A very special guest took the stage during the Josh Abbott Band's Saturday night (Jan. 9) appearance at Fort Worth honky-tonk Billy Bob's Texas. Country legend Randy Travis was all smiles as the Lubbock-based band covered one of his most loved hits, "Forever and Ever, Amen."
"Moments like this are when I think to myself 'how is this my life?'," Abbott wrote on social media. "Like all of you, I grew up on the music of Randy Travis. He's a legend. This song was my wife & I's 'send-off dance' at our wedding. For him to come to our show and us have this moment, it's just special. I'm soaking this one in. He sat side stage with his wife smiling and enjoying the night watching my daughter dance around. I mean, how is this my life?! Thank you to everyone who came out last night to @billybobstexas and witnessed this one of a kind moment."
Mary and Randy Travis were known to pop up at concerts before COVID-19 halted live music, be it at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville or at one of Texas' iconic country music venues.
"Forever and Ever, Amen," a chart-topper from 1987, was written by Paul Overstreet and Travis' fellow Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Don Schlitz. More recently, Travis lent his voice to Josh Turner's cover version on recent studio album Country state of Mind.
The Josh Abbott Band's fresh off the Nov. 2020 release of its new album, The Highway Kind. Earlier standout tracks include duets with Kacey Musgraves, Carly Pearce and Texas singer-songwriter Pat Green.
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Abbott also grabbed headlines in the past year as a member of Texas country supergroup the Panhandlers alongside William Clark Green, Flatland Cavalry's Cleto Cordero and John Baumann.
Early year appearances at Billy Bob's by Abbott, the Randy Rogers Band and other country artists kick off the venue's 40th anniversary celebration.
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