By Editor in Chief: Natalie Dunn
Since his official retirement in 2001, Garth Brooks’ loyal fans have been patiently waiting for him to return. He made the official announcement on Monday, December 9, 2014 that he will be touring in 2014, and those same fans are ecstatic.
Twelve years ago, country superstar Garth Brooks made the decision to leave the touring life to be a full-time dad, and swore that he wouldn’t come back, at least until his youngest daughter graduated.
While he has stayed true to his promise not to tour, Brooks has been keeping himself busy. Three years ago, he signed a contract with Steve Wynn of the Wynn Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
When the two made the announcement together in October of 2009 to an audience of reporters, Brooks said, “I told him he couldn’t afford me.” Then after a sheepish laugh, he added, “I was wrong.” Brooks’ deal included shows every other weekend, and a private jet that took him from his family’s home in Oklahoma to Vegas, allowing him to retain his dad status.
Aside from his Wynn concerts, Brooks did a series of nine concerts in Kansas City at the new Sprint Center in November of 2007. It was originally only supposed to be one concert, but the number of people who wanted to attend forced him to expand it into nine shows. The final concert was broadcast to movie theaters and shown on television. He also did a series of five concerts at the Los Angeles Staples Center to benefit the efforts of firefighters against vicious wildfires in California.
Brooks’ recent return to the arena was spurred by his final Vegas show, as well as the release of his new boxed set, entitled Blame it All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influence, which features four CDs of cover songs, all of which he credits for influencing his own sound and style. The set also includes a DVD of his Wynn concert routine, and a copy of The Ultimate Hits, a three-disc greatest hits and music video collection Brooks released in 2007. In the classic Garth Brooks fashion, the set was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts within two weeks of its release, and sold 164,000 copies in less than four days, according to USA Today.
The announcement itself was a bit unconventional, and not actually planned. Brooks appeared on Good Morning America on Monday to talk about Blame it All on My Roots, and when anchor Robin Roberts asked him if he was planning on returning this year, he expressed his concern that “at [age] 52, I’m afraid it’s the wheelchair and walker tour,” and replied to the question vaguely, “Between you and me, I think we’ll make an announcement very soon.”
Then after some consideration, he came out with it.
“Well, since it’s you, and since we’ve had a history forever,” he said to Roberts, after she jokingly told him he could just make the announcement right then, “let’s announce it.
“We’re going on a world tour in 2014. It begins. …I can’t believe I just did that, but you are a doll.”
Brooks has not released much information about World Tour 2014, other than the fact that he plans on stretching it into a three-year tour, and his wife, fellow country star Trisha Yearwood will be joining him. He also claims that the tour is “going to be loud.” He told Taste of Country – a country music news website – that they plan on building a stage and light setup that will blow the crowd away, and are already making arrangements to incorporate a new sound system that will allow the audience to “feel” the music.
While no one is sure yet where the tour will lead, Brooks has set one date in a city he’s been waiting to return to since 1997. The Garth Brooks Comeback Special Event, announced by the man himself on January 20, 2014, will take place on July 25 and 26 in Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland. Brooks played a sell out concert in the park 17 years ago, and promised he’d return.
When he made the announcement in person in Dublin, Brooks said of the first concert “130,000 plus of some of the greatest fans in the world. I was quoted then as saying, ‘When this stadium is finished, I would love to come back and try to fill it again… this time to the brink.’ …and we’re back to do just that.”
If there is anything for certain, Garth Brooks will not disappoint his fans. He knows what he’s doing, and as the best-selling artist of the last two decades, he’s sure to remind the world why they’ve been waiting twelve years.
As he told Taste of Country, “We’re Garth. We’re going to be whatever Garth is.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNcr5DFG2C8&w=560&h=315]
