UPDATED: The ballad of Randy Travis gets a "fighting outside a church in Plano" bridge

By Sean O'Neal | August 24, 2012 | 4:48pm

Aux Features Music

Though the ink has barely dried on the "naked in Tioga" verse of Randy Travis' hard-livin' country tune, the Method singer has already dropped into its plaintive, "drunk and fighting outside a church in Plano" bridge, with TMZ saying that Travis was arrested early this morning for doing just that. In a report that should be read while backed by a winsome pedal steel, arresting officers say an "extremely intoxicated" Travis aggressively stepped into an argument between a husband and wife, landing himself an assault charge for his troubles. This, of course, adds to a particularly rocky year/rollicking ballad for Travis, who has so far endured a bitter divorce, that recent DUI arrest in which he crashed his Trans Am, stripped off his clothes, and threatened to shoot the cops what brung him in, and also a February public intoxication charge. Incidentally, that arrest also took place outside a church, suggesting—while Travis' actions may be worryingly unstable—at least his life's song remains thematically sound. Now it just needs the uplifting coda.

UPDATE: Rumorfix now clarifies that Travis was not, in fact, drunk, despite those earlier reports. Furthermore, TMZ has updated its original story with a statement from Travis' attorney, who says that the fighting couple in question was actually Travis' fiancee and her estranged husband, adding of the singer's actions, "Fortunately even today, chivalry is not dead" [in the sense that fighting with your fiancee's husband can be considered "chivalry"]. So maybe this is where it becomes a redemption song after all?