Blame it all on my roots – A grounded Garth Brooks owns Neyland Stadium show

Saturday was a special night in Neyland Stadium.

For only the third time ever, and the first in 16 years, the home of the Vols football team turned into a festival-sized music venue in the form of a Garth Brooks musical experience.

The Day Before

Brooks covered a lot of ground during his time in Knoxville. On Friday, he met with students and faculty in an intimate program with former Vol Inky Johnson. He then grabbed his backpack and walked across campus where a waiting gaggle of media asked dozens of questions. Afterward, he gave time to each individual member where his patience was on full display. No matter the request asked of him, he never once said yes. He always replied, “Of course.”  After the presser he hosted a sound check for students and faculty. Needless to say, he likes to stay busy leading up to a show.

It’s hard to change a room the size of the third level terrace at Neyland Stadium, but as soon as he hit the small raised stage to start fielding questions for the 4:00 press conference on Friday, there was an ease in the air.

If you’re looking for the poster-boy for “Everyman,” Garth Brooks is your guy. He opened with a calm inquiry to his team, asking if there was anything procedural that needed to be addressed, and when the answer was no, he was off to the races.

His humble beginnings were immediately brought to attention and it’s a theme that resonated throughout the time he gave BLANK on Rocky Top. One of the first things Brooks brought up was a show he did in Knoxville’s Old City at Ella Guru’s just two months in to his career. The show was on a Sunday night and admission was $5 (see below). The venue was owned by Ashley Capps, who would go on to form AC Entertainment and co-found the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and Big Ears, among many other events. Brooks thought enough of the place that he would later reference it in the song, “The Old Stuff.”  The most striking thing about his opening remarks came in reference to those early days when he mentioned that much of his band was the same today.

During our one-on-one after the presser, we went straight back to this topic.

When asked which of those members are included in the long haul, Brooks knew the score. “The drummer is original. Piano, steel, acoustic guitar. The bass player is an original crew member. He came on as the bass player in ’94, but we’ve had him since ’90-’91. Another guitar player and the other keyboard player, we’ve been together since ’95 and they played on the records. And the two background singers were ’91 & ’92. And we’re going to introduce all of them (at the show) and tell their stories.”

“You talk about staying grounded, these guys know who you really are and you know who they are,” he added. “If there’s one word that wraps us up more than any other word, now this late in our career, it’s grateful.”

When Blank suggested the idea that keeping this many pieces of the band together might be more impressive than any of the other accomplishments, Brooks dug in. “I one-hundred-percent agree. When people say “Entertainer of the Year,” I’m not sure I deserve it. I know they do.”

The family extends off of the stage, as well. “Cron, he’s a Knoxville graduate. He came on in 1989. He was our first concession guy and still is today,” added Brooks. “The Lighting guy is our original guy, the sound guy is the original guy, we’ve all been together for 100 years.”

Gameday

Veronica Carey Tabor and her crew had just gotten to their seats at the top of Neyland Stadium when a man with a little boy and two other patrons started settling in to their seats just below them. After asking an usher to take a picture of her group, Tabor was asked by the new gentleman in front of them if she’d like one at a different angle. She obliged and gave him her phone.

The gentleman asked if her group was all together and told them to squeeze in tight for the shot. Then something truly special happened.  “You know this just doesn’t look good from here,” the stranger said. “Why don’t you go try taking this picture on the front row?” He then handed Tabor her phone and pulled out four front row tickets and floor wrist bands.

Tabor says it was an unbelievable moment. “That’s when I asked if he was serious and he said yes. He gave us the tickets and told us they were directly from Garth himself and that he wanted us to have a good time. The woman with him then told us to make sure we were loud cause Garth likes it when people are loud. We gave them hugs and started heading down. When we were down there we saw them again so we asked if they would tell us who they were. They said no, they just wanted us to know that the tickets were courtesy of Garth Brooks himself and to enjoy the concert.”

The show itself was an entertainment clinic. The setlist was as graceful as it gets, with ebbs and flows placed perfectly throughout. Brooks’ crew recorded some live tracks as well and the crowd was more than gracious when prompted to be a part of the audio. Rumors of special guests were rampant, but this set didn’t need anyone else. The band was on fire in sub-40-degree weather. Neyland Stadium was a living, breathing, organism and most of the show didn’t even feel cold. It’s no wonder that just one week before the show, Brooks (and company as he is quick to point out) were named entertainers of the year for the seventh time.

Brooks seems genuinely interested in making people’s lives better both on the stage and off of it and he also mentioned how important it is to have woman in positions of power on his crew. “Young woman need to see that there is not a ceiling on what you can do,” he said on Friday.

While he jokes about being an old guy who just plays guitar to hide his belly, he has found a way to appeal to the widest swath of ages of anyone in music history and that should only get wider in the future.  There’s an A&E special coming out in December that he says, “includes the warts and all,” and perhaps even a new slew of dive bar gigs on the horizon.  After chatting with Brooks and the people around him, it’s evident that he’s not anywhere close to done. He’s important to a lot of people and his music pays a lot of folks’ bills and while he certainly knows that, he doesn’t seem to carry that around as weight. Instead, he seems honored to do it.

Garth Brooks is just having fun.