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

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  (#1) Chris Gaines Was The Robert Smith Of County Music

  So technically Chris Gaines (the Australian pop star alter ego of Garth Brooks) wasn't actually playing country music, but how else could you describe the alter ego of the world's biggest country star? At the time of the Chris Gaines announcement, Brooks received a TON of bad press. Not only was this kind of a dumb idea, but country music so rarely allows its stars to create art outside of the Nashville box that it's miraculous that Brooks wasn't tarred and feathered for trying to spice up his life by playing a sex addicted pop idol from down under. 

  The weirdest part about the Chris Gaines debacle isn't the music, it's the fact that this character stems from a script that Brooks was working on called "...The Lamb" that was supposedly about a stalker who's following Gaines on tour. The Chris Gaines album that miraculously saw release was actually a "pre-soundtrack" for the film that never was. What a crying shame. 
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  (#2) Garth Is The Michael Jordan Of Country Music

  Not because he still has his hoop earring in, but because at the height of his success Garth Brooks took a break to play professional baseball for both the San Diego Padres and the New York Mets. In 1999 he was drafted to San Diego's amateur team where he went 1-for-22, an average of .045, and played left field.

  Following his season playing for San Diego's AAA team he moved onto the Giants, then he finally bowed out of the game after playing with the Kansas City Royals minor league team where he hit an infield single off the Mariners' Mike Myers. Brooks later said of the hit, "I was even more surprised than the pitcher." 
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  (#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. 
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  (#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. 
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  (#5) Thanks To The Thunder Rolls He's Mr. Controversy

  You can't keep good ol' Garth down, so why do you keep trying? "The Thunder Rolls," the massive single from his 1990 album No Fences has a third verse that was omitted from the recording where he details a distraught woman grabbing a gun from her dresser to either kill herself or her abusive husband. People go nuts when he sings the verse live, however, because who doesn't like a 30 second revenge film?

  When it came time to make a video for the single Brooks decided that they should act out this portion of the song to tie the two versions together, but CMT really didn't like that and they banned the video for condoning "gratuitous violence [and] social issues." Yes, whatever you do please don't educate the CMT audience about domestic violence. After the dust up CMT agreed to air the video if Brooks would film a PSA about the video. He said no way, and decided to sell a collection of his music videos featuring the unedited video for "The Thunder Rolls," and this probably made him ALL of the money. 
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  (#6) The Guy Loves His Extra Verses

  What is up with Garth Brooks and adding extra verses to his songs that don't make it to the album? It's like, dude, we already want to come see you fly around a football stadium on a rope while you play your hit tunes, don't make us learn all new words to your song, you know?

  Not only does his domestic violence anthem "The Thunder Rolls" have a third verse about a woman shooting someone to death (Is it her? Is it her husband? Is it Garth?!), but his all time party song "Friends in Low Places" has a third verse that's basically just the second verse, but with a raunchy twist. Oh Mr. Brooks, you're ever the mischievous artist. 
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  (#7) His Lyrics Were Powerful Enough To Get An Artist A Record Deal

  Aside from the money, power, and fame, the best part about being a popular artist is that you can help your friends achieve their dreams. Or, if nothing else, get them cushy jobs in your entourage. On Brooks' hit single from his debut album he name checks rodeo rider and country singer Chris LeDoux, and this simple mention was enough to put LeDoux on the national radar and garner him a recording contract at Capitol Records.
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  (#8) English People LOVE "Garth Vader"

  It turns out that singing songs about being a provincial dum-dum while dressing like you're out on the range is appealing to people of all nationalities, especially the English. While on his 1993 world tour, Brooks endured the wry zingers of the UK press and that must have led to him selling out massive venues like Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre and London's Wembley Arena. Nick Barraclough, a popular English country DJ, even took to referring to Brooks as "Garth Vader" because of the way he was "invading the charts," even though that's not why Darth Vader is named Darth Vader.

  Anyway, not the point. The point is that the citizens of the UK love Brooks so much that there's even a tribute act for Brooks called Garth Brooks UK and they apparently do very well. 
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  (#9) A Deal With Walmart Made Him An Even Wealthier Man

  In the '90s, when a musician could still make a bunch of money by selling records, Brooks did the unthinkable and pulled all of his music from every commercial retailer and signed a deal to solely sell his albums at Walmart and Sam's Club.

  Today it's not crazy for an artist to have a Target, Walmart, or iTunes exclusive, but Brooks really was the first artist to hedge his bets with one retailer depending on where his fans did most of their shopping. 
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  (#10) He's Not Into The Resale Market

  If you grew up in the '90s and very early 2000s then you more than likely bought all, if not most, of your music from a used record bin at your local shop. If you ever bought a used Garth Brooks album then he considered you a personal enemy that needed to be stopped at all costs. Sorry, but that's just how G-Nasty rolls.

