GARTH BROOKS STAMPEDE-BOUND
As far as entertainers go, the Stampede lassoed one of the biggest to help it celebrate its centennial year.
Garth Brooks is set to perform July 12 at the Saddledome during the 10-days of festivities. Ticket information will be revealed Tuesday at noon.
Booking Brooks for the 100th anniversary is an incredible coup for the Stampede, considering the 50-year-old musician has been semi-retired from touring for a decade, these days focusing instead on a stripped-down ongoing show at Wynn in Las Vegas. But it’s in large part because of the importance of the event and his past relationship with the city that he’s willing to make a rare exception.
“I was lucky enough to get to play Cheyenne on their 100th. When the invitation to play Calgary’s 100th came in, I didn’t think twice,” Brooks said via e-mail Thursday night.
“It is an honour to play the Stampede anytime. It is a once in a lifetime chance to get to play its 100th.”
“The Calgary Stampede has always had a love affair with country music, so Garth Brooks has always been on our wish list,” says Doug Fraser, media relations manager for the Stampede, who notes that Brooks’s people announced the show Thursday even before the Stampede could.
“And I think the centennial really did have something to do with it. The fact is he sees this as a huge celebration for Calgary (and) we know that he likes Calgary.”
That long relationship with the city goes back to before Brooks became the second biggest selling solo artist in the world (behind only Elvis), as the Oklahoma native was kicking off a career which just earned him a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Phil Kallsen, program director for local radio station Country 105, says the region, its love of western music and its early embrace of the performer undoubtedly went a long way in securing the July 12 show.
“We were one of the first radio stations in Canada to play Friends in Low In Places and some of his earlier hits,” says Kallsen, noting that Brooks’s songs are now a daily staple at the station.
“He kind of broke out of southern Alberta in Canada. I think that’s one of the reasons he’s coming back to Calgary, because he has fond memories of the city.”
And many Calgarians likewise have great memories of Brooks, through his several concert appearances in the city — his last being a three-date sellout of the Dome in August of 1996 — perhaps most notably Frank Sisson, who booked the performer to play at his Silver Dollar Casino in 1990 just prior to his ascent to stardom.
Unfortunately, the two shows in the 1,500-seat facility had to be postponed because of travel arrangements, but the entertainer promised to make them up.
True to his word, he made it up — albeit only the one show — for the same fee in May the following year, in the meantime earning six Country Music Association awards including entertainer of the year.
The reason he kept his promise, says Sisson, was something that Brooks told him: “‘I won’t always be on top so I want to remember where I started,’ ” Sisson says. “And he meant it.”
In fact, Sisson says his relationship with the singer has continued, explaining, “This is the only year I haven’t heard from him since ’91” — the year which Brooks returned to play the Saddledome during Stampede.
Of course, Sisson and the rest of the city are looking forward to catching up with Brooks again, with interest at an incredible high, even before the ticket info is out.
“My e-mail’s been busy and my phones been busy,” Fraser says, laughing about all of the family, friends and associates who are coming out of the woodwork to get some treasured ducats.
“I wish I could help everybody, but it’s going to be awfully difficult for even me to get tickets.”