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Garth Brooks
at Fan Fair
in Nashville
It is difficult to fit all of Garth
Brooks’ record-breaking achievements
into a short bio space. When he
retired in 2000 he had become the
best-selling solo artist in the
history of recording. He sold more
than 1.8 million tickets for his 1996
tour, prompting the trade magazine
Amusement Business to rank it as the
top country music tour of all time.
Brooks has over 70 hit singles and
15 charted albums to his credit and
over 115 million albums sold in the
United States alone. This remarkable
career did not span a decade.
at Fan Fair
in Nashville
It is difficult to fit all of Garth
Brooks’ record-breaking achievements
into a short bio space. When he
retired in 2000 he had become the
best-selling solo artist in the
history of recording. He sold more
than 1.8 million tickets for his 1996
tour, prompting the trade magazine
Amusement Business to rank it as the
top country music tour of all time.
Brooks has over 70 hit singles and
15 charted albums to his credit and
over 115 million albums sold in the
United States alone. This remarkable
career did not span a decade.
| Click on Pictures to Enlarge |
| Garth Troyal Brooks was born on Feb. 7, 1962, in Tulsa, OK, and raised in Yukon, OK just outside of Oklahoma City. Drawn to country music by his admiration for George Strait, Brooks became a popular regional performer during his college years. Signing to Capitol in 1988 he charted with his first single “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)” and his second single “If Tomorrow Never Comes," went to #1. Then, in late 1990, came his raucous single,” Friends In Low Places”, and his second album, No Fences. At this point his career shifted from successful to meteoric. No Fences became Brooks' first No. 1 album and went on to sell more than 16 million copies. Brooks began appearing on the cover of major magazines, among them Rolling Stone, Forbes, Time, Entertainment Weekly and The Saturday Evening Post. He became a frequent guest on TV shows and did a series of 8 feature specials for NBC starting in 1992. While Brooks' musical style placed him squarely within the boundaries of country music, he was strongly influenced by the 1970s’ singer-songwriter movement, especially the works of James Taylor (whom he idolized and named his first child after). In his highly successful live shows, Brooks used a wireless headset microphone to free himself to run about the stage, adding energy and theatrics more generally associated with arena rock. Ropin' the Wind, Brooks' third album, released in September 1991, was the first ever to debut at No. 1 on both the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and the Billboard Country Album Chart simultaneously. The Chase (1992) and In Pieces (1993) were the second and third albums to do so. Sevens (1997) and Double Live (1998) also accomplished this. Over the course of his career, Brooks has received virtually every accolade the recording industry can bestow on an artist. In addition to his Grammys, American Music Awards, Country Music Association awards, Academy of Country Music awards and People's Choice trophies, he was named artist of the '90s at the 1997 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards and artist of the decade by both the American Music Awards in 2000 and the Academy of Country Music in 1999. On Oct. 26, 2000 Brooks officially announced his retirement from recording and performing: he had been talking of retirement since 1992. The announcement coincided with the breakup of his first marriage and the commercial ‘failure’ of the artistically risky Life of Chris Gaines project. (It sold a mere 2 million.) In retirement he continues to sell huge volumes of records and admits he greatly misses touring, causing fans to anticipate a comeback. TEXT BY JEFF PITCHER |
| AUGUST 2007 UPDATE: Garth Brooks announced that he will be releasing new music |
| See my 1992 pictures of Garth at a Nashville TV Taping www.tennesseeconcerts.com/garthbrookstv |
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