Garth Brooks

Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962), best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at #2 in the US country album chart while climbing to #13 on the Billboard 200 pop album chart. Brooks's integration of rock ^{rock music} elements into his recordings and live performances has earned him immense popularity. This progressive approach allowed him to dominate the country single and album charts while quickly crossing over into the mainstream pop arena, exposing country music to a larger audience.

Brooks has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, breaking records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the 1990s. Garth Brooks still continues to sell well and according to Nielsen Soundscan, his album sales up to 68,363,000 (until the end of 2009), which makes him the best-selling albums artist in the United States in the SoundScan era ^{List of best-selling music artists in the United States} (1991-to date), a title held since 1991, well over 7 million ahead of his nearest rival, The Beatles.

Troubled by conflicts between career and family, Brooks officially retired from recording and performing from 2001 until 2009. During this time he sold millions of albums through an exclusive distribution deal with Wal-Mart and has sporadically released new singles. In 2005, Brooks started a partial comeback, and has since given several performances and released two compilation albums.

On October 15, 2009, Garth Brooks announced the end of his retirement. In December 2009, he began a 5 year concert deal with the Encore Hotel and Casino ^{Encore Las Vegas} on the Las Vegas Strip. He continues to deny any plans to tour or record new music for another 5 years.

  Garth Brooks was born on February 7, 1962 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was the youngest child of Troyal Raymond Brooks, a draftsman ^{technical drawing} for an oil company, and Colleen Carroll, a 1950s-era country singer who recorded on the Capitol Records label and appeared on Ozark Jubilee. This was the second marriage for each of his parents, giving Garth four older half-siblings (Jim, Jerry, Mike, and Betsy). The couple had two children together, Kelly and Garth. At their home in Yukon, Oklahoma, the family hosted weekly talent nights. All of the children were required to participate, either by singing or doing skits. Brooks learned to play both the guitar and banjo.

As a child, he often sang in casual family settings but his primary focus was athletics. In high school, he played football ^{American football} and baseball and ran track ^{athletics (track and field)} . He received a track scholarship to Oklahoma State University ^{Oklahoma State University / Stillwater} in Stillwater ^{Stillwater, Oklahoma} , where he competed in the javelin. Brooks graduated in 1984 with a degree in advertising. Brooks traveled to Nashville ^{Nashville, Tennessee} to pursue a recording contract; he returned to Oklahoma within 24 hours. In 1986, Brooks married Sandy Mahl, whom he had met while working as a bouncer ^doorman . In 1987, the couple moved to Nashville, and Brooks began making contacts in the music industry. The couple later had three daughters: Taylor Mayne Pearl (born 1992), August Anna (born 1994) and Allie Colleen (born 1996).
1989 / 1990: Breakthrough success

Garth Brooks's eponymous first album ^{Garth Brooks (album)} , was released in 1989 and was a critical and chart success. It peaked at #2 in the US country album chart and reached #13 on the Billboard 200 pop album chart. Most of the album was traditionalist country, influenced in part by George Strait. The first single, "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)," was a country top 10 success. It was followed by his first country #1, "If Tomorrow Never Comes." "Not Counting You" reached #2, and then "The Dance ^{The Dance (Garth Brooks song)} " put him at #1 again; this song's theme of people dying while doing something they believe in resonated strongly and, together with a popular music video, gave Brooks his first push towards a broader audience. Brooks has claimed that of all the songs he has recorded, "The Dance" is his favorite. The album also reached #3 on the pop chart, and eventually became Brooks's highest-selling album, with domestic shipments of 17 million. It contained what would become Brooks's signature song, the blue collar anthem "Friends in Low Places", as well as two other Brooks classics, the dramatic and controversial "The Thunder Rolls" and the philosophically ironic "Unanswered Prayers". Each of these songs, as well as the affectionate "Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House," reached #1 on the country chart. Similarly, Brooks was influenced by the operatic rock of the 1970s-era Freddie Mercury, Billy Joel, and Bruce Springsteen. In his highly successful live shows, Brooks used a wireless headset microphone to free himself to run about the stage, adding energy and arena rock theatrics to spice up the normally staid country music approach to concerts. The hard rock band Kiss was also one of his earliest grade school musical influences and his shows often reflected this. Brooks said that the style of his show was inspired mostly by Chris LeDoux.


