The Story Behind New Randy Travis Song “Fool’s Love Affair”

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The iconic, Hall of Fame voice of Randy Travis was silenced in 2013 due to a stroke, but we haven’t heard the last from him just yet. In May of last year a new song from Travis called “One In a Row” surfaced, and then in in August of 2019 we got to hear another unearthed song in “Lead Me Home.” Now another new track called “Fool’s Love Affair” has been brought forth, and is being released to coincide with the 35th Anniversary of Randy’s debut single, “On The Other Hand.”

“Fool’s Love Affair” comes from SiriusXM DJ and former music publisher Charlie Monk. Before Randy Travis signed his major label deal, he signed up with Monk Family Music as a songwriter. Charlie Monk co-wrote “Fool’s Love Affair” with Keith Stegall, who was also an early champion of Randy Travis, when much of Music Row considered Randy “too country.” Randy Travis was tapped to sing on the demo of “Fool’s Love Affair,” likely in 1983 or 1984, and that’s how the song came into being.

Charlie Monk would occasionally play a version of the song on SiriusXM that he had on a cassette tape, but in 2019 when cleaning out his office, Monk found the original multitrack master tape of the song. From there they were able to isolate the vocals, and add new music to the demo which gave renewed life to “Fool’s Love Affair.”

Along with the song release—and different from the recent two songs released from the Randy Travis catalog—radio station networks such as Cumulus, iHeartRadio, Townsquare, Entercom, and SiriusXM have all signed on to play the song on Wednesday, July 29th, to celebrate the anniversary of Randy’s first single. Many country media outlets and big-named artists will also be helping to promote the song.

Also interesting to note, when they first released Randy’s “On The Other Hand,” it flopped, stalling at #67 on the charts. It wasn’t until they released the single again in 1986 that it became his first No. 1.

Though Randy Travis has lost his ability to speak, he is still cognitive, alert, and is able to communicate, and has regained some singing ability. Josh Turner recently announced that he is releasing a country classics tribute record called Country State of Mind on August 21st, and Randy Travis will lend some vocals to his cover of Randy’s “Forever and Ever, Amen.”

Randy Travis turned 61-years-old in May.

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