USA TODAY International Edition
Brooks is still having ‘ Fun’ with new album
I’m two minutes into my interview with Garth Brooks, and I’ve already said the one word I was trying to avoid. “Fun.”
Why? Because that’s also the title of the country music mainstay’s new album. While you’d think there’d be plenty of other creative ways to describe its sound, it’s hard not to fall back on that three- letter word.
As it turns out, Brooks, 58, has had the same problem over the past several years – often when somebody would ask how the sessions were going on his 12th studio album.
And you can hear it for yourself on the finished product, whether he’s channeling funk and gospel on “Amen,” or his inner Jimmy Buffett on “Message in a Bottle,” or singing the praises of New Orleans on “Party Gras.”
He also is sharing the microphone with some powerful voices: his wife, Trisha Yearwood; Blake Shelton; and one of his heroes, Charley Pride.
Perhaps it’s especially easy for Brooks to cut loose these days. For a guy who transformed country music when he emerged 31 years ago – and has been playing by his own rules ever since – he’s arguably more free of outside influence than ever.
For one thing, he’s no longer signed to a major label (“Fun” arrived Friday, solely on his own Pearl Records). This year, he removed himself from the race for Entertainer of the Year at the CMA Awards – a field he has mostly dominated since ending his retirement in 2014.
And in the age of streaming, he’s the last superstar taking a stand. You won’t find any of Brooks’ work on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Music, though he did strike a deal with Amazon’s music service in 2016.
Brooks tackled these topics in our conversation, as well as “Fun’s” sober moments, his foray into social media and what he really thought about “A Star Is Born.”
On “Where The Cross Don’t Burn,” Brooks sings with 86- year- old Charley Pride – a trailblazing figure who became country music’s first Black superstar in the 1960s. The song is about a friendship between “a white boy and a Black old man.”
Though he says he “hate( s) to tell this story,” Brooks asked Pride to sing with him earlier this year, after false rumors circulated that the Country Music Hall of Famer had died.
“I’ve had this song for 10 years, and I kicked myself,” Brooks said.
“Miss Yearwood said, ‘ What’s wrong?’ ( I said), ‘ I’ve wasted another shot at doing something I really wanted to do. And I screwed around, and I let it go.’ And the next day, it came out that it was a false report. And that day I called Charley and ( Pride’s wife) Miss Rozene. I said, ‘ You know what, I’m not gonna let another day go by, because I need this song.’ And so we got it. We didn’t know if it was gonna go on the record, but it just felt so good. He did such a great job.”
On “Fun,” Brooks and his wife sing together on “Shallow,” the hit ballad
from the 2018 film “A Star Is Born.” The song is a duet between the fictional music stars played by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, and while it has been covered by dozens of big names at this point, Brooks and Yearwood are the first real- life superstar couple to take it on.
Brooks liked a lot about the film, especially Gaga’s performance.
“She doesn’t know how to be anything but honest,” he said.
“What they really got right, being married to another singer, was the internal jealousies. I worship Miss Yearwood, and I so want her to have more success than me, but make no mistake ( laughs), I am jealous when she does.”
He sings her praises on “Stronger Than Me” – a song he debuted at the 2018 CMA Awards.
“I always thought I had to have the answers/ Be her strength and take the lead/ But when it comes to everything that really matters/ She’s stronger than me.”
“That was my household growing up,” said Brooks, who was one of six kids in Yukon, Oklahoma.
“The dad roared, he was the lion, but the truth is, man, when ( expletive) hit the fan, it was always mom ... When we lost our mom, our family just blew apart.”
The studio version of the song arrives at a time when millions of U. S. parents – particularly women – are taking on extra work as schools are closed.
“I don’t know about your house, but ( Yearwood) is the general here on the masks, the washing hands,” Brooks said. “‘ Hey, somebody’s coming over.’ ‘ No, they’re not coming over!’ ”
On Eric Church’s win at the CMAs
Earlier this year, Brooks announced he wished to remove himself from the race for Entertainer of the Year at the CMAs – one of ( if not the) most coveted awards in country music.
Last year, he won, over two widely favored artists who’d been seeking the prize for a decade: Eric Church and Carrie Underwood. At the ceremony held this month, Church won the award for the first time.
“I was happy for him,” Brooks said. “That was the whole reason ( I took myself out of the race). So that new blood could have that award. And what I hope it does for him, or any artist that wins, it is what it did for me. ( Your) shoulders come back a little more, and you realize you’re representing country music as the Entertainer of the Year for the next year. And that’s a lot to put on somebody and like I said, and I’m glad new blood is getting to feel what kind of an honor that is.”
Streaming’s last stand
Search for Brooks’ music on YouTube, and you’ll find clips of “The Thunder Rolls,” “The Dance” pop up immediately. Click play, however, and you’ll realize it’s not him singing, but a ( admittedly decent) impersonator.
Without hyperbole, Brooks is the only A- list entertainer whose music can’t be found on the platform.
That also goes for Spotify, Apple Music, and any other digital service that isn’t Amazon’s.
Obviously, that exclusivity deal keeps his work off other platforms, but Brooks also wants to stand with songwriters, as the music publishing industry remains in a legal battle with major streaming services over royalty rates.
“What has happened since Apple’s iPods and phones have come ( is) Nashville has lost over 85% of its songwriters,” Brooks said. “And it’s because the old way of paying songwriters from album sales, where these new kids would come to town and maybe get an album cut, that could keep them here in this town until they got the right ‘ 16th Avenue,’ or “Friends in Low Places’ or ‘ Waiting on a Woman.’ That’s how we survived as young songwriters. So that’s kind of out the window.”
But speaking of “new kids” – if they’re not Amazon subscribers, Brooks’ work is all but invisible to younger generations.
“That’s why vinyl really excites me,” Brooks said. “When people work so hard to own music, then it’s theirs. Now they’re going to sit and listen through a song that maybe they would say ‘ next’ on if they weren’t paying for it. But it’s theirs now. So now ( they’re) going to give this every chance in the world. And what happens is, it grows on you. And if the music grows on you, so does the artist.
“I don’t like how the future of labels and streaming are pointing toward disposable artists. I don’t like that at all. Because this is the one shot you get as an artist. For every new artist out there, I want them to get the best shot.”
The time he crashed Facebook
Elsewhere on the internet, Brooks was actually ahead of the pack. For musicians big and small, 2020 has been the year of the live- streamed concert, with artists taking requests and answering questions from fans watching on social media.
But Brooks has been doing that since 2016 with his Facebook live series, “Inside Studio G,” and the show has thrived during the pandemic. In March, an acoustic performance from Brooks and Yearwood drew more than 3 million live viewers, which overloaded the platform. They took the format to prime- time television with a CBS special the following month, and a Christmas program will air on the network on Dec. 20.
Brooks recalled an early conversation he had with his social media guru: “I said, ‘ Look, man, I just don’t want to post and spew. I want to have a conversation going back and forth.’
“It’s really been a sweet kind of relationship between the artist and people that allow him to be that artist. I think it’s a format I would suggest to any because it gets you with the people, and the greatest ideas come from them.”