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Life and Times of Garth Brooks Who is Garth Brooks you ask? Besides being the biggest selling solo recording artist of the century according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), he is also an award winning songwriter and father of three daughters from his 12 year marriage to Sandy Mahl Brooks. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on February 7, 1962, Garth was the youngest of six children. His mother, Colleen Carroll and father, Raymond Brooks raised their family in Yukon, which sits about 100 miles outside of Tulsa. Colleen Carroll was also a Capitol Recording artist in the 1950’s and appeared regularly on Red Foley’s Ozark Jubilee Radio and television show. Raymond made his living as a draughtsman for a local oil company. Garth has four brothers: Jim, Gerry, Mike and Kelly; and one sister- Betsy. Garth’s first career aspiration was in sports where he received a track scholarship to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. Although he played football and baseball during high school, he excelled at javelin throwing which is what he received his scholarship for. In 1984, Garth realized that a career in sports was not what he wanted, so he changed his major to advertising and enrolled in marketing classes. Garth played around with music during high school but did not start to take it seriously until 1984. He met his college roommate and best friend Ty England while attending OSU. Ty was an original member of Garth’s band “Stillwater” but later embarked on his own solo career. During his college years, he began performing at the local bars and honky-tonks, most often at a place called Wet Willie’s. Garth’s sister Betsy, also a musician playing bass in Ronnie Dunn’s (Brooks and Dunn) house band at Duke’s night club in Tulsa, went to see him one time and commented that he’d written some great songs. So, confidence kicked in, and Garth made his first trip to Nashville in the summer of 1985, only to return 4 days later totally rejected. In 1985, Garth joined a local band, Santa Fe, as lead singer and for the next year played the clubs in the southwest performing a mixture of nostalgic pop hits and modern country. Garth credits his musical influences as George Strait, George Jones, James Taylor, Billy Joel, KISS, Queen, Kansas, Dan Fogelberg, Merle Haggard, Boston, Journey and Don McLean. In May of 1986, Garth married Sandy Mahl. They met when Garth was a bouncer at a local bar and had to assist Sandy in removing her hand from the wall that she punched a hole in while fighting in the ladies room. Garth was struck by Sandy’s independent spirit and offered to drive her home. Sandy reportedly turned Garth down several times before agreeing to go out with him. In early 1987, Garth and Sandy, along with the band members of Santa Fe moved to Nashville. Garth made an impact singing jingles and on demos for publishers while holding down a day-time job in a boot store at the same time. In November 1987, he signed a writer’s contract and soon after met Bob Doyle, who later became his manager. Bob paid Garth’s $32.50 entrance fee to the Bluebird Café for a performance that earned him his first record deal with Capitol Records. Garth signed with Capitol and on April 12, 1989 released his first studio album Garth Brooks, produced by Allen Reynolds. This album quietly shipped less than 20,000 records at the start. Garth’s first single, Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old) climbed into the Top 10 in the summer of 1989. The positive reviews that Garth Brooks received still was no indication of what was yet to come. Garth’s fourth single If Tomorrow Never Comes hit the top of the charts, however, The Dance will forever be Garth’s trademark song. With the release of the video of The Dance the album was pushed into the pop charts. Garth was embarking on a history making career. Over the next several years, Garth was on a whirlwind journey. Garth’s second studio album No Fences shipped gold and had a Top 10 hit Friends In Low Places before it went on sale August 27, 1990. Garth is quoted as saying “By the time we recorded No Fences, all my fears had gone away. I was confident and calm; it was like stepping up to the plate and knowing that you can hit the ball.” No Fences became the biggest selling country album of all time with sales in excess of 16 million and to date is Garth’s biggest selling album. On October 6, 1990, Garth was inducted as a member of The Grand Ole Opry. Garth considers this prestigious membership the highlight of his career. “To be recognized as a member of the Opry is among the class of honors that will never be topped no matter how long or how far my career goes.” In 1991, with the release of Ropin the Wind advance orders stood at 4 million and the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and Billboard Country Album Chart at number one. This accomplishment had never been achieved before by any artist in Country Music. For many weeks, Garth held the number one and number two spot on the pop charts. With this success, Garth opened up many eyes to the world of country music and