Garth Brooks Tried to Turn Down Hall of Fame Induction
As time marches on, a wholesale re-evaluation of the impact and music of Garth Brooks continues.
To the passive country music fan, the name Garth Brooks may be nothing more than a famous name from the past that they recognize or remember from his heyday. But to many dedicated traditionalist country fans, Garth Brooks symbolized the mass commercialization of country music with his flashy shows in sold-out stadiums, and his multi-platinum albums. Somewhere in the shuffle though, Garth’s sonic legacy got lost. And as the integrity of mainstream country continues to erode day by day, Garth continues to look more and more like a traditionalist country artist himself.
Read: Why Time Has Been Kind to the Music of Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks was voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2012. As is to be expected, Brooks was humble in his acceptance. But what went unreported at the time is that Garth actually attempted to turn his induction down, feeling that there were others that were more worthy than him.
Garth Brooks was interviewed by Leslie Armstrong of Nashville Country Club in the Hall of Fame rotunda right after the inductee announcements on March 6th, 2012. When asked what Garth did when he first got the news of his induction, he said:
I know this is going to sound bad, but you asked, okay? So my first thing was is I called the guys up and I say, “Look, I don’t think I deserve this at this time, you know. Is it possible to turn this thing down and wait?” And they said, “No, it’s not possible to turn it down.” I said, “Well I tried, okay, we’re in!” I’m trying to enjoy the day. And at the same time, all you can think about are the people that need to be in here that aren’t in here yet. So now it’s every Hall of Fame member’s job to make sure that we push and push to make sure all those people get in here, and eventually they will. And they should have been here before Garth Brooks.
Who else should have been inducted before Garth? In both Garth’s initial speech at the announcement and in subsequent interviews that day, Garth said that Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs, and Randy Travis deserved to be inducted before him. As he told Inside Music Row:
I felt guilty and embarrassed and honored. Randy Travis cleared the whole way for the 80’s for guys like me and the class of ’89 to come through. He opened all those doors. My generation’s shot at Haggard and Jones was Keith Whitley. Keith needs to be in here. My God, Ricky Skaggs. None of us would be here if it wasn’t for Ricky Skaggs. He filled all the honky tonks and everything there. There’s a lot of catching up to do, and like everybody that goes in it, says it. And they’ll eventually get here. I just don’t think that I should have been here before them. But I feel very honored, and I’ll take it and feel very grateful for it.
Garth also explained that superstardom was not his original intention for coming to Nashville.
I wanted to be a songwriter when I came here. I came here with “Much Too Young to Feel This Damn Old” for George Strait. That was it. I didn’t have any dreams or aspirations after that. Never touring, never cutting records. I wanted to be a songwriter. It’s weird because I didn’t know then that the greatest honor in this town is being called a songwriter.
Of course it is the job for inductees to act humble and thank others when they are bestowed the Hall of Fame honor. But with Garth Brooks, he seemed to take it to another level, knowing his legacy was likely cemented and his place in the Hall of Fame assured, but worried about taking that honor away from someone who came before him and helped usher in his success.
Garth officially retired from music in 2001, though he’s made random appearances over the years and signed up for a Las Vegas residency in 2009. His primary reason for retiring was to spend more time with his kids until they completed high school, which will happen next year. Nobody knows, maybe not even Garth, what he might do in country music in the coming years. But whatever he does, Garth’s time off may have taught him an important lesson that kept his music from country’s more traditionally-oriented fans during his heyday: how to be humble.
May 23, 2013 @ 9:12 am
I remember how humble Garth seemed at first in his career. Then he seemed to change to this ego maniac where he is all about himself. That has soured his music for me.
May 23, 2013 @ 9:38 am
I’ve always thought Garth’s respect for country music was real. The first two records he put out were indeed country records. Yes he brought and arena rock type show to the road and it worked. However, his country music credability remains intact from my perspective. Chris Gaines being his big mis-step. Ego wise who knows but frankly I can not imagine that ego could not have been and could still be an issue. Hell, put yourself in those shoes and see what it does for your ego.
