 "Photo: AP")
When you think of country music, one name always comes to mind: Garth Brooks. Putting country music on the map and setting records across the board, Brooks is possibly the most successful and influential musician of all time.
With a little more than 100 million albums sold in the United States as of 2001, Brooks pulled the unthinkable and put a stop to his soaring success. Discouraged by the conflict that his career was having with his family, Brooks decided to retire from both performing and recording until his youngest daughter turned 18. The news devastated music fans and sent country music into a state of bewilderment as they began their search for the "next big thing."
However, for every promise there is always a loophole. In 2005 Brooks signed a sole distribution contract with Wal-Mart and released numerous tracks that had been previously recorded but never released. In essence, he stuck to his promise of spending more time with his daughters and never stepping into a recording room.
Now, however, all that is about to change. In November, the "man of country" is set to not only cut the ribbon at the Kansas City Sprint Center, but will play a full live show for those in attendance with special guest star and wife Trisha Yearwood. But Brooks is not stopping there.
It has never been a secret that Brooks hates scalpers, so in order to cut down on ticket resales, Brooks has decided to charge a measly $32.50 for any seat in the venue. And on top of the great price, Brooks has gone one step further: When the show sold out in record time, Brooks continued to approve additional shows until he had nine performances scheduled, thus tying his own record for the most tickets sold in any one city of the U.S. (The entire set of performances sold out in 1 hour and 58 minutes, and all shows include tickets located behind the stage, where fans will not get to see Brooks, only hear him.)
In addition to these nine dates, Brooks is also set to release a new three-disc set, featuring two discs of music (four never-released songs), as well as a DVD with videos for every song. This will be the first album released outside of the contract between Brooks and Wal-Mart in almost three years and is expected to be one of the best-selling albums of the year. One of the four new songs is the record- setting "More Than A Memory" (which debuted on the Billboard Country Chart at No. 1 - a first in Billboard history), which leads me to believe that Brooks has been sitting on these songs and waiting for the right moment to release them.
All in all, I believe that with his daughter reaching the necessary age, Garth is in fact staging a slow comeback. Not wanting to jump back into things, the "man of country" is finally back - for the time being, at least.
