PHOENIX β Back in the 1990s, when Garth Brooks was posting up a string of rocking No. 1 hits, multiplatinum record sales and breakneck concert sellouts, he would host a pre-concert press conference with the local media.
Twenty years later, he still holds press conferences, including one at Phoenix Childrenβs Hospital last Friday hours before he performed the first of six Arizona shows. He will perform four more times this weekend β at 7 and 10:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24 β at Talking Stick Resort Arena (formerly USAirways Center), 201 E. Jefferson St.
About a dozen reporters and photographers shared the Phoenix Childrenβs Child Life Zone with a dozen or so young patients, their parents and zone staffers. As much as he wanted to talk about his concerts, Brooks also wanted to shine a light on the center, which his foundation, Garth Brooksβ Teammates For Kids Foundation, created as a way for kids being treated at the hospitals to escape the routine of needles and tests and just be kids.
The Phoenix center is one of 11 the foundation β which Brooks established with former Dallas Cowboy great Troy Aikman β has opened nationwide. Other locations include Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis and New York, and the foundation now boasts participation by 3,000 professional athletes including baseball and football players.
Brooks and his country superstar wife Trisha Yearwood were actually late to the Friday press conference after meeting with some kids and their parents in the hospital. Yearwood said that that was the most rewarding and hardest part of coming to the Child Life Zone hospitals, seeing the parentsβ pain and the optimism and wondering how she would muster the courage if she was in their shoes.
βI donβt know how they do it,β she said.
But Fridayβs meeting with the media was more about what to expect as Brooks made his triumphant return to Phoenix after a 19-year absence. Brooks left country music in late 2000 so that he could focus on raising his three daughters.
His shows last Friday and Saturday were sold out; there are still some single tickets scattered throughout the arena for this weekendβs concerts through Ticketmaster.
Brooks said that his wife encouraged him last year to return to touring after his youngest daughter left for college. He had done a casino residency in Las Vegas and a few one-off shows mostly for charitable causes, but had not toured since he was in his late 30s; heβs now 53.
βWhen we thought about would we put this tour together and would anyone show up, we were thinking if we get 50 percent of the numbers we did in the β90s we would be very lucky, because the β90s was a great lick for us,β he said. βRight now weβre sitting at about 125 percent of what we did in the β90s. To blow those numbers out of the water makes you feel really good, but to do it at 53 makes you feel a billion times better.β
His shows are largely reminiscent of the ones he performed in his 1990s heydays, minus a few Chris LeDoux-inspired antics including catapulting across arenas on a cable. (See review from last Fridayβs show here.) On rare occasions, Yearwood said, her husband does find himself the object of spontaneous crowd surfing.
βBut I still want to ask every night when we get in the car, βAre you bleeding anywhere?ββ she said.
βAge starts to play in the picture,β Brooks said. βI will give you a little hint: Instead of running around the stage, sometimes the stage runs around you. You can stand in one place and see everybody.β
Brooks said he has been pleasantly surprised by the fan response to his tour, which he launched a year ago and has included multiple shows at each stop.
βIn the β90s I donβt think I was ever ungrateful; I hope I never was,β he said. βI always felt I was very lucky to get to do what I was getting to do. But thereβs a level of grateful now at this age thatβs crazy because when you look out there and see the people that you had hoped you would see again β¦ but then Ticketmaster is telling you that 48 percent of these people at this arena tonight were 10 years old or not born yet when you toured last time, thatβs pretty cool. That means the music has made the leap.β
During the concerts, Yearwood and Brooks perform a duet and Yearwood, a multiplatinum-selling country artist on her own, performs a short solo set.
βI was surprised because married to Garth Brooks, everyone is so excited to see him and I never want to be, βOh great, weβre going to listen to the wife for 45 minutes.β I never wanted to be that girl,β she said during the press conference. βSo Iβm lovinβ the way the Garth fans have embraced me. β¦ From the moment I step out there and the moment I say goodbye, it just feels good. β¦ Before I was nervous, but now I just know itβs going to be fun.β
Yearwood said that her husband casts a large shadow thatβs hard to follow.
βHeβs the party. Heβs that guy that when he walks into the room it gets fun, no matter what. Thatβs the way it is, I think, in these arenas. I see the faces of the folks and it just seems like everybody is there for the right reasons and having a good time,β she said. βBut even when weβre not touring and weβre home, I wake up in the morning and heβs right there like a puppy. Heβs still the party. Heβs not swinging around an arena. Heβs like, βWhat are we going to do now?β Heβs that guy and I love that guy and I hope youβre always that guy,β she added, speaking directly to Brooks.
The world tour moves to Salt Lake City next weekend and then California for shows in San Diego and San Jose before an early December run in Wichita, Kansas.
