Randy Travis And Roy Rogers Ride Happy Trails Tonight

When The Nashville Network approached Randy Travis about headlining a special about an authentic Montana cattle drive, the country-music superstar had a tall order: Get Roy Rogers in the show, too.

Travis was disappointed to learn, however, that Rogers would refrain from riding since he lost partial vision in one eye after a riding accident years back.

But during filming for tonight's ``Randy Travis - Happy Trails'' (5 p.m. and 8 p.m.), Travis found that you just can't keep an old cowpoke out of the stirrups.

``You know, it's funny,'' Travis said recently, ``he said he wasn't going to ride. I was talking to him, and he would put his foot up to the stirrup like he was going to, and he said, `No, I better not. The Lord's been good to me; I better not push Him.'

``So I just forgot about it. I figured he's not going to ride. So I walked off and was talking to Dusty, his son, and there he went down the hill. He headed down the hill on the horse.

``The cameramen were going crazy, trying to get to the camera. They filmed him riding toward the camera. He rides up, jumps off and looked toward the camera. I did the same thing, and that's the beginning of the show.''

Travis and Rogers will be joined by actor Denver Pyle (``The Dukes of Hazzard'') and singers Michael Martin Murphey and Holly Dunn.

``To me, Roy was just like I thought he would be,'' Travis said. The singer had first met his idol when getting ready for a concert at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. He visited Rogers' museum in nearby Apple Valley.

``I reached out to shake his hand, and he grabbed me and hugged me and said `Great to meet you.' I said `Great to meet you,' Travis said with a chuckle.

``He was somebody that I grew up with. He was a hero to me and a lot of other people, too. He's funny, very witty, a pleasure to be around. He was just like I thought he would be and that always make you feel good, when it's somebody you admire so much.''

The special, is a followup to Travis and Rogers' collaboration ``Heroes and Friends,'' an album that Travis recorded with such music greats as George Jones, Dolly Parton, Conway Twitty and actor Clint Eastwood.

``It's kind of like a dream come true, to stand in the booth and sing with Roy,'' Travis said. ``That was just one of the greatest things you could do, anybody could do.

``All of these people are great singers in their own right,'' Travis said. ``Definitely, all of them are legends in singing or in acting. So it's a dream come true. And I'm happy to say that most everyone of them have become good friends through working with them on the road.''

In the special, Travis and Rogers sing ``Happy Trails,'' which they also sing on his LP.

And then there's the riding and scenery: The 60-minute special was taped outside Red Lodge, Mont., over five days. The drive winds through the Stillwater River Valley below the Absaroka Mountain Range where Shoshoni and Crow Indians once lived and hunted buffalo. The drive features 200 horses, 100 head of cattle, 10 wagons, 50 cowboys and 75 guests.

For Travis, it was a chance to get back in the saddle. He had been riding since he was about 3 years old. ``I grew up riding, and was raised on a farm. Daddy kept sometimes 200 head of cattle, so I was raised riding.

``The cattle drive, that just sounded like fun to me. It sounded like something I would enjoy, riding and working cows and singing around the camp fire with these people.''

Travis, however, brushed aside any comparisons of his riding with that of the legendary Rogers.

``In Roy's day, I wouldn't say that I could outride him by any means,'' Travis said, laughing. ``Roy was a pretty good rider. He never rides anymore. Plus, he's 80 years old. . . .

``He looks great and moves great for his age.''