Editing Randy Travis (section)

==Early life==
Randy Bruce Traywick was born May 4, 1959, in [[Marshville, North Carolina]].{{sfn|Whitburn|2017|pages=365, 366}} He is the second of six children to Bobbie and Harold Traywick.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|pages=1-3, 8, 9}}{{sfn|Travis|Abraham|2019|pages=3, 4}} Harold Traywick worked as a meat packer and also built houses.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|pages=8, 9}} He also enjoyed listening to [[country music]] such as [[Ernest Tubb]] and [[Patsy Cline]], in addition to singing, playing guitar, and writing his own songs. By the time Randy was eight years old, his father would send him and his brothers to the house of a friend named Kate Magnum, who would teach him and his brothers Ricky and David how to play guitar.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|page=12}} Harold also constructed a stage behind the family house, where he would invite friends over to hear his sons sing.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|page=13}} Randy and Ricky performed publicly for the first time in 1968 at a talent show held at the local [[elementary school]]; while the brothers did not win, they continued to perform at local talent shows, with David later joining to accompany them on [[bass guitar]].{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|pages=13, 14}}

Randy dropped out of school in the ninth grade.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|page=18}} As a teenager, he committed a number of criminal offenses. These included [[reckless driving]] after he crashed Ricky's car in a cornfield, breaking into a church to hold a party, [[driving under the influence]], [[resisting arrest]], and stealing knives and watches from a local store.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|page=18}} On his seventeenth birthday, Randy was arrested for [[public intoxication]] and faced imprisonment.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|page=19}} Despite his charges, [[Don Cusic]] noted in the 1990 book ''Randy Travis: The King of the New Country Traditionalists'' that his parents still supported him, as they would pay his [[bail]] and support him in court whenever he was arrested.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|page=19}}

In 1977, the Traywicks entered a talent competition held in [[Charlotte, North Carolina]], after hearing an advertisement for it on the radio. The grand prize for the contest was $100 cash and a recording session.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|page=21}} The contest consisted of eight semi-final audition rounds held every Tuesday at Country City USA, a [[nightclub]] co-owned by Randy's future wife, Mary Elizabeth "Lib" Hatcher.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|page=21}}<ref name="virgin"/> At the performance, Randy played [[rhythm guitar]] and sang, while Ricky played [[lead guitar]]. However, Ricky had to drop out of the competition partway through because he had to serve time at a [[youth detention center]], leaving Randy to continue as a solo act. Randy ended up winning the competition.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|pages=21, 22}} Afterward, he held a conversation with Hatcher about his then-impending arrest charges for [[hot-wiring]] a neighbor's truck.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|page=22}} Hatcher and disc jockey John Harper, who also worked at the club, chose to represent Randy in court, which led to him serving [[probation]] and coming under the custody of Hatcher in lieu of a jail sentence.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|page=22}}<ref name="allmusic"/> Additionally, Hatcher employed Randy as a singer at Country City USA.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|page=22}} During this time, Hatcher advised him on his singing and performance. Harold would attend Randy's performances in this timespan, but was later banned from the club after altercations with patrons.{{Sfn|Cusic|1990|pages=27, 28}}