Country's Top 5 Biggest Happenings Of The Decade: #2 Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks Retires and Starts His Comeback
Garth Brooks has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history. The RIAA has certified his recordings at a combined 128x platinum. Brooks is titled by Neilsen Soundscan the best-selling artist in America, a title held since 1991, well over 11 million ahead of his nearest rival, The Beatles. Brooks has released six albums that achieved diamond status in the United States, those being: Garth Brooks 10x platinum, No Fences 17x platinum, Ropin' the Wind 14x platinum, The Hits 10x platinum, Sevens 10x platinum and Double Live 21x platinum.

Brooks called it quits at the peak of his career following the collapse of his marriage, he’d promised his daughters (who were 4, 6 and 8 at the time) to make his family the top priority in his life until all three went off to college, and that simply wasn’t compatible with a hard-touring road hound like Brooks.

Many offers have been sent Brooks way and he has turned them all down, fans have pleaded with him for years, and still he wouldn't, but when Wynn first brought up the idea of playing in Vegas, “I said he couldn’t afford me,” Brooks told a couple dozen journalists and several hundred fans gathered in the Encore Theater looking on as Brooks and his new business partner sat on stools on the theater’s stage. After a well-timed pause, Brooks added: “I was wrong.”

“The truth is,” Brooks said, pausing briefly, “I’m halfway through what I retired to do. And this last half might be even more important than the first half. So I’m not going to let anything screw that up. So I’ve got a guy here who’s been sweet enough to make it easy for me to do this.

“And if it doesn’t work, we’ll quit doing it. And again, I have to now think, am I supposed to be doing this because I’d be stupid to pass it up?” His eyes glance skyward. “We’ll just give it a shot and see.”

There is one flaw in the deal that clearly still gnaws at Brooks: ticket costs. Brooks is known for keeping prices on his concert tours ridiculously low by contemporary standards: $25 or less. Wynn had suggested tiered ticket prices, allowing some seats in the back of the theater to be priced more in keeping with what Brooks fans have been accustomed to, while the middle and front-row seats would be closer to what other top-name acts on the Las Vegas Strip charge. That idea also ran counter to Brooks’ philosophy that fans shouldn’t get preferential treatment just because they’re financially better off.

“But it’s a 1,500-seat theater,” Brooks said, “and my only response is, if you don’t like Vegas, or you think the ticket price is too high, stay at home. Because we’re still on the same plan: that when the children go to school, I’d like to fire the machine up again and tour. So stay at home and I’ll come to your place for a lot less money and hopefully everything will be good then. So it’s kind of like it’s their choice.

“You can tell that’s the only thing I really have a problem with,” he said with a resigned smile. “My job is for them to walk out of here going ‘Dude, that was worth it.’ ”

So save up your dollars if you would like to see "The Great Garth", before he comes fully out of retirement in six years from now.