Trivia / Garth Brooks

• Actor Allusion:
  • In his duet with Chris LeDoux, "Whatcha Gonna Do With a Cowboy", one line finishes "You'd be better off trying to rope the wind," sung by Chris in reference to Garth's third album.
  • Garth name drops two of Chris' songs in his tribute to him, "Good Ride Cowboy": And from "Bareback Jack" to "This Cowboy's Hat"... as well as mentioning the fact that Chris covered "Life is a Highway". He also name drops one of his own songs, "Much Too Young (to Feel This Damn Old)", which itself name-drops Chris.
• Approval of God: He posted a reaction video for metal band STATE of MINE's cover of "The Thunder Rolls" gushing praise for their rendition, saying they sang it the way he wished he'd had the balls to sing it.
• Best for Last: On the long-running radio program Solid Gold Country ^note (a five-day-a-week show distributed by Unistar (aka the United Stations Radio Network), formatting country gold and featuring artist profiles, a look back at songs that were popular that week in a past year, and every other topic imaginable), quite possibly the very last song played on the last program (aired September 3, 1993, on a show spotlighting tracks from award-winning albums that became big hits) was Garth's "Friends In Low Places."
• Breakaway Pop Hit: Garth had two: "To Make You Feel My Love" was attached to Hope Floats, and "When You Come Back to Me Again" was done for Frequency.
• Breakthrough Hit: "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" was his first single, "The Dance" was his first big single, and "Friends in Low Places" was his first huge single.
• Chart Displacement:
  • On the country charts, his two longest-lasting #1 hits at four weeks each are "Friends in Low Places"... and "What She's Doing Now", the latter which had considerably less staying power. Notably, "...Doing Now" appears on virtually none of his Greatest Hits projects and considerably fewer '90s setlists. "Somewhere Other Than the Night" and "She's Every Woman" also hit #1, but aren't as remembered in the long run as "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" (#9), "Rodeo" (#3), "We Shall Be Free" (#12; justified in that some stations balked at its progressive lyrics), "Papa Loved Mama" (#3), "Callin' Baton Rouge" (#2), and "Good Ride Cowboy" (#3, although it did top the Mediabase country charts).
  • "The Red Strokes" was never even a single, but curiosity airplay sparked by its ambitious music video led to some stations playing it anyway; it's also been known to sneak into a few '90s playlists now and then. However, it was released in the UK as a double A-side with "Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)", where it peaked at #13.
  • Because – with the exception of his early singles in 1989-1990 – Garth rarely released his songs as physical singles, and because the Hot 100 barely factored in country music until late in the decade, his only Top 40 pop hit is "Lost in You" from the abortive In the Life of Chris Gaines project. His highest Hot 100 entry by himself is the #46 peak of the long-forgotten "Wrapped Up in You" from late 2001-early 2002. A cover of KISS' "Hard Luck Woman" from the tribute album KISS My Ass: Classic KISS Regrooved got to #45 on Hot 100 Airplay (being ineligible for the main chart for the reasons listed above), but it didn't have any staying power either.
• Corpsing: He does it a couple of times on Double Live. The first time basically made "Unanswered Prayers" a full Audience Participation Song, and the second is right at the end of the Double Live exclusive "Your Song".
• Creator Couple: With fellow country singer Trisha Yearwood.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Garth called "The Dance" his favorite song on his Live In Germany album, while he stated in an interview that his favorite to perform is "Callin' Baton Rouge"
• Denial of Digital Distribution: Garth is notorious for not putting his music on most streaming services for two reasons: he dislikes the payment structures of most digital platforms, and he believes that offering the option to buy songs individually distracts from the integrity of the album. To get around this, he briefly created his own digital platform called GhostTunes, but it never took off. However, he did put some of his later albums on Amazon Music.
• Development Hell: Fun has been delayed multiple times due to the singles faltering. It was finally released in November 2020.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • For the longest time, the "third verse" version of "Friends in Low Places" was never commercially available. The third verse has proven extremely popular, as the crowd sings it by themselves on the Double Live album.