opened the doors for many other country artists who also made their way to the pop charts. As Garth was making it to the top of the country and pop charts, his on stage performances were energetic, passionate and setting attendance records country wide. In 1991 and 1992 he outsold every pop and rock act in the major America stadiums, selling out the venues in mere minutes. In 1992, The Chase again entered the pop charts at number one and gained instant platinum status. Capitol Records shipped 5 million copies, which at the time was the largest initial shipment in music history. The Brooks phenomenon continued and along with number one hits Somewhere Other Than The Night, Learning to Live Again and That Summer. Garth also released his first Christmas Album, Beyond The Season which peaked at number 2 on both the pop and country charts. Garth became the proud father of Taylor Mayne Pearl Brooks on July 8, 1992. 1993 brought on many challenges for Garth. He was unhappy with his recording contract with Capitol and personally renegotiated a new arrangement. Garth walked away with a 20 year contract from which he would receive almost 50 percent of all profits of each album, while paying for all recording and video cost and contributing generously to several charities. With Garth’s new contract with Capitol now behind him, his 5th studio album In Pieces was released on August 31, 1993. This album was recorded during Garth’s first headlining tour, which is why Ain’t Goin Down (Til The Sun Comes Up), Standing Outside The Fire and Callin’ Baton Rouge reflect more of the live show rather than the studio feel of the first four albums. Garth also appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. The magazine review was favorable and commented on Garth’s appeal and artistic contributions to American music. In Pieces was the third album to debut at number one on Billboard’s Top 200 and Country charts respectively. Garth embarked on his first World Tour in 1994 and was epitomized in Dublin, Ireland, where an estimated 130,000 Irish fans gathered in the downtown area in search of tickets for the four concerts he would play in the spring at The Point. It took less than two and a half hours to sell 34, 000 tickets for the four shows. Police finally had to disperse the crowd so the city’s merchants could get back to business. On January 29th, Garth sold out two benefit concerts in 34 minutes at the Great Western Forum which seats 36,000. We also saw Garth fronting the biggest and fastest selling concert ever fronted by a country act in the United States. Texans went crazy trying to get tickets to the NBC special to be filmed at Texas Stadium. Over 65,000 tickets were sold in less than 92 minutes and with this Garth broke the previous sell out record held by Paul McCartney. Dallas fans demanded more tickets and got more shows. A second show was booked again selling out in 92 minutes as did the third show. Garth and Sandy welcomed August Anna Brooks into the world on May 3, 1994. The Hits, a compilation of Garth’s highest ranking singles made its way to record stores in 1994. Fresh Horses followed in 1995 and had the biggest first week sales of any previous Garth album, selling nearly half a million copies. After the first week of its release, eight of the ten songs appeared on the country singles chart… another first in music history. 1996 brought no new studio albums or new music releases; however, Garth continued to take the country and world by storm, touring to promote his latest album, Fresh Horses. Allie Colleen Brooks, the youngest of Garth and Sandy’s three daughters was born on July 28, 1996. On August 7, 1997, Garth played to the largest crowd ever to attend a concert in New York’s Central Park. An estimated 1 million people attended the live concert with an additional 14.6 million viewing live on HBO. Garth’s Live From Central Park video was nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards. Sevens was released in November 1997 and again debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200 and Country Album charts with the first week sales of 896,932. This was the top selling debut week of any album released in 1997. Sevens stayed at the top of Top 200 chart for a total 7 weeks and 13 weeks on the Country chart. Nearly everywhere Garth performed, similar records were set, including a record 8 shows in Chicago in 1997. Garth broke every Rosemont Horizon record with over 140,000 tickets sold. On May 5 1998, Garth released a boxed set, The Limited Series. Only 2 million copies of this box set were produced, thus the name “The Limited Series”. The set contained his first six studio albums, each with an added bonus track on each CD. Garth is the first artist to debut at number one on two charts with a boxed set. Garth Brooks Double Live is the best-selling live album in music history. When it was released on November 17, 1998, it set an all-time record for the Soundscan era by selling 1,085.373 copies in its first week. It was not only record for first week sales, but for any one week sales period by any artist. Double Live spent 5 weeks at the top of the Billboard Top 200 chart. Garth placed three albums at the top of the Billboard Top 200 chart in 1998~ Sevens, The Limited Series and Double Live. He was the first artist to accomplish this feat since Elton John in 1975. Garth ended his world tour in 1998 playing 4 shows in College Station, Texas from November 19-21. Garth vowed to take time off of the road to spend more time with his family. In February 1999 Garth joined the San Diego Padres for Spring Training to recruit major league baseball players to join his Touch ‘Em All Foundation. Touch ‘Em All: Teammates for Kids was founded by Garth for the purpose of giving underprivileged children the opportunity to play sports. On August 6, 1999 Garth’s mother, Colleen Carroll Brooks passed away after a long battle with cancer. 