August 18, 2025

Ray Stevens: Health Update and CabaRay News...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens. I know that most of you have been up in the air wondering what the future will bring once the news broke in early July that Ray had a mild heart attack. At that time it was reported that he underwent a "minimally invasive procedure". Once the news broke it was announced that upcoming concerts at his incredible CabaRay showroom would be canceled as he recovers. There hadn't been much news to report for more than a month which is why I hadn't posted any updates here. That changed today when I went to his social media pages and learned that he's putting his CabaRay up for sale. Also, within the news statement published earlier today, we learned that in late July he underwent another surgical procedure. This time around it was a procedure where two stents were placed into his arteries to help blood flow/blockages. He recovered in a rehabilitation facility and once he was released to return home the news was released about the procedure and the future of the CabaRay showroom. There have been at least a dozen or more online articles posted sharing the same official statement about the CabaRay and the further surgical procedures. Ray said that he intends on performing concerts once he is able to do so and that he'll continue to record music. I don't know where he'll record music since he moved his recording studio to the CabaRay. I'm sure he'd be able to rent out studio space or even purchase a studio somewhere unless he's thinking about having a recording studio at his house? As far as concert performances go I don't know if these concerts he was referring to are being treated as make-up concerts for the ones that were canceled in July but once these as yet to be scheduled concerts are performed he plans on closing down the CabaRay and putting it up for sale. I went to a concert at the CabaRay in 2018. The concert I attended happened to be a few months after the showroom opened. While I was there with my brother we walked all over the place and saw a trophy case upstairs. A worker there told us that they have so much stuff in the storage building and they haven't had time, yet, to put everything on display. That meant that more trophies and awards he'd received over the decades weren't on display yet. I never did have the chance to attend another concert there. I didn't want to leave the place, actually. I nicknamed it Ray Stevens World. The photo of Ray I chose for this blog entry is from 2022. It was from the induction ceremony at the Musicians Hall of Fame. I hope everyone is keeping in mind that Ray is 86 this year.. the types of health issues he's recently been having are serious for any age bracket but especially someone who's in their 80's. Send get well wishes for Ray at his various social media pages. He has an official Facebook and X page plus you can send him get well wishes within the comment section of his various YouTube video uploads.  

July 10, 2025

Ray Stevens: On the Recovery Path...

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! News broke Wednesday afternoon, well, late afternoon, that Ray was moved out of the ICU and is on his path to recovery from the heart procedure a couple of days ago. In a social media post it was reported that he's out of the ICU and is walking the halls of the hospital with a nurse assistant as physical therapy. There have been hundreds of comments on Ray's Facebook page regarding the initial post about the mild heart attack and the surgery and the recent post of his being assigned a regular room and out of the ICU. As of this writing there's been no news on when he'll be able to leave the hospital. Considering the good news of his being removed from the ICU I thought it appropriate to feature a photo of Ray all smiles. I could've chosen any number of photos of him smiling/grinning but I chose a recent one. It would be a bit odd to post a photo of a smiling Ray Stevens from say 1987 or 1967, etc. when it's 2025. On a personal note I'd like to say that I was impressed by the amount of online coverage Ray's hospitalization received. If you do a basic online search of 'Ray Stevens' the top search results will feature dozens of websites sharing the news of his mild heart attack and the surgery that happened. I don't know how long the recovery process will be but I'm sure he's wanting to get back on stage at the CabaRay as soon as it's physically possible. I'm sure he'll do a test run or some sort of rehearsal prior to his return to the stage to see if he's able to handle it. As of now none of us know the impact this mild heart attack and the surgical procedure done on him will have on his stage performances. We want to be optimistic, of course, so we're hoping once he's recovered and has decided he's ready to go back out on stage that he picks up where he left off. He's canceled all of the July concerts. So, by late this month, we should have a much more clearer picture of what Ray's next steps are going to be. 

July 8, 2025

Ray Stevens: The Entertaining Legend Hospitalized

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! Just in case you haven't stopped by his social media pages today then I'll break the news to you all. Based on official statements from Ray's publicity/office staff he complained of chest pains this past Friday (July 4th) and a visit to the hospital revealed that he'd had a mild heart attack. In a social media post today the news was revealed that he underwent heart surgery yesterday (July 7th) and is in the recovery phase. I am optimistic that everything will turn out for the best and he recovers fully. He retired from concert performances last year but earlier this year he returned to the CabaRay to promote his current comedy album, Say Whut??. For a split second I thought of naming this blog entry Ray Stevens Had a Mild Heart Attack...Say Whut?? but I decided not to at the last minute. The reason I decided against it is because as of this writing, although he's in recovery, none of know what the coming hours and days hold in store given his age. He turned 86 years young back in January of this year. I am happy to see that thousands upon thousands of people online have commented/shared the news of his hospitalization. I just glanced over his Facebook page and as of now thousands of people have made comments and have shared the Facebook post breaking the news of his hospitalization. If you do an online search you'll see hundreds of webpages with coverage/headlines creating awareness of the entertainment legend hospitalized. 

Ray's office staff encourage fans to write get well letters or send get well cards and the address you mail them to is the CabaRay address. The information placed on an envelop should read: 

Ray Stevens 
5724 River Road 
Nashville, Tennessee 37209.

In case anyone may wonder the answer is yes. Ray has a very active presence on social media and with online music. This past year, as he has done every year since it's inception, he shared his Spotify statistics. The online music/streaming platform releases what they call 'wrapped' at the end of each calendar year. Ray's statistics on Spotify for the year 2024 shown the following...

As you can see 2024 shown over 990 thousand listeners stopping by Ray's Spotify page. 289 hours were spent listening to Ray Stevens songs on Spotify in 2024. His reach spread to 176 countries and there were 5.5 million streams. The 2024 numbers were nearly identical to 2023 except that in 2024 he increased the listeners and hours totals but lost a couple in the countries category. 2023's countries number being 178 while 2024's being 176. Now, of course, that's not much of a change statistically and so he's keeping steady with the streaming platform. Ray Stevens is an entertainer, first of all. He often says that he's a musician, first, and then a singer, writer, producer, and publisher. Critics say he's country or novelty.. in the 1960s and 1970s they called him pop and novelty.. he's a lot of things to a lot of people. He could've also been referred to as a landlord given his long history in real estate in and around Nashville. 2025 marks Ray's 70th year entertaining people. If you look at the pictorial timeline you'll see that Ray began entertaining audiences on radio in 1955 while still a teenager. He began his recording career two years later in 1957. He worked at WGPC radio in 1955 co-hosting a dance program called 'The Record Hop'. When Ray says he's been in show business "my whole life" he isn't exaggerating!! So, here's to a speedy recovery. The CabaRay concerts scheduled for July have, obviously, been canceled so that Ray can recover from his heart surgery.