Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) 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 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. The
RIAA has
certified his recordings at a combined (128×
platinum), denoting roughly 113 million
U.S. shipments. Garth Brooks still continues to sell well, from the
period of April 5th 2008 - September 26th 2008, he sold 277,000
albums in the U.S.—according to Nielsen Soundscan, which took his
album sales up to 68,051,000—which makes him the
best-selling
artist in America since 1991, well over 11 million ahead of his
nearest rival, The Beatles. In the all-time chart, he is second
only to
The Beatles in the United
States. Brooks has released six albums that achieved
diamond status in the United States,
those being:
Garth
Brooks (10× platinum),
No
Fences (17× platinum),
Ropin' the Wind (14× platinum),
The Hits (10×
platinum),
Sevens (10×
platinum) and
Double Live (21×
platinum). Since 1989, Brooks has released 19 records in all, which
include; 9 studio albums, 1 live album, 4 compilation albums, 3
Christmas albums and 2 box sets, along with 77 singles. Brooks is
estimated to have topped 220 million units in sales of singles and
albums worldwide.
[1505]
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. Beginning in December 2009, he will start a 5 year
concert deal with the Wynn Encore Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. He
continues to deny any plans to tour or record new music for another
5 years.
Early life
Garth
Brooks was born on February 7, 1962 in Tulsa, Oklahoma
to Troyal Raymond Brooks, a draftsman for an oil company, and Colleen
Carroll, a 1950s-era country singer who recorded on the Capitol Records
label and appeared on Ozark Jubilee. Brooks and his five
elder siblings (Jim, Jerry, Mike, Betsy, and Kelly) were raised in
Yukon,
Oklahoma
. As a
child, he often sang in casual family settings but his primary
focus was athletics. In high school he played
football and
baseball and ran
track.
He received a track
scholarship to Oklahoma State
University in Stillwater
, where he competed in the javelin. Brooks graduated in 1984 with a
degree in
advertising. Brooks is Irish
from his mother's side, who is from County Cork,
Ireland..http://www.planetgarth.com/news/article.php?cid=00144Later
that year, Brooks began his professional music career, singing and
playing guitar in Oklahoma clubs and bars, particularly the
Tumbleweed in Stillwater. In 1985, noted entertainment attorney Rod
Phelps drove from Dallas to listen to Brooks. Phelps liked what he
heard and offered to produce Garth's first demo.
With Phelps'
encouragement, Brooks traveled to Nashville
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. The couple later had three daughters:
Taylor Mayne Pearl (born 1992), August Anna (born 1994) and Allie
Colleen (born 1996). In 1987, the couple moved to Nashville, and
Brooks began making contacts in the music industry.
Music career
1989 – 1990: Breakthrough success
Garth Brooks'
eponymous first
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 ," 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" 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.
His follow-up album,
No Fences,
was released in 1990 and spent 23 weeks as #1 on the Billboard
country music chart. 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'
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.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) and
Dan
Fogelberg. 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' 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; hits
included Billy Joel's "
Shameless",
"
What She's Doing Now", and
"
The River". 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
during the 1992
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. 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.
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' 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' 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
show's presenters Chris Evans 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' 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
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'
version did appear on the country charts.
1995 – 1998: Success in the mid and late 90s
Brooks released
Fresh
Horses, 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, however its follow-up single, "
The Fever" (a cover of the
Aerosmith song) only peaked at #23, becoming
Brooks' 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.
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.The album was then released in
November 1997, and debuted at #1 on both the
Top Country Albums and
Billboard 200 album charts in the United
States, and later became his fourth album to reach a sales of 10
million copies. Its first single was also Brooks' first duet, "In
Another's Eyes" with friend and popular country singer,
Trisha Yearwood. The song peaked at #2 on
the Country Charts. The album spawned three additional Top 10
Country hits, including two #1 hits between 1997 and 1998,
"
Two Pina Coladas" and "
To Make You Feel My Love", which
also was a Top 10 hit on the
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
chart.
