Brooks performing at a benefit concert in 2009.
Country-pop icon Garth Brooks, who has sold more albums than anyone except The Beatles and Elvis Presley, is back.
The entertainer announced the end of his thirteen-year retirement at a Nashville press conference on Thursday afternoon. Brooks addressed a wide variety of topics, including new music, a new tour, and the recent cancellation of five concerts at Dublin’s Croke Park stadium.
The press conference offered plenty of material for Brooks fans to salivate over.
The first and most businesslike announcement was that Brooks has paired with Sony for a new record deal.
Brooks announcing the doomed Croke Park gigs in 2013.
But that news only set up more pertinent information: Brooks hopes to release a double album “around Black Friday.”
How will he support the album? In typical Brooksian fashion: by embarking on a three-year world tour.
Brooks offered no concrete information about dates, cities, or ticket prices on Thursday. But he did share the unusual method by which that information will be announced.
This coming Monday, July 14th, Brooks himself will contact one fan at random, making that person “his personal PR rep” for the day. He’ll tell the fan the date and location of the tour, and it will be up to that person to spread the news via whatever method he sees fit.
Only the identity of that fan has been revealed: 31 year-old Andy Roberts, president of a Georgia janitorial firm.
(Presumably, a more formal and complete announcement will follow.)
The performer received the Grammy on the Hill award from President Obama in 2010.
As for the new music, Brooks had bold, declarative statements to make. One such: “Will we do cowboy songs on this album? You’re damn straight we’ll do cowboy songs….Will we do songs we wish George Strait had done? Yes.”
Another major announcement: Brooks will begin selling his old music online for the first time. It will be available only through his web site, at a price to be determined.
What do you think? Can Brooks, at 52, shake off the rust of his retirement and dominate the country-pop scene the way he once did? Are you excited to see what tricks he has up his sleeves?