May 23, 2013 @ 9:42 am
So what you’re trying to say is, Chris Gaines turned down the nomination but Garth accepted it?
May 23, 2013 @ 10:46 am
I’ve got almost every Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Ray Price, Randy Travis, George Strait, George Jones etc. album saved to a playlist on Spotify. No Garth Brooks… maybe when he is less selfish with his music, I’ll give him props.
May 23, 2013 @ 11:55 am
How is it selfish to want people to buy your music rather than listen to it for free?
May 23, 2013 @ 12:49 pm
Spotify pays royalties to artists, and I pay a monthly subscription fee. Brooks and other artists need to wake up and understand that they way people listen to music is constantly evolving. I’m not out there pirating his records- but I’m getting sick of his Greatest Hits double disc that I bought for 10 bucks at Wal Mart.
May 23, 2013 @ 1:18 pm
Spotify doesn’t pay nearly as much to them as they get for you buying the album. I have no issue with Spotify or the artists that put their songs on it, but it is perfectly fine for artists not to want their songs on there.
May 23, 2013 @ 1:39 pm
I agree, but as a consumer, I’m much more willing to promote artists who provide listeners with easier access to their music.
May 28, 2013 @ 5:42 pm
type in, “The G. Brooks Collection” on your spottily search
May 23, 2013 @ 11:03 am
I’ll admit it. Garth Brooks exposed me to country music. Up until the 1990 release of No Fences, I was into R&R playing guitar in various bands. I wasn’t interested in his later albums, but he was one of a handful artists who influenced me to dig deeper and find real country music including great blogs like this one.
May 23, 2013 @ 12:40 pm
That’s one of the GOOD things about all those multi-platinum records and commercialization that you’ll never hear any strict traditionalist admit.
May 26, 2013 @ 10:31 am
That’s true. For example my current interest in country music was started by listening to Taylor Swift of all things. I didn’t consider her a country artist (more pop and singer-songwriter and lately I hear some indie rock influence), but her connection to Nashville country scene intrigued me because I knew next to nothing about modern country music or pop country scene.
Of course then I realised that most of the other so called mainstream country music isn’t nearly as good as she is (I’m serious 🙂 even if it seems to be usually at least a little bit more “country” than Taylor’s music is. But mostly it just sounded like bad country/roots rock or pop with fiddles to me. Then I discovered this site and understood that, as usual, the best stuff wasn’t really in the mainstream and I would have to dig a bit deeper. So I did. I’ve also gotten into some older country music: mainly ’70s outlaw stuff but also George Jones and Merle Haggard and some other giants of country music.
I guess Taylor Swift’s and her record company’s influence on country music is generally speaking negative. But at least in my case her international success reminded me that there’s this whole genre of music I was for the most part passing by for no good reason (even if she isn’t really “country” herself).
Of course my perspective is different than most people here because I’m from Finland. I don’t think American country music has ever been that succesfull here. Only country artist I can remember being on the charts or heavily on the radio in my lifetime is Shania Twain (I’m not so sure what was “country” about her either) and that was about fifteen years ago. Anyway, I don’t see why I couldn’t be a Taylor Swift fan and a Hank III fan at the same time. I just make sure that Taylor’s records aren’t in the country music section of my record shelf.
May 26, 2013 @ 9:21 pm
Took the words from my mouth. For me, good music is good music, no matter who created it.
May 23, 2013 @ 12:26 pm
This reminds me of 1996, when Garth refused the American Music Award for favorite artist. His quote afterward: “It wasn’t fair for me to walk away with that award. Maybe a year or two ago when we had a really good year. But I’ve been around talking to retailers… and every one of them credits Hootie for keeping them alive in 1995 and I couldn’t agree more. So I thought that’s who shoulda won.”
For all the criticism Garth gets, if not for him I might have never discovered people like George Jones, Merle Haggard or Chris LeDoux. I grew up listening to him and he’ll always be one of my favorites.
