Louisiana’s James Dupré is Actually the ‘Voice’ Behind the New Randy Travis Song

It's been an exciting (and a bit confusing) last few days for country music fans after the release of a new Randy Travis song.

Yes, a new song from the legendary singer who suffered a massive stroke in 2013 that left him unable to fully sing since then.

But on Friday, a new single was released from Randy Travis entitled "Where That Came From."

Pretty great song, huh? But exactly how did that come about?

Simply put, the answer is AI (aka, artificial intelligence).

"CBS Sunday Morning" did a feature story on how the song came about, interviewing the key players: producer Kyle Lehning, Randy's wife Mary, Randy himself...and Bayou Chicot, Louisiana native James Dupré.

But what did Dupré have to do with this song?

AI was only half of the equation. Lehning pulled 42 Randy Travis tracks from the vault, like the original recording of his hit "1982." He then stripped away the music, leaving only the vocals.

But, Lehning would need the other half. And in this case, he would need a "surrogate" voice. That's where James Dupré comes in.

Dupré laid his vocals down for the song and the AI program took Travis' voice and overlayed it on top of those vocals.

Here's what Dupré had to say about the song:

Randy Travis’ voice is like a hug from an old friend and a voice that has been so greatly missed. It has been an absolute honor to be a part of helping to lay the foundation for bringing his voice back to the world, to his fans, and most importantly, to Randy. I hope there’s more “where that came from”.

Travis' longtime record label, Warner Music Nashville, was pleased with the outcome.

"It's Randy Travis. Randy's on the other side of the microphone. It's still his vocal. There's no reason he shouldn't be able to make music, and to deprive him of that, if he still wants to do that, that's unconscionable to me," said Cris Lacy, the label's co-chair and co-president. "How do you describe something like that?"

Want to see James & Randy on tour?

Of course, most of you probably know that James and Randy have been friends for several years now. The former has basically been a Randy Travis stand-in for the last several years, and this year is no different.

James Dupré is currently on tour with the original Randy Travis band playing the hits of Travis. It's called "The More Life Tour" and Randy Travis is at each show.

The next show is May 23 in Abilene, Texas and right now, shows run through November 2 in Newark, Ohio.