He is one of the biggest stars in the world and that is Garth Brooks. Now I am a big U2 and Rolling Stones fan but this man can fill out stadiums in a matter of hours and I am talking about venues that hold over 70,000 fans. He is the No. 1 selling solo artist in US history and he is returning to Irish soil with five dates in Croke Park, Dublin on 9, 10, 11, 16 and 17 September, 2022. Croke Park will be the ONLY European venue Garth will play next year.
I am going to stop there and give a little history on this country music star who is bigger than big, no matter what music you like so sit up and take notice of what this SUPER STAR is all about.
He was the youngest child of Troyal Raymond Brooks Jr., a draftsman for an oil company, and Colleen McElroy Carroll, a 1950s-era country singer of Irish ancestry who recorded on the Capitol Records label and appeared on Ozark Jubilee. This was the second marriage for each of his parents, giving Brooks four older half-siblings (Jim, Jerry, Mike, and Betsy). The couple had two children together, Kelly and Garth.
At their home in Yukon, Oklahoma, the family hosted weekly talent nights. All of the children were required to participate, either by singing or doing skits. Brooks learned to play both the guitar and banjo. As a child, Brooks often sang in casual family settings, but his primary focus was athletics. In high school, he played football and baseball and ran track and field. He received a track scholarship to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, where he competed in the javelin.
At nights, he worked as a bouncer at a local bar and formed his own band, Santa Fe, learning to play whatever the college audience wanted. Brooks graduated in 1984 with a degree in advertising. His roommate, Ty England, later played guitar in his road band until going solo in 1995.
He is an American country music singer and songwriter. His integration of rock and pop elements into the country genre has earned him popularity, particularly in the United States with success on the country music single and album charts, multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking live performances, while also crossing over into the mainstream pop arena. Brooks is the only artist in music history to have released nine albums that achieved diamond status in the United States (surpassing the Beatles’ former record of six); those albums are ‘Garth Brooks’ (diamond), ‘No Fences’ (17× platinum), ‘Ropin’ the Wind’ (14× platinum), ‘The Chase’ (diamond), ‘In Pieces’ (diamond), ‘The Hits’ (diamond), ‘Sevens’ (diamond), ‘Double Live’ (21× platinum), and ‘The Ultimate Hits’ (diamond).
Since 1989, Brooks has released 23 records in all, which include 13 studio albums, two live albums, three compilation albums, three Christmas albums and four box sets, along with 77 singles. He has won several awards in his career, including two Grammy Awards, 17 American Music Awards (including “Artist of the 90s”) and the RIAA Award for best-selling solo albums artist of the century in the US.
Troubled by conflicts between career and family, Brooks retired from recording and performing from 2001 until 2005. During this time, he sold millions of albums through an exclusive distribution deal with Walmart and sporadically released new singles. In 2005, Brooks started a partial comeback, giving select performances and releasing two compilation albums.
In 2009, he began ‘Garth at Wynn’, a periodic weekend concert residency at Las Vegas’ Encore Theatre from December 2009 to January 2014. Following the conclusion of the residency, Brooks announced his signing with Sony Music Nashville in July 2014. In September 2014, he began his comeback world tour, with wife and musician Trisha Yearwood, which culminated in 2017. This was followed by his Stadium Tour, which began in 2019. His most recent album, ‘Fun’, was released in November 2020.
Brooks is one of the world’s best-selling music artists, having sold more than 170 million records. As of 2020, according to the RIAA, he is the best-selling solo albums artist in the United States with 156 million domestic units sold, ahead of Elvis Presley, and is second only to the Beatles in total album sales overall.
Brooks was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on October 21, 2012, having been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame the year before. He was also inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2016 with his studio musicians, The G-Men. On March 4, 2020, Brooks received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. At age 58, he is the youngest recipient of the award. On January 20, 2021, Brooks performed ‘Amazing Grace’ at the inauguration of Joe Biden. He said his performance was an opportunity “to serve” and is a “statement of unity.”
In 1985, Brooks took his first steps into the music industry, singing and playing guitar in clubs and bars around Oklahoma. Entertainment attorney Rod Phelps made the journey to Dallas to see Brooks perform and offered to produce the singer’s first demo. Introducing Brooks to his contacts and encouraging him to relocate to Nashville, Phelps acted as an advisor to the young musician as he got his start in the music industry.
By 1989, Brooks released his first album to chart success with the record peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The album included Brooks’ first No.1 hit ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’ which was followed by the equally successful ‘Not Counting You’ and ‘The Dance’. Brooks has since remarked that of his entire back catalogue, ‘The Dance’ still remains his favorite song he has ever recorded.
Brooks followed the success with his sophomore album, ‘No Fences’, in 1990 which spent 23 weeks in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. It became Brooks’ highest-selling album and included what has since become one of the singer’s most well-known songs, ‘Friends in Low Places’. Later that year, Brooks was honored by being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.
Between 1991 and the end of the millennium, Brooks released eight more albums with huge chart success, he headed off to perform for fans on world tours, and also even tried out for a spot on the San Diego Padres pro baseball team.
In 2000, Brooks announced that his next album, ‘Scarecrow’, would be his last as he focused on his life as a father. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard pop and country charts before Brooks began his short-lived retirement. Brooks returned in 2006 after signing a deal with Walmart to become the exclusive retailer for his back catalogue. Over the next eight years, Brooks took to the stage for select performances, opting for events like weekends on the Las Vegas Strip despite not releasing any new music.
In 2013, the country music star began to ease his way back into the limelight, releasing a compilation box set called ‘Blame It All on My Roots’ ahead of the festive season. Much to the delight of his fans, Brooks also later announced that he would be heading back on tour to see them around the globe. He sold out arenas across the US and toured for almost three-and-a-half-years alongside his wife and fellow musician, Trisha Yearwood.
The Garth Brooks World Tour became the biggest North American tour in history, selling over 6.3million tickets. Brooks was back in fans’ Christmas stockings at the end of 2016 as he released three albums; ‘Christmas Together with Trisha Yearwood’, ‘The Ultimate Collection’ and ‘Gunslinger’. The artist tried to match the success of his previous world tour in 2019 heading out on The Garth Brooks Stadium Tour which set new stadium attendance records at nearly every venue. That year, he also released ‘Legacy Collection’, a box set featuring his albums ‘No Fences’, ‘The Chase’, ‘In Pieces’, ‘Fresh Horses’ and ‘Triple Live’, before returning with new music on his 14th studio album, ‘Fun’, in 2020.
And now, he’s announced his return to Dublin in 2022 to perform for Irish fans. Garth Brooks is going to take Ireland by storm and you know what? He is so proud of his Irish heritage, isn’t that fabulous? He’s one of us, yippee.
Now I am going to give a short interlude on a singer who has a beautiful Christmas song that a very good friend sent to me with a little bio on himself. His name is Tim O’Leary and guess what? He’s from Cork City. Tim believes that his love for writing music and playing the guitar started as a teenager in the early 70s. Tim told me that Cork has been synonymous with so many talented musicians it was easy to be influenced, I should know that myself. The name of his Christmas song that he wrote is ‘I believe in Santa Claus Tonight’ and it’s very good too, I might tell yea. Because I liked it so much, I added the link to it on Facebook, so just click on the following link and I am so sure you will also like it too: https://www.facebook.com/tim.m.oleary.