A Randy Travis Biopic Is Now in the Works: 'Life Story Just as He Lived It' (Exclusive)

A groundbreaking career packed with drama, a near-fatal health crisis, a miraculous and redemptive recovery: Country legend Randy Travis has lived a life worthy of a feature film — and now it’s finally being made!

Forever and Ever, Amen, named after Travis’ signature hit and his 2020 memoir, is currently in production as a theatrical release, and PEOPLE is reporting the news exclusively. Travis, 65, and fellow country artist Clay Walker, who will portray the beloved icon in the biopic, will make the public announcement on Wednesday night from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.

“I’m so glad that this story is going to get told because it deserves to get told,” Walker, 55, tells PEOPLE.

Walker’s conviction, in fact, turns out to be what ignited the project. A longtime friend of Travis and his wife, Mary, Walker brought the idea to filmmaker Andrew Hyatt, who has directed such inspirational movies as Sight, The Blind and Paul, Apostle of Christ. Drawing from Travis’ memoir and other sources, Hyatt has written the screenplay, and he also will direct the film. Eric Groth, Hyatt’s partner at Sacred Arthouse film production company, is producing the project, as well as Zach Dasher and Korie Robertson from Tread Lively. Walker, Travis, and his wife, Mary, also have signed on as executive producers.

Randy and Mary Travis received the first draft of the screenplay last fall, and Mary Travis says it was everything they wanted.

“This is what we prayed for — for somebody who would tell Randy’s life story just as he lived it,” says Mary Travis, 65, who has served as the couple’s spokesperson since a 2013 stroke mostly robbed her husband of the ability to speak and sing.

Indisputably, Travis will go down in history as one of country’s most influential artists, almost single-handedly turning the genre away from pop influences and toward more traditional sounds in the mid-1980s. As Garth Brooks once famously said, “Randy Travis saved country music.”

But achieving that high also meant overcoming a turbulent adolescence and a bleak decade trying to gain a foothold in Nashville. Even after his success, marriage to his manager greatly complicated his career, and as that relationship unraveled in the early 2000s, he turned to substance abuse. Then just as he was putting his life back together — with the help of Mary, his fiancée at the time — Travis suffered the devastating stroke. Dramatically defying doctors' expectations, he has since regained much of his health and resumed his public life.

Walker and Mary Travis promise the movie won’t sugarcoat any of the trials.

“He had bumps and bruises and rough spots,” says Mary Travis, who wed Travis in 2015. “But Randy never, ever ran from those, and he never denied them. He accepted them. He learned from them. He moved on, and he used them as an inspiration for others.”

Moviegoers, Walker says, “are going to find out the deep struggles that he had. I look at Randy’s life, and I see redemption. This is a man who’s overcome all those challenges. He’s survived it all. Everybody knows that golden voice of his, but I think this movie is going to endear him to people in a whole new way.”

Walker has signed on to portray Travis in his later years; other actors, not yet cast, will play him in his youth and during the trailblazing era of his career.

Though Walker’s acting experience has mostly been in music videos, he's confident he comes with the credentials to play the big-screen part. “To me, this is largely not going to be acting because I’ve been through a lot of those hardships that Randy has been through,” says Walker, who's had his own health issues living with multiple sclerosis for three decades. “I grew up rough. I’ve been through a divorce. I struggle with walking sometimes. I can put myself in Randy’s place. Randy doesn’t need sympathy, but I empathize with him, and so I think I’m going to be able to give the role an authenticity.”

The one thing Walker isn’t going to do for the role, though, is sing; recordings of Travis will be used for the performance scenes. “This really is about that voice of his,” says Walker. “Nobody can come even close to getting that right. I can sing pretty good, but I’m no Randy Travis, that’s for sure.”

Filming is expected to begin this summer, and Nashville and Travis’ home state of North Carolina are anticipated to be among the locations. The production company has set its sights on a spring 2026 release to theaters.

Mary Travis says she and her husband plan to visit the set when they can, but they also will be busy with Travis’ ongoing More Life Tour, which has just been extended into November. The show, which is being performed before sold-out crowds, features Travis' original touring band, video highlights from his career and guest vocalist James Dupré performing the Country Music Hall of Famer’s classics. Travis oversees it all onstage, interacting with the performers and the audience with gestures and his lit-from-within smile.

"It's just incredible to watch how Randy orchestrates the whole thing from his chair," says Mary Travis. "It's a beautiful thing."

The concerts also are showcasing Travis’ new venture into making music with the help of artificial intelligence and voice samples from his career recordings. His first single, “Where That Came From,” was released last May and debuted at No. 45 on Billboard’s Country Airplay. He released a second single, “Horses in Heaven,” on Jan. 31.

Serendipitously, Walker’s newest single is titled “Cowboys in Heaven.”

“Who’s gonna ride them horses?” Walker quips. “You gotta have cowboys!”

Neither Walker nor Travis knew about the other’s song before their releases, but Walker sees their similarities as a sign of two artists who are now very much in sync.

“I don’t really believe in coincidences,” says Walker. “It’s very telling. I think we’re on the same path.”