Randy Travis apologizes after video shows him nude and belligerent during DWI arrest

Country singer Randy Travis is “deeply apologetic” for his curse-filled rants at officers who arrested him for driving while intoxicated on a Texas road five years ago, Travis and his lawyers said Tuesday.

Travis, however, will keep up his court fight against the state of Texas regarding last week’s release of police dashcam video, according to a statement from his legal team. He contends his civil right to privacy was violated by the release.

Police dashcam video of a naked and ranting Travis was released on Friday after a federal judge in Texas denied his request to keep it private.

Fox TV affiliate KXII in Sherman, Texas, tweeted the video on Monday evening. The celebrity news website TMZ released a screen grab from the video on Monday afternoon.

Travis is a Country Music Hall of Fame singer and Grammy winner from Marshville in Union County. He suffered a stroke in 2013 that has left him with limited ability to speak.

[RELATED: Randy Travis loses legal bid to keep DUI footage private]

[RELATED: Country music star Randy Travis makes rare visit to his hometown outside Charlotte]

News organizations filed Texas Public Information Act requests for dashcam video of the arrest. Travis’ legal team appealed, starting a five-year legal battle that ended Friday when the dashcam video was released, KXII reported.

Travis’ family filed a federal lawsuit in September in Texas arguing that the footage should be considered private under health record privacy regulations, according to the Associated Press. The federal judge ruled that Travis failed to show a substantial likelihood of success on the claims.

His wife, Mary Davis-Travis, also was denied a request to sue on his behalf by the federal court, according to the AP.

Travis’ lawsuit said that the footage, which according to legal records shows him nude, disoriented and making threats to the officers, was highly embarrassing and intimate and that it would be inappropriate to release it because he “can no longer speak cogently and is not even in the position to discuss, let alone defend, his previous actions,” the AP reported.

The Texas attorney general agreed to redact certain portions of the footage because Travis was nude. The Charlotte Observer filed a Texas Public Information Act request this week for a copy of the video.

In their statement on Tuesday, Travis’ lawyers said his behavior “was extremely altered the evening of his arrest due to the state of his mental health, and substances in his body, causing him to do and say things that were entirely out of character. He suffered a severe concussion and sustained numerous other injuries from the crash.

“Randy Travis is well-known to be a loving, caring person who is respectful of everyone, a video that shows anything otherwise only underscores that he was absolutely not himself ...” the statement said. “A man of integrity with a good heart, Randy does not and will never condone these types of actions that distort the true beliefs of Randy Travis and his entire family.”

This story was originally published December 5, 2017 at 9:09 PM with the headline "Randy Travis apologizes after video shows him nude and belligerent during DWI arrest."