Josh Turner grew up listening to the music of Randy Travis, and knew early on he wanted to have a career like the superstar. But it wasn’t until Josh was already making music on his own that he realized how special Randy really was, while at the ACM Awards.

“Randy Travis was being taken backstage, during a commercial break,” Josh told Circle All Access. “It was actually the day I met him for the first time. I saw him stop and talk to a little lady, a little old lady there that was working as an usher. He just spent, probably what seemed to her like an eternity, but he was basically having to be pulled backstage because he basically just gave this woman so much time and attention. That was when I realized that I had a really good hero in Randy Travis.”

Josh included Randy on his recent Country State of Mind album, bringing the 61-year-old in to sing the final note on Randy’s classic hit, “Forever and Ever, Amen.”

“Randy and I have been friends for a long time,” Josh shared with Everything Nash and other outlets. “It was an easy call to make, to have him come over and sing on this record. The only thing that I was really thinking about as far as Randy coming in and singing was the fact that I had been at different events and shows around Nashville, where some artist or songwriter would come out and sing ‘Forever and Ever, Amen,’ and Randy would come out and sing the last word, and the crowd would just go crazy.  And so when it came time to make this record, I started thinking that I can sing just about any Randy Travis song there is, but I wanted to go with ‘Forever and Ever, Amen’ for a couple of reasons.

“One, it’s his signature song,” he continued. “And two, I wanted to kind of recreate what I had seen live on the record. So that’s what we did.”

Josh’s invitation to sing on “Forever and Ever, Amen,” marked a first for the Country Music Hall of Fame member since his debilitating stroke in 2013.

“I gave Randy the option of singing more than just the last word of the song, but he was like, ‘Nope!’” Josh shared. “So Randy Travis literally got the last word. And then when I realized that this was the first time he had been in another studio since a stroke, that was when I realized that we had made history and it was a pretty emotional, bittersweet moment. It was good for him and everybody involved.”