1991 / 1993: Ropin' the Wind and The Chase

Brooks's third album, Ropin' the Wind, released in September 1991, had advance orders of 4 million copies and entered the pop album charts at #1, a first for a country act. Ropin' the Wind's music was a melange of pop country and honky tonk ^{honky tonk music} ; hits included Billy Joel's "Shameless ^{Shameless (song)} ", "What She's Doing Now", and "The River ^{The River (Garth Brooks song)} ". All told, it became his second-best selling album after No Fences. The success of this album further propelled the sales of his first two albums, enabling Brooks to become the first country artist with three albums listed in the pop top 20 in one week.

After spending time in Los Angeles ^{Los Angeles, California} during the 1992 riots ^{1992 Los Angeles riots} , Brooks co-wrote the gospel-country-rock hybrid "We Shall Be Free" to express his desire for tolerance. The song became the first single off his fourth album The Chase ^{The Chase (Garth Brooks album)} . It only reached #12 on the country chart, his first song in three years to fail to make the top ten. Nevertheless, the song often received standing ovations when performed in concert, went to #22 in the Christian charts through a marketing deal with Rick Hendrix Company, and earned Brooks a 1993 GLAAD Media Award ^{GLAAD Media Awards} .


1993 / 1994: In Pieces

In 1993, Garth Brooks, who had criticized music stores which sold used CDs since it led to a loss in royalty payments, persuaded Capitol Records not to ship his August 1993 album In Pieces to stores which engaged in this practice. This led to several anti-trust lawsuits against the record label and ended with Capitol shipping the CDs to the stores after all.

Despite the delay in shipping the album to certain stores, In Pieces was another instant No. 1 success, selling a total of about 10 million copies worldwide. Some of his fans were upset, however, that the album was not released simultaneously around the world. In the United Kingdom, one of Brooks's most committed fan bases outside the United States, country music disc jockeys, such as Martin Campbell and John Wellington, noted that many fans were buying the album on import. This made it the first album to debut in the top 10 of the UK Country album charts before its official release date. Once officially released there, in 1994, the album reached the top spot on the UK Country chart and number two on the UK pop albums chart. That same year "The Red Strokes" became Brooks's first single to make the pop top 40 in the UK, reaching a high of No. 13; it was followed by "Standing Outside The Fire", which reached No. 23. Previous albums No Fences, Ropin' The Wind and The Chase also remained in the top 30 in the UK.

To support the album, Brooks embarked on a 1994 UK tour, selling out venues such as Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre and London's Wembley Arena. He opened the London radio station, Country 1035 and made a number of general television and radio appearances, where he was often mocked by the presenters. On ITV's regional news show London Tonight, Brooks was described as "a top-selling, rooting tooting, cotton picking, Country and Western star, yeeha!" The nationwide Big Breakfast ^{The Big Breakfast} show's presenters Chris Evans ^{Chris Evans (presenter)} and Paula Yates, commented that "He's selling more records than anyone in the world, but none of us have ever heard of him." Yates then told Brooks that, "Country singers always seem to be weeping over the dead dog and things," and also remarked, "I thought you'd come in here and twiddle your pistol around and be impressed." Although Brooks remained polite, he did observe that Yates was obviously unfamiliar with modern country music. Scores of Brooks fans later wrote to complain about his treatment on the show. Sometime after this, Dwight Yoakam appeared on the same show and after Yates told him, "You seem different from other country singers we've had on the show," Yoakam replied, "What? All two of us?"

Despite the disdain of the British media, Brooks's overall popularity in the country was evident, with a top disc jockey, Nick Barraclough, referring to Brooks as 'Garth Vader' (a play on Darth Vader) for his "invasion" of the charts and his success as an icon of the country genre. Unlike Alan Jackson, who refused to return to the UK after being treated in a similar manner by the press, Brooks returned in 1996 for more sold-out concerts, although this time his media appearances were mostly restricted to country radio and interviews with magazines.

Elsewhere in the world Brooks was also considered a star, and he enjoyed hit records and sell-out tours in countries including Brazil, throughout Europe, the Far East, New Zealand, and Australia.

In 1994 Brooks paid homage to one of his musical influences when he appeared on the hard rock compilation Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved, a collection of Kiss ^{Kiss (band)} cover songs by popular artists from all genres. As the only country performer to participate, some worried that Brooks would turn his cover of the song originally sung by drummer Peter Criss, "Hard Luck Woman," into a country song. Brooks instead insisted on remaining true to the song, and requested that the members of Kiss perform the music on the track, the only song on the album that the band musically contributed. The unlikely collaboration performed the song live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in promotion of Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved, and despite its hard-rock appeal, Brooks's version did appear on the country charts.