  In the very early '90s Brooks promised to withhold new music from retailers that bought and sold used music because they hampered with an artist's ability to keep track of their sales and get all of those sweet sweet royalties. Brooks backed down when he was faced with an antitrust lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission. 
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  (#11) He Eats Like A (Literal) Dog

  That's right folks, country superstar Garth Brooks eats like a dog. And he forces his daughters and wife to eat like a dog too. Or at least he did when he was trying to figure out how to be a "cool" dad after he and his first wife divorced in 2000. During a spaghetti night with the family (side note: "Spaghetti Night With Garth Brooks" sounds like it would make an amazing Cattle Decapitation song) Brooks decided to spice things up in the strangest way. “I said, ‘Just take your fork in your right hand. Okay, we’re going to beat it against the table three times then I want you to throw your fork over your shoulder.’ I said, ‘It’s okay.’ Beat it, beat it, and they hurled those forks, I mean just threw ’em. ‘What do we do now?’ I said, ‘Now, you eat like a dog.’" Yeah, no way that was sexual at all.  
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  (#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."
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  (#13) LGarthTBQ

  Even if Garth Brooks eats like a dog and hates it that you buy music second hand, at least he's down with the secret gay agenda. Brooks' outting to the world began in his 1992 single "We Shall Be Free" that featured the lyrics "When we’re free to love anyone we choose" which, even if it's just one line, was the first mainstream country song to even mention LGTBQ rights.

  It turns out that Brooks was made hip to the idea of people being able to smoosh their faces against whoever the felt like it by his late sister Betsy Smittle, who was gay and a part of his touring band. 
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  (#14) Mo Betta Blues

  You know those really dumb cool shirts that Garth Brooks wore throughout the 90s that looked like a giant checker board? Well it turns out that they're made by the "Mo Betta" company and in the '90s they hit a boom thanks to the singer wearing them constantly. The guy that runs the Mo Betta company was absolutely tickled when Brooks made his shirts into a thing, and he told The Oklahoman, "The biggest thing was Garth Brooks ... before Garth we just made shirts for the cowboy - he took us to another level; people that just want to wear them, like doctors." Although to be fair if you ever see a doctor wearing a Mo Betta shirt you need to rethink your insurance plan. 
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  (#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. 
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  (#16) Garth Brooks Once Gave A 23 Hour Autograph Session

  If you're complaining about how you can't ever get Garth Brooks' autograph you need to chill out because you had your chance at the 25th anniversary of the CMA music festival in 1996. At the last minute Brooks decided to attend the event, and duh his booth was completely swamped with fans who wouldn't stop asking him to sign their dog bowls, headshots, etc. Rather than run off that like little baby Ronnie Milsap, Brooks stuck around for 23 hours and 10 minutes without a single break. How do you think he went to the bathroom? Is that what those 10 gallon hats are for?
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  (#17) Garth Brooks Pulls A Fast One On The Super Bowl

  In 1993 Garth Brooks was slated to perform the national anthem at the Super Bowl in Pasadena, California, but with about 45 minutes to air time Brooks said that he wouldn't sing the anthem unless his video for "We Shall Be Free" was aired prior to the game. The producers balked and probably said something along the lines of "Very funny Garth," then they asked him to pre-record a version of the anthem just in case something went wrong with the sound. He told them no, and left. With no time to find a suitable replacement - although there's a rumor that Jon Bon Jovi was almost pulled out of the audience to sing - the NFL acquiesced to Brooks' demands, showed the video, and then let him sing. 
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  (#18) Brooks Was The First Country Singer To Score A #1 Album

  Country music has been popular since the dawn of radio, but it was never considered mainstream music until Garth Brooks came along and made listeners pay attention to the sounds coming out of Nashville in the early '90s. Ropin' the Wind, Brooks' third album in three years would capitalize not only on the new Sound Scan technology that more accurately tabulated what music people were buying, but on the changing demographics of radio listeners.

  In 1991, when the album was released, rock radio was ditching artists like Billy Joel and John Mellencamp in favor of harder bands like Metallica (who released the Black Album in the same year), and Nirvana (who would release Nevermind just a few weeks after Ropin' the Wind), leaving older music fans to turn to the country stations on the dial. These factors created a perfect storm for Brooks' third album to spend a collective 18 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts. 
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  (#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." 
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  (#20) He Retired To Be A Dad

  It's one thing for an artist to become bored with success and shy away from the spotlight, but by the time Brooks was at his peak he was already talking about retiring from performing to spend more time with his daughters in Oklahoma. According to Brooks, however, every time he thought about retiring another commitment would come up and he was locked in an endless "Cats in the Cradle"-type scenario.

  But during a tour in 1998 he heard his daughter Taylor say the word "both" in an accent that sound similar to her nanny's and he realized that someone else was raising his children. After thinking about his situation he realized that he needed to be a family man instead of a music man. Brooks told People Magazine, "Even though [music] fed us and was our life, you knew that the tail could not wag the dog. You knew the things that were important, from my own mom and dad. Everything was telling me I need to be there for my children.”
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  (#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. 

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