1999 was also the year that Garth embarked on a different musical journey by recording his first pop album titled Garth Brooks in the life of Chris Gaines. This album released on September 28th, sold over 2 million copies and was intended to introduce the listener to the music of an upcoming movie character in a movie titled “The Lamb”. Garth took a lot of criticism from the critics for the making of this album, claiming Garth was jumping ship from country to pop. Despite the negative publicity and reviews, this studio album stands along with all of Garth’s other country albums. Although it did not sell 10 million copies, one would not consider 2 million copies sold a failure. On December 14, 1999, while appearing on the Crook and Chase show, Garth announced that he would be retiring. He stated he would take the next year to spend with his family and make the necessary decisions regarding his impending retirement. The year 2000 was nothing less than eventful for Garth even though he was no longer touring. Garth moved from Nashville back to his home state of Oklahoma. This allowed Garth to be closer to his father and to focus on being a father to his three daughters, Taylor, August and Allie. The New York Mets invited Garth to spend Spring Training with them in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Garth spent 6 weeks training and was a big hit in the small Florida town. Fans traveled from all over the world to see him and hoped for an opportunity to meet the superstar. Garth was very accommodating to his fans, spending as many as 8 hours signing autographs for fans who lined up to meet him. In June 2000, Garth’s album sales were certified at 100 million units sold. Garth claimed the top rank as the biggest selling solo artist in music history. October 2000 was an especially emotional month for Garth. Garth first announced that he and Sandy, his wife of 12 years had agreed to divorce. Next was Garth’s Press Conference held on October 25th, announcing his retirement from the music business. Garth stated he would make one last studio album and then hand his hat up from touring. He felt his priorities were to his children and needed to be there for them growing up. The day following the announcement of his retirement, Capitol Records threw a huge party in Nashville at the Gaylord Entertainment Center, celebrating Garth’s accomplishments in record sales. Garth helped organize and performed a benefit concert for fellow Grand Ole Opry member and friend, Johnny Russell in March of 2001. Johnny inducted Garth into the Grand Ole Opry in 1990 and had since become a very special and dear friend to him. Johnny was suffering great financial difficulties due to ongoing medical bills. Garth and other members of the Opry organized a benefit concert to help Johnny with his bills. Johnny passed away on July 3. Garth served as a pallbearer at Johnny’s funeral. Garth spent much of the year finishing up his final studio album. A press conference was originally planned for September 17 was postponed due to the events of September 11. Ironically, Garth was in New York City at the time of the attack on America, doing public service announcements for Read Across America. Fortunately, Garth and the other people traveling with him were unharmed and escaped the city safely. The press conference was rescheduled for October 9 where Garth unveiled his first single “Wrapped Up In You” from the new album as well as unveiled the title of the album Scarecrow. Garth signed his first product endorsement with Dr. Pepper. Scarecrow was released on November 13, 2001 followed by three live televised concerts from Los Angeles, CA, Norfolk, VA aboard the USS Enterprise, and South Padre Island, TX. Scarecrow debuted at #1 on both the Top 200 and the Country Billboard Chart. It has sold in excess of 3 million units. Garth performed in Sheridan, WY and Nashville in December for a cancer benefit honoring his dear friend and breast cancer survivor Beth Neilson-Chapman. Lime Creek Christmas was an intimate acoustical performance of Christmas music along with spoken narrative dialogue. Currently, Garth lives in Oklahoma with his three daughters and is working on screenplay writing and enjoying his role as a father. He is currently dating Trisha Yearwood, with whom he would love to record a duet album with. Written by Monica Lockhart with special thanks to Roughstock.com and Karen Byrd Public Relations.