1995 / 1998: Success in the mid and late 90s

Brooks released Fresh Horses ^{Fresh Horses (album)} , his first album of new material in two years, in November 1995; within six months of its release, it had sold over three million copies. Despite its promising start, Fresh Horses plateaued quickly, topping out at quadruple platinum.
The album's lead single, "She's Every Woman" peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Chart ^{Hot Country Songs} , however its follow-up single, "The Fever ^{Fever (Aerosmith song)} " (a cover of the Aerosmith song) only peaked at #23, becoming Brooks's first released Country single to not chart on the Top 10. However, Brooks had three additional Top 10 hits from the album following the second single, including "The Beaches of Cheyenne," that also hit #1.

In 1997, Brooks released his seventh studio album, Sevens ^{Sevens (album)} . Originally, it was scheduled to be released in August 1997, when he would promote it with a concert in Central Park. Plans went awry when Capitol Records experienced a huge management shakeup, leaving many of his contacts at the label out in the cold. Brooks also subsequently appeared as Gaines in a television mockumentary for the VH1 series Behind The Music and as the musical guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live which he hosted as himself.

Brooks's endless promotion of the album and the film did not seem to stir much excitement and the failure of the Chris Gaines experiment became fairly evident mere weeks after the album was released. Although critics admired Brooks for taking a musical risk, the majority of the American public was either totally bewildered, or completely unreceptive to the idea of Garth Brooks as anything but a pop-country singer. Many of his fans also felt that by supporting the Gaines project they would lose the real Garth Brooks. Sales of the album were unspectacular and although it made it to #2 on the pop album chart, expectations had been higher and retail stores began heavily discounting their oversupply. Less than expected sales of the album (more than two million) and no further developments in the production of the film as a result brought the project to an indefinite hiatus in February 2001 and Gaines quickly faded into obscurity.

Despite the less than spectacular response to the Chris Gaines project, Brooks gained his first - and only - US Top 40 pop single in "Lost in You", the first single from the album.


2000 / 2004: Official retirement

As his career flourished, Brooks seemed frustrated by the conflicts between career and family. He talked of retiring from performing in 1992 and 1995, but each time returned to touring. In 1999 Brooks appeared on The Nashville Network's Crook & Chase program and again mentioned retirement.

On October 26, 2000, Brooks officially announced his retirement from recording and performing. Later that evening, Capitol Records saluted his achievement of selling 100 million albums in the US with a lavish party at Nashville's***lord Entertainment Center. Three months later, Brooks and Wal-Mart issued The Limited Series ^{The Limited Series (2005 box set)} , a six-CD box set containing past material and a Lost Sessions disc with eleven previously unissued recordings. This set marked the first time in history that a musician had signed an exclusive music distribution deal with a single retailer. The set sold more than 500,000 physical copies on its issue date, proving that Brooks still had a large fan base. By the first week in December 2005, it had sold over 1 million physical copies.

Brooks took a brief break from retirement early in 2005 to perform for several charity causes. With Yearwood, he sang Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Who'll Stop the Rain" on the Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast nationwide telethon for Hurricane Katrina relief. He also released a new single, "Good Ride Cowboy", as a tribute to his late friend, rodeo star and country singer, Chris LeDoux.

In early 2006 Wal-Mart issued The Lost Sessions as a single CD apart from the boxed set, with extra tracks including a top 25 duet with Yearwood, "Love Will Always Win". The couple were later nominated for a "Best Country Collaboration With Vocals" Grammy Award for the song.

On August 18, 2007, Brooks announced plans for a new boxed set called The Ultimate Hits. The new set features two discs containing 30 hits, three new songs, and a DVD featuring music videos for each of these songs. The album's first single, "More Than a Memory", was released to radio on August 27, 2007. "More Than a Memory" debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, becoming the highest-debuting single in the chart's history. The previous record had been set only one week earlier, when Kenny Chesney's "Don't Blink" debuted at #16.

In November 2007, Brooks performed nine sold-out shows in Kansas City at the Sprint Center, which had opened a month prior. Originally scheduled to be only one show, the performance expanded to nine due to incredibly high demand, with all nine shows (equaling about 140,000 tickets) selling out in under two hours. The shows took place from November 5 to 12, with the final show on November 14 - the final show was simulcast to more than 300 movie theaters across the US.


2009 - present: Return to performing

On October 15, 2009, Brooks announced that he was coming out of retirement, to do weekend performances at Encore Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Four performances are planned for several weekends in 2010; one on Friday night, two shows on Saturday, and one on Sunday. This schedule will allow Brooks to continue during the week to have the family life for which he had retired, and to continue to perform on the weekend.

The financial terms of the agreement have not been announced, but Wynn did disclose that he gave Brooks access to a private jet to quickly transport him between Las Vegas and his home in Oklahoma.

