Garth Brooks hasn’t played a Tucson show since the mid-1990s when he sold out the McKale Center.

This weekend he returns β€” sort of. Brooks, the mega-country music superstar who set a record in March 2019 for the most tickets sold (77,653) at Glendale’s State Farm Stadium (aka Cardinals stadium), is performing what is likely the most unique COVID-era concert to date: A live performance being beamed to 300 drive-in movie theaters nationwide.

It will be shown on three screens in the Tucson area: El Toro Flicks theaters β€” downtown and at the Oro Valley Marketplace β€”and Tucson Dragway at the Pima County Fairgrounds.

The concert, produced by Texas-based Encore Live and featuring Brooks full band, was filmed live, but it is not being streamed live, according to Brooks’ publicists.

Which for die-hard fans makes little difference: It’s a new concert, with Brooks singing his old songs (β€œFriends In Low Places,” β€œThe Thunder Rolls,” β€œThe Dance,” β€œShameless”) and newer songs including the industrial rocker β€œMan Against The Machine.” And no doubt he will fill in the downtime with some words of inspiration about the times we are living in and the need for unity, themes that have resonated throughout his career. And from our car hoods and truck beds, looking up at the mammoth screens, it will be special. Memorable, especially if you have never seen Brooks live.

Sure, it might lack that true β€œlive” rush we had when we packed in to see him in 2015 when he finally returned to the road after a nearly 20-year absence.

A fire on the 11th story of the new 14-story Graduate Hotel & The Collective Apartments at Main Gate west of the University of Arizona campus on June 23, 2020. Smoke was visible to arriving Tucson Fire Department units, which quickly snuffed the small fire. No injuries reported. Video by Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Brooks stopped touring in the late 1990s to focus on his family, and when he returned in 2015, playing his first Arizona show in 19 years, the enthusiasm was overwhelming. He planned to do two shows at Talking Stick Arena in downtown Phoenix; he ended up doing six and all of them sold out.

We were at the first show, sitting about a dozen rows from the stage. The energy in that cavernous arena was infectious and took us back to shows from early in his career. Those seats were useless, and it’s a safe bet you’ll see people on Saturday night get out of their vehicles and turn their socially distanced parking spots into asphalt dance floors.

Knowing Brooks, who even after his long hiatus bounded on stage for that 2015 show like he was that twentysomething newbie, Saturday’s drive-in concert will not be phoned in. We would be shocked if there weren’t any of his trademark pyrotechnics and stage effects, like his dramatic light-show-enhanced entrance at Talking Stick as smoke filled the stage against the driving heartbeat chords of β€œMan Against The Machine.”

But we will miss a few things: Standing in line at the merch table for a tour tee. Praying our phone doesn’t die before we get a video of β€œTwo of a Kind, Workin’ On a Full House” like the one we got at Talking Stick of him running around stage with an acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder. Filming a song off a video screen is, well, lame at best.

But it might be cool to get a selfie with your buds with Brooks on the big screen in the backdrop.

And years from now, when we get to see Brooks in person again, we’ll look at that picture and remember that for just a little while, in a makeshift drive-in theater in Tucson, Garth Brooks brought a little bit of normal to our very not-normal situation.

Become a #ThisIsTucson member! Your contribution helps our team bring you stories that keep you connected to the community. Become a member today.

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com or 573-4642. On Twitter @Starburch