Garth Brooks Country Singer-Songwriter
Kennedy Center Honoree
“President John F. Kennedy was a childhood hero of mine, and he has continued to be through every stage of my life. He knew that a nation is defined by its culture and a culture is defined by its arts. I have watched many of my heroes sit in that booth during their ceremony, I have even had the joyous honor of singing for some of them on their special night. The hope is to have contributed to humanity like my heroes have, to inspire us to be the most we can be as individuals, global citizens, and a part of human history. But most of all, to simply laugh, cry, love, and dream through music...I have been blessed to do just that as a fan and as an artist.”
— Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks is the seven-time CMA Entertainer of the Year, a first for any artist. He is also the first and only artist in history to receive nine Diamond Awards for the now nine albums certified by the RIAA at over 10 million album sales each. He remains the #1-selling solo artist in U.S. history, certified by the RIAA with 157 million album sales. In March 2020, Garth received the esteemed Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. He has received every accolade the recording industry can bestow on an artist.
In November, just after receiving the Billboard Music Icon Award, Brooks released two new albums, his 12th studio album, FUN and live album Triple Live Deluxe.
In November of 2019, A&E aired Garth Brooks: The Road I’m On. Part of their esteemed ‘Biography’ franchise, the documentary offered an intimate look at Brooks’ life as a musician and father over his entire career.
Last January, Billboard announced that Garth Brooks was the first artist to make it on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in the 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s, and now 20s. He debuted “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)” in 1989. With “Dive Bar,” a duet he sang with Blake Shelton, he made his appearance on the list in 2020. The single inspired a DIVE BAR tour around the country which will continue its run of stops through 2022.
Brooks has been inducted into the International Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Country Music Hall of Fame, and most recently, the Musicians Hall of Fame.
In March 2019, he launched The Stadium Tour, which has broken stadium attendance records at every stop on the tour so far. Pollstar announced at the end of 2019 that The Garth Brooks Stadium Tour was the best-selling country music tour of 2019. In 2017, he finished the Garth Brooks World Tour with Trisha Yearwood. The tour sold over 6.3 million tickets, making it the biggest North American tour in history and the biggest American tour in the world.
Recent Kennedy Center history: Garth Brooks was among the guest cast paying tribute to previous Kennedy Center Honorees James Taylor (2016), Billy Joel (2013), and Loretta Lynn (2003) along with previous Mark Twain Prize recipient Jay Leno (2014).