show.
Scotty McCreery has looked up to many classic country singers throughout his life and works in a few classic covers into his set each night. When a country legend surprised him at his concert, McCreery was floored!
The one and only Randy Travis stopped by unannounced to visit with the 23-year-old country singer, who wrote about the experience on his Facebook.
“My tour manager says, ‘Hey, Scotty come here,’ so I walk up to the front of the bus, look out the window, and who is standing outside my door?! RANDY TRAVIS!!! He, his wife Mary and his family decided to ride over to the show and surprise me! Got to visit with them for a while before the show, and then they all sat on the side of the stage and watched the whole show!” he wrote.
https://www.facebook.com/scottymccreery/posts/1210254379024096
McCreery was so moved by the visit, he decided to incorporate Travis’ hit song “Forever and Ever, Amen” into his set, which is a song he had apparently prepared with his band over five years ago, but had never played it live before. He felt it was the perfect moment to unveil his version of the song, in front of the man who made the song famous. The only way he could describe Travis’ appearance and debuting that song live, was that is was a “God thing”.
While singing “Forever and Ever, Amen” was a first for him, he does have a few favorite go-to classic country songs that he does justice every time and gets the crowd cheering right away.
For this song in particular, all he has to do is say the first two words, “Hello Darlin’,” before the audience goes nuts. McCreery often sings this Conway Twitty hit and each performance is somehow better than the last.
Besides his incredible baritone vocals, the best part of the performance is watching Randy Travis sway back and forth and, at times, sing along. Travis is wearing a red shirt and can be seen for the majority of the video to the right. From the looks of it, Travis definitely approves of this performance.
We’d like to think that Conway Twitty is looking down, thanking McCreery for keeping his legacy alive. Watch his incredible performance below.