  • For years, his TV concert specials. "This Is Garth Brooks" (1992) and "Garth Live From Central Park" (1997) were released on VHS in 1992 & 1998 respectively, but both went out-of-print relatively quick, while "This Is Garth Brooks II" (1994) saw its planned VHS release canceled, and "Garth Brooks Ireland & Back" (1998) was long forgotten after its initial NBC airing (save for a rare CMT rerun in 2002). All four specials were finally released on DVD in a box set in 2006, albeit with several edits made to all of them (and "Ireland & Back" being retitled "Garth Brooks Live From Dublin").
  • His rendition "It's Your Song" was released to radio in two forms: the live recording from Double Live, and an alternate studio version which is now very hard to find. (And people want to find it, since he corpses during the live version.) Also unique to Double Live are "Tearin' It Up and Burnin' It Down" and "Wild as the Wind", the latter a duet with Trisha Yearwood.
  • "The Call", a 2013 duet with Trisha Yearwood, was only recorded live once and sent out to radio stations on a lark. It was never put on an album, and one of the only circulating copies can be found here.
  • A 2020 protest song titled "We Belong to Each Other" was only ever released via Facebook, although the blog Taste of Country saved a copy.
• Missing Episode: Garth lost a bunch of songs that would've formed the next album after Man Against Machine due to his cell phone breaking.
• Posthumous Credit: For Kim Williams as co-writer on "Baby, Let's Lay Down and Dance" (Kim died in February 2016 and the song was released in October).
• Production Posse:
  • All of his albums were produced by Allen Reynolds except for In the Life of Chris Gaines, Man Against Machine, and Gunslinger. The former was produced by Don Was of Was (Not Was), and the latter two were produced by his sound engineer Mark Miller, who has also been with him from day one.
  • He has used many of the same session musicians from day one (again barring the Chris Gaines album), a group known collectively as the "G-Men": Bruce Bouton (steel guitar; also a member of his road band), Mark Casstevens (acoustic guitar), Mike Chapman (bass guitar), Rob Hajacos (fiddle), Chris Leuzinger (lead guitar), Milton Sledge (drums), and Bobby Wood (keyboards). Following Mike Chapman's death, session bassists Steve Mackey (of Peter Frampton's band, not of Pulp) and Glenn Worf alternated the bassist role on Fun. Most of his backing vocals are provided by Robert Bailey and Vicki Hampton (who also serve this capacity in his road band), as well as Trisha Yearwood even before he married her. The "G-Men" also played on many albums produced by Allen Reynolds in The '90s, including those by Kathy Mattea and Hal Ketchum; they also played on Ty England's Highways and Dance Halls, which Garth produced.
  • Over the years, many members of his road band have played on his albums, including Bouton, Mike Palmer (drums), Mark Greenwood (bass guitar), Jimmy Mattingly (fiddle), Dave Gant (keyboards), the aforementioned Ty England (acoustic guitar), Steve McClure (steel guitar), Gordon Kennedy (lead guitar), along with former member James Garver (lead guitar) and Garth's late half-sister Betsy Smittle (bass guitar).
  • Recurring co-writers over the years have included Kent Blazy, Kim Williams^note "Baby, Let's Lay Down and Dance" was the first single off of Gunslinger in tribute to Williams, who passed away shortly after co-writing it, Victoria Shaw, Stephanie Davis, and Tony Arata.
• Promoted Fanboy: He used his popularity to fulfill his livelong dream of guest-starring on The Muppet Show (or at least ''a'' Muppet show) as well as perform on a tribute album for the band he claims inspired his entire career: KISS.
• Stillborn Franchise: The Chris Gaines franchise died after the album's negative reception.
• Throw It In!:
  • "Friends in Low Places" has an audible click near the end when someone opens a beer can, which was initially mistaken for a mastering error. Garth also screams "Push, Marie!" a few seconds later, in reference to his guitarist's wife, who was in the hospital at the time.
  • "Mr. Right" on the Ropin' the Wind album, has Garth chuckling and saying "You guys!" in the pause after the instrumental break in the second chorus.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The entire face of 1990s country music could've been changed if Mark Chesnutt had released his (considerably more downbeat) version of "Friends in Low Places" instead of Garth. Garth did do the demo for the song (the last demo he'd ever have to do), and he claims that Capitol was holding the song for him, anyway.
  • How would Chris Gaines be treated if The Lamb were actually made?
  • Garth was supposed to include "Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo" on Scarecrow, but Tracy Byrd cut it at the same time. According to Byrd himself, he called up Garth and said he wanted to put it out a single, so Garth gave Byrd his blessing.