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Nashville, Tenn (May 2009) - Megalomaniac or marketing genius? Savior or savage? Biographer Patsi Bale Cox in The Garth Factor: The Career Behind Country’s Big Boom (May 2009, Center Street, $24.99) reveals the inner-workings of music’s best-selling solo artist and how he challenged the status quo of Nashville’s recording industry while creating a rising tide for all of country music during the genre’s peak in the 1990’s.
With more than a decade of access to the artist, and the insider knowledge that comes from working for Capitol Records—Brooks’ former label—Cox compiles a biopic that contrasts the meteoric rise of Garth Brooks with that of the entire industry, crediting the singer with the overall surge in popularity. Along the way, The Garth Factor treats the reader to tasty bits of boardroom drama and corporate machinations that illustrate why the Oklahoma boy that came to Nashville in 1985 did so with a fair amount of caution, instilled by his mother Colleen, a former singer herself who knew the business’ pitfalls.
Chronicling his life from birth to current time, Cox presents Brooks as an empathetic, fair, yet driven and passionate man. Cox also showcases the friction between Brooks and Capitol Records. Cox writes, “It is a misconception that Nashville’s stars are the ones on the stage. Inside the town’s business the real stars are the personalities who run record labels. They control artists and they control the music.” Eschewing the accounts that portray Brooks as a bully, such as the one that appeared in former Capitol Records label chief Jimmy Bowen’s 1997 autobiography Rough Mix, Cox exposes the truth behind the turmoil at the label which had everything to do with pinching every penny—usually at the artists’ expense using “creative” accounting—and nothing to do with Brooks. Bowen’s antipathy towards Brooks probably resulted from a new contract that was negotiated above Bowen’s head with his bosses in New York, writes Cox—a deal unprecedented for Nashville more on par with contracts for the likes of Madonna or Michael Jackson.
Country music superstar Garth Brooks performed a private show for the Flames on Sunday night at the popular Palomino Smokehouse, on 7th Avenue S.W., near the Hyatt Hotel.
Garth Brooks, Troy Aikman, and a cavalcade of sports heroes and celebrities descended up Children's Healthcare of Atlanta on February 4th. The stars helped brighten the days of children battling serious illnesses by opening the Child Life Zone at an Atlanta hospital.