May 23, 2013 @ 12:50 pm
It’s hard to believe that anyone would claim that Garth’s music isn’t Country. I hear the steel guitars, I hear the twang and I hear the moaning in his vocals. Sure, all of the songs might sound different in their own way, but you won’t hear any Rock fans confusing his music for theirs. That, to ME, is what determines whether a song is Country: the atmosphere of the music. Not the politics of the artist or the fact that it’s popular or the fact that it’s played on mainstream radio or the fact that it does/doesn’t sound like it was made in 1967. IF there’s a Country vibe, I consider it part of the genre. Only relatively recently has the music on the radio become so devoid of twang and fiddles that even I will admit that it isn’t Country.
It’s disappointing really that there’s no middle ground with this issue. There’s essentially just two sides: those that claim that the only Country is the older music and all of the newer music is automatically Pop, regardless of sound or aesthetic and those that claim that it IS Country and that the genre is simply evolving. Where’s the middleman? Why aren’t there more pickers and choosers instead of these brash generalizations?
May 23, 2013 @ 3:15 pm
I’d say that there are a lot of pickers and choosers, you just don’t hear them quite as much. Mainly because the pickers and choosers aren’t writing blogs and kvetching on the internet, we’re just building our mp3 collections and shaking our heads when we turn on the radio.
May 23, 2013 @ 6:17 pm
Well, if you’re shaking your head as much as it sounds based on your comment, I wouldn’t call you a picker or chooser :P. But I understand your point. Lately, I’ve been quite annoyed with the radio as well. Literally HALF of the songs are employing freaking POP synthesizers! Really?
May 23, 2013 @ 6:43 pm
Oh christ, the pop synths. And the auto tune. And rap style drum beats. It’s awful. But there are still a few gems lurking out there Dierks Bentley, Chris Young (’til the latest one, anyhow), Eric Church has some solid songs, as does Justin Moore. Most of Miranda’s body of work isn’t terrible.
But I will say that the longest I’ve listened to a “country” station without changing the channel in a few months is 3 songs, before they went to FGL or BG.
Then again, up til 2011 I was fairly hardcore into the whole “new outlaw” scene until I woke up one morning and went “What the Hell is this shit?” Since then I’ve expanded my tastes into the Red Dirt and underground artists.
May 23, 2013 @ 8:35 pm
That was pretty funny. And I’ll agree: many of them DO have fairly solid songs, but I absolutely HATE the songs in which the singer boasts about how “tough” or “Country” they are, which may or may not be laundry list songs. For instance: I’ll confess to owning Brantley Gilbert’s “Halfway to Heaven” album. I was curious about the music and given that I don’t use streaming services or samples on iTunes (usually), I just bought the Deluxe Edition a while ago. It isn’t bad, but his vocals are annoyingly raspy and there’s only two types of songs: the requisite ballads and the rockers. The ballads were all predictable and the rockers were (no kidding) ALL about how tough/wild he or Country folks are. Literally HALF of the entire album was devoted to either subject, with slight variations on the formula between songs. Gilbert seemed to want to play Rock more than Country, so I took the songs for what they were. Some I enjoyed, others not so much. But I typically HATE boastful music and I am by no means a B.G. fan (though songs like “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” and “More Than Miles” show a repressed creative streak within the man).
Even though my complaint about rockers still stands, I find Rock and Country to be more similar than I do Pop and Country, so I don’t mind if they mix (provided it doesn’t dominate the airwaves, though when compared to Pop I wish it did). I don’t like Hip Hop beats in ANY form of Country, Pop or otherwise. There have been times in the past that it has worked, such as Big & Rich’s “That’s Why I Pray,” where it’s barely noticeable (if it even IS a beat), but the majority of the time it sucks and takes me out of the music completely. On Miranda Lambert: I can’t stand her music for some reason. I liked “Kerosene” back in 2006 and “Gunpowder and Lead” in 2008, but anything else by her annoys me. I LOATHE “Mama’s Broken Heart” with all of MY heart, mainly due to the fact that it reminds me more of Jazz than Country. That said, her forced Southern drawl is her biggest strike in my book. Trigger always complains about laundry list songs; what about (and I’ll coin a new term here) laundry list delivery? Miranda’s singing Country, so she has to SOUND Country, right? If you’ve heard her talk, she has virtually no accent. Call me crazy, but in every other genre but Country, when someone sings, their accent goes away (see AC/DC or pretty much every other foreign Rock band). There are exceptions of course, but it just seems completely contrived to me.