1999: Chris Gaines
In 1999 Brooks and his production company Red Strokes
Entertainment, with
Paramount
Pictures, began to develop a movie in which Brooks would star.
The Lamb was to have revolved around
Chris Gaines, a fictional
rock singer and his emotionally conflicted life
as a musician in the public eye. To create buzz for the project,
Brooks took on the identity of Gaines in the October 1999 album
Garth
Brooks in ... The Life of Chris
Gaines, which was intended as a 'pre-soundtrack' to the
film. 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' 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 Gaylord Entertainment Center
.
Brooks' final album,
Scarecrow, was released
on November 13, 2001. The album did not match the sales levels of
Brooks' heyday, but still sold comfortably well, reaching #1 on
both the pop and country charts. Although he staged a few
performances for promotional purposes, Brooks stated that he would
be retired from recording and performing at least until his
youngest daughter, Allie, turned 18. Despite ceasing to record new
material between 2002 and (most of) 2005, Brooks continued to chart
with previously recorded material, including a top 30 placing for
"Why Ain't I Running" in 2003.
2005 - 2008
In 2005 Brooks insisted that he was not touring and did not plan to
record any new studio material until at least 2015.
However, in August
2005 it was announced that Brooks had signed a deal with Wal-Mart, leasing them the rights to his back catalog
following his split with Capitol. Three months later, Brooks
and Wal-Mart issued
The Limited Series, 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.
Official Comeback (2009 - Present)
On October 15th, 2009, Brooks announced that he is coming out of
retirement, to do weekend performances at Steve Wynn's Encore Hotel
in Las Vegas. 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 a private jet to quickly
transport him between Las Vegas and his home in Oklahoma.
If the first series of performances are successful and Brooks wants
to continue, the plan is to continue periodic weekend performances
for five years.
Personal life
In 1999, Brooks and his wife separated, announcing their plans to
divorce on October 9, 2000. The divorce became final in 2001.In the
mid-1990s, many
tabloids reported throughout
the decade that he was actually having an affair with longtime
friend and collaborator
Trisha
Yearwood. The two have continually denied having had an affair.
Following Brooks' 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 where they
live with Brooks' three daughters Taylor, August and Allie
Colleen.
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.
Setting records
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, deferred to "The King"
and 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' 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. It has since been revealed that he had
hit the mark a year prior, but at his request the RIAA held off for
12 months to coincide with the release of The Ultimate Hits.
He is also notable for a twenty-three hour marathon signing
autographs at an unannounced visit to
Fan
Fair in 1996.
Charitable activities
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
- Top Shelf - Hockey Division
- Touchdown - Football Division
The foundation enlists players to donate a predetermined sum of
money depending on their game performance. Brooks has participated
in spring training for the
San Diego
Padres in 1998 and 1999, the
New York
Mets in 2000 and, most recently, with the
Kansas City Royals in 2004 to promote his
foundation.
Starting during the 2008 season, fans at
Royals games in Kauffman
Stadium
now sing along to "Friends in Low Places".
Brooks is also a fundraiser for various other charities, including
a number of children's charities and
famine
relief. He has also donated at least $1 million to
wildlife causes.
It was announced that Garth would perform
a charity concert on January 25 and 26, 2008 at the Staples
Center
for the victims of the recent California
Wildfires. On December 1, tickets went on sale and sold
out within minutes, prompting them to announce 3 more shows.
All 5
L.A.
shows sold
out in less than 59 minutes. CBS aired the first of these
concerts (January 25 at 9 pm) live, giving viewers a chance to
donate to the Firefighters Relief efforts.
Awards
Country Music - Favorite Male ArtistCountry Music - Favorite Album
for "The Ultimate Hits"
Discography
- Studio albums
- Other albums/compilations
References
See also
Further reading
External links
KIII
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Misc
Search