Garth's first weekend on shows in Vegas received positive reviews and was called the "antithesis of Vegas glitz and of the country singer's arena and stadium extravaganzas" by USA Today. The shows feature Brooks performing solo with his own guitar accompaniment, and include his own hits as well as songs that have influenced him. Artists covered in the show include Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Seger and Don McLean. His first performances at the Wynn coincided with his wedding anniversary, and his wife Trisha Yearwood joined him for two songs.

concert in 2009Brooks attended and graduated from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, where he starred on the track team. He was also a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity, Pi chapter.

In 1999, Brooks and his wife separated, announcing their plans to divorce on October 9, 2000. The divorce became final in 2001. Following Brooks's divorce, however, the pair did begin dating, and the couple wed on December 10, 2005, at their home in Oklahoma, marking the second marriage for Brooks and the third for Yearwood. They own a house in Goodlettsville, Tennessee and a house in Malibu, California, but keep a primary residence at a ranch in Owasso, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa ^{Tulsa, Oklahoma} where they live.

In 2000 Brooks attempted to donate part of his liver to country music contemporary, and close friend, Chris LeDoux; however, it was found to be incompatible. LeDoux did receive a donor, but died in March, 2005, due to complications from liver cancer.The Recording Industry Association of America announced that Garth Brooks was the best-selling solo artist of the 20th century in America. This conclusion drew criticism from the press and many music fans who were convinced that Elvis Presley had sold more records, but had been short-changed in the rankings due to faulty RIAA certification methods during his lifetime. Brooks, while proud of his sales accomplishments, stated that he too believed that Presley must have sold more.

The RIAA has since reexamined their methods for counting certifications. Under their revised methods, Presley became the best-selling solo artist in U.S. history, making Brooks the number two solo artist, ranking third overall, as The Beatles have sold more albums than either he or Presley. The revision brought more criticism of the accuracy of the RIAA's figures, this time from Brooks's followers.

On November 5, 2007, Brooks was again named the best selling solo artist in US history, surpassing Presley, after audited sales of 123 million were announced.

He is also notable for a twenty-three hour marathon signing autographs at an unannounced visit to Fan Fair in 1996.In 1999, Garth Brooks began the Teammates for Kids Foundation which provides financial aid to charities for children. The organization breaks down into three categories spanning three different sports.

*Touch 'Em All Foundation - Baseball Division*1990-1999 Artist of the Decade
*2 Grammy Awards (total of 7 nominations)
*17 American Music Awards
*11 Country Music Association Awards ^{Country Music Association}
*18 Academy of Country Music Awards ^{Academy of Country Music}
*5 World Music Awards
*10 People's Choice Awards
*24 Billboard Music Awards
*2 ASCAP ^{American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers} Awards
*2 Blockbuster Awards
*American Music Awards, Artist of the Decade (1990s)
*Academy of Country Music Awards ^{Academy of Country Music} , Artist of the Decade (1990s)
*Recording Industry Association of America, Artist of the Century (1900s)
*1 Radio Music Award
*2 Primetime Emmy Award nominations (Outstanding in a Variety of Music Program)
*1 Golden Globe ^{Golden Globe Award} nomination (Best Original Song)
*GLAAD Media Award for "We Shall Be Free"-1993
*1 CMT Music Awards nomination, Collaborative Video of the Year for "Workin' For A Livin'" With Huey Lewis (2008)
*Academy of Country Music Awards ^{Academy of Country Music} , inaugural "Crystal Milestone Award" honoring him as the top-selling country music artist in history, with album sales of over 128 million in the U.S. (2008)
*2 American Music Awards Nominations(2008):
Country Music - Favorite Male Artist
Country Music - Favorite Album for "The Ultimate Hits";Studio albums
* 1989: Garth Brooks ^{Garth Brooks (album)}
* 1990: No Fences
* 1991: Ropin' the Wind
* 1992: The Chase ^{The Chase (Garth Brooks album)}
* 1993: In Pieces
* 1995: Fresh Horses ^{Fresh Horses (album)}
* 1997: Sevens ^{Sevens (album)}
* 1999: Garth Brooks...In the Life of Chris Gaines ^{Greatest Hits (Chris Gaines album)}
* 2001: Scarecrow ^{Scarecrow (Garth Brooks album)}


;Other albums/compilations
* 1994: The Garth Brooks Collection
* 1994: The Hits ^{The Hits (Garth Brooks album)}
* 1998: Double Live ^{Double Live (Garth Brooks album)}
* 2005: The Lost Sessions
* 2007: The Ultimate Hits