Brooks’ tale told by those who lived it

First anthology captures his rise in words, music

Garth Brooks is preparing to wrap up the U.S. leg of his world tour in Nashville in December. But in the midst of that three-year record-setting run, Brooks found time to spend hundreds of hours compiling the first volume of his fivepart anthology.

Available now, The Anthology Part 1, The First Five

Years is a hardback memory book packed with more than 200 pages of Brooks’ rare personal photos; stories told by himself and other key players in his life from 1989 to 1993; and five CDs of demos, masters and day-writes — a piano or guitar/vocal that was recorded by the song’s writer on the day it was written.

“I didn’t want someone else telling our story,” Brooks said. “I wanted the people who were there telling our story. I’ll never do an autobiography because the truth is only what I remember it to be for me. My truth might not be the same as (manager) Bob Doyle’s.

“What I love in this book is there’s Garth and there’s Bob commenting on it. It’s really cool ... and here comes a story from Pat Alger about how the song is written. The story then becomes ours instead of mine.”

Brooks said Part 1 was among the most challenging of the volumes to assemble because many of the anecdotes took place in the studio of Brooks’ longtime producer, Allen Reynolds. Reynolds forbade cameras and video recording inside the space. The singer said that he was “astounded” any photos at all from his early recording sessions were found and that seeing

pictures he never knew existed has been his favorite part of compiling The Anthology.

“As the years get closer, there’s so much more photography,” he said. “And everything has been catalogued from 1996 on, but the first five years were not. You didn’t think anything was going to happen, and then when it did, you could never catch up with it. That stuff was scattered to the wind.”

The singer said parts 4 and 5 will be released next, with 2 and 3 coming last. He’s about halfway finished with the next volume.

“When this is done, it will be like an old-school version of Encyclopedia Britannica of Garth Brooks.”

RICK DIAMOND/GETTY IMAGES Garth Brooks says he’s about halfway done with the next installment of the anthology.