May 23, 2013 @ 8:40 pm
Oh, and just for clarification, I like Country Rock (or rockers, depending on how you want to phrase it) if the COUNTRY part stays intact. Eric Church blends elements of the two genres together quite nicely into his music. Brantley Gilbert, on the other hand, drowns the Country aspects in his Metallica-esque riffs on the likes of “Kick it in the Sticks” and other songs. I listen to the latter every once in a while, but I won’t deny that it’s plain stupid.
May 23, 2013 @ 3:37 pm
When Saving Country Music started, it probably defined the one extreme towards the independent/traditional side. I certainly was ready to pounce on Garth Brooks any chance I got. Over time, I’m not sure if I’ve become more of a centrist, or if the music has changed so significantly, that is how it appears. Underground music has gotten worse. Independent music has gotten bigger, but not necessarily better. Mainstream music has gotten better and worse at the same time. In the end, all music must be judged on its own merit, and anyone who refuses to listen to something because of where it originates is only putting limitations on their musical experience. Unfortunately, I think this is happening more and more with the emergence of micro-genres or “scenes” that tend to be very tribal, image and popularity-driven.
May 23, 2013 @ 6:20 pm
I understand and I’m not trying to sound as if I disagree with your stance or opinions and moreso that I simply have my own. I agree with quite a bit of what you write, I just don’t agree all of the time or about every single little thing. You have many valid points and Country IS going downhill as we speak. The only difference is I don’t think that it’s been in the dregs quite as long as you do.
May 23, 2013 @ 6:16 pm
I’ll agree with some of your later points, but just because there are fiddles, steel guitars, and a ‘twang,’ doesn’t make it country. If that were the case Lady Antebellum would be hardcore country, and I think we can all agree they are on the other end of the spectrum. When people hear any sort of a twang, they immediately think country. Today this is a fallacy. If I had to take a guess, I would say half of the underground country artists don’t have a ‘twang.’ Hell, give Waylon a guitar and a stage and I would never hear a ‘twang.’ It’s the same problem with banjo. Banjo=bluegrass, which is not necessarily true at all either.
Now I don’t mean to rip on you because you do make some really good points and based on your post and the fact that you are here, you probably like good country music. But saying that twang, fiddles, and steel guitars is what makes music country or not, this is the most dangerous statement about country music one can make. This is what Scott Borchetta feeds off of. This is how Taylor is country. This is how people justify Jason Aldean. Hell, I hear ‘twang’ in ‘Boys ‘Round Here’. Unfortunately today, I would say if you hear twang the first thing you should think of is: What music exec is trying to make money off of me? What music exec thinks I’m so incredibly stupid that if I hear a little twang I’ll assume it’s country music? Because of the nature of the beast, if you hear twang today, you’re probably being swindled. And these execs feed of the ignorance of the general population and make money because of it. This statement only makes the beast get bigger and bigger, and is one reason why the beast exists. You can argue all you want about who is dangerous, but this is one of the most dangerous statements about country music today.
May 23, 2013 @ 6:40 pm
I can’t tell you the last time I heard fiddles, steel guitar or banjos in a Lady Antebellum song. That said, I was mainly generalizing (and I apologize for not making it clearer). That said, you made some good points yourself and I actually agree, especially about Waylon (which I’d never considered). The point I was trying to make was that the AESTHETIC is what matters to me. Perhaps I’m more susceptible to the Music Row machine, but I wholeheartedly believe that about half (well, probably closer to 2/5 at this point) of the mainstream music on the radio is a natural evolution of “real” Country music. That said, it doesn’t make it good, but it also doesn’t automatically make it Pop (not that 75% of modern “Country” ISN’T Pop, mind you. I’m mainly