Random Weird AF Facts About Garth Brooks, Biggest Country Star Of '90s (21 items)

• 

  (#12) His Biggest Song Is Based On Peggy Sue Got Married

  Hopefully this story isn't pulling the scales from your eyes, but most mainstream artists don't write their own hits and that goes for Garth "Yeah I Eat Like A Dog, So What" Brooks. While he's had a ton of hits across his nearly 30 year career, his biggest and most poignant hit is "The Dance." This ballad seems to be about making the best of your life because there are no second chances, and while that's pretty much true, it turns out that the songwriter was inspired by a weirdo Francis Ford Coppola movie from the '80s called Peggy Sue Got Married. 

  Music publisher Don Tolle describes the writing of the song like this: "The movie is basically about, if you had one thing you can go back and change in your life, would you? And [Peggy Sue] did, only to realize that it changed everything that came after, and she realizes she wouldn't have wanted it this bad. [Tony] came home from the movie that day and he knew the song."
• 

  (#15) He Carried Out A Record Breaking Tour

  At the peak of his success in the '90s Brooks went on record breaking tour after record breaking tour that would see him playing to millions of people across the world by night and eating like a dog in his hotel room by day. One of the biggest reasons for his success on the road was his Fugazi-esque commitment to keeping his concert tickets at $20 a pop, rather than charging an insane fee to see his country music meets KISS live spectacle.

  Another reason that he made so much money on tour was because he would add as many shows as he had to to make sure that everyone in town saw him play. For instance, he performed nine shows in a row in Kansas City in 2007 - and that's post-peak Brooks. That's legitimately nuts and good for him. 
• 

  (#19) At One Point He Just Started Turning Down Awards

  By 1996 Garth Brooks had has his share of awards and accolades, so at the 1996 American Music Awards he turned down the Favorite Artist of the Year award when it was awarded to him during the show. In a post-show interview he told reporters that he felt Hootie and the Blowfish actually deserved to win.

  "It wasn't fair for me to walk away with that award," Brooks told reporters. "Maybe a year or two ago when we had a really good year. But I've been around [the country] talking to retailers . . . and every one of them credits Hootie [& the Blowfish] for keeping them alive in 1995 and I couldn't agree more. So I thought that's who shoulda won." 
• 

  (#21) Who's The Artist With The Most Diamond Albums?

  Oh, it's just Garth Brooks, the guy you've been reading about all day. In 2016 it was announced that his 2007 career-spanning compilation The Ultimate Hits went diamond, which meant that it sold 10 million records. It was his seventh album to sell as many copies and gives him one more diamond album than those lads from Liverpool, The Beatles. Now let's all pool our money and try to make The Life of Chris Gaines go diamond. Or not. Yeah that's dumb never mind. 
• 

  (#3) Hubris Interrupted His Acting Career

  Brooks began his acting career in earnest when he appeared as an abusive husband in the video for "The Thunder Rolls," in 1990. Although he would go on to play the straight man to Will Ferrell in a memorable SNL sketch, Brooks' filmography is nothing to brag about. It could have been much more illustrious, however, if he'd kept his ego in check. A lawsuit filed by his business partner, Lisa Sanderson, in 2013 claims that Brooks tanked what could have been multiple lucrative deals by acting like a crazy person.

  First, he refused to star in Twister because the tornado was the real star, and then he turned down a role in Saving Private Ryan because he didn't want to appear alongside Tom Hanks, an actor he admired, because he believed no one would want to watch the movie. 
• 

  (#4) All Your Sales Are Belong To Garth

  Who do you think is the highest selling musical artist in America? Names like Elvis, Metallica, and Madonna come to mind, but none of them hold a candle to the record sales achieved by ya boi Garth Brooks.

  In 2015, with his album "Man Against Machine" Brooks surpassed the King's RIAA record of 134.5 million units sold with 135 million units to become the best-selling solo artist in the US. It turns out that Brooks and Elvis have been playing a game of musical tug of war with this RIAA record for years, at least since 2007 when Brooks nabbed the top spot from Presley when they had both sold the measly sum of 123 and 118.5 million units. 

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking