Garth Brooks: The Ultimate Source for Concert Tickets and Album Info

Born February 7, 1962 the youngest of six children, Garth Brooks spent the first years of his life in Yukon, Oklahoma. His was a draughtsman for an oil company, and his mother was a country music singer good enough to be signed to Capitol Records during the 1950s. Garth's mother was also a regular on the Red Foley Show. Garth's unquenchable curiosity about music was tempered only by his interest in athletics. He played football and baseball in high school, and was a good runner. In fact, it was a track scholarship through which he entered college, and he graduated in 1984 with a degree in advertising.

The music clubs and bars of Oklahoma were where Garth made his bones in the business, playing country clubs like the Tumbleweed in Stillwater. Garth met and married Sandy Mahl around this time, and as well as having three daughters, they moved to the center of the country music industry, Nashville, Tennessee.

Brooks was introduced to Trisha Yearwood, another aspiring country singer, in October 1987. They made a pact to aid one another in their attempts for country success, and this was realized when Garth achieved it, signing a recording contract with Capitol, the same recording company as his mother, in 1988. Making good on their pact, he invited Yearwood to open for him on his first tour.

His 1989 debut album, Garth Brooks, was a success in the charts, and the critics loved it. The album hit second spot in the US country album chart and number thirteen on the Billboard 200 pop album chart. The album was proper style country, and the first single, "Much Too Young To Feel This Damn Old", made the top 10. Garth hit Number One with the next single, "If Tomorrow Never Comes." and subsequent offerings made similar impressions, as Garth's reputation as a newly arrived country heavy-hitter grew. The common themes of his work were those of down to earth folk who held firm beliefs in the ways they lived their lives, with a conspicuous absence of the inane and cosmetic leanings of his contemporaries.

The next album 1990's No Fences, spent an amazing 23 weeks at Number One on the Billboard country music chart, becoming Brooks' highest-selling album, with domestic sales topping 16 million. The song "Friends in Low Places", which would be embraced by all and considered Brooks' anthem, was on the record, along with a slew of original and moving country offerings, including the rugged "The Thunder Rolls".

1991's Ropin' the Wind, with advance orders of 4 million, entered the pop album charts at Number One, and suddenly Brooks became the first country artist with a trio of albums riding high in the pop top 20 in one week, a grand accomplishment.

Brooks's fifth album, 1992's The Chase, joined the first four in Billboard's pop top 50 albums chart, the first time any pop artist in the modern era had achieved such a feat. The Chase sold well, as expected, and a couple of singles off the album hit Number One, but Brooks had begun to make distinctions between the music his fans expected, and the direction his mind had taken. This was to signal a cleavage between Garth and his hardcore following, and it was a catalysis for big changes both in his music and his philosophy.

There followed a truly glamorous period, in which Brooks hit even greater heights and broke even more records, and in the early 2000s he was divorced from his wife, and began dating Trisha Yearwood. The couple were married in 2005. This turned into the phase sometimes referred to as the "partial comeback", following a time when Brooks had earnestly announced his retirement. Garth announced that he wouldn't be touring or recording any new material until 2015 in 2005, but then formed a business relationship with cut-price giant Wal Mart. With Wal Mart, Brooks re-released many of his tunes in an inexpensive and popular box format. The first rumblings of the Brooks "partial comeback" came when he performed in a number of charity concerts and appearances with wife Yearwood, and over time his proclamations of missing the old times have accumulated.

Now, we're faced with the prospect of Garth Brooks returning to the stage once more, so watch this site like a hawk and be ready to swoop for tickets when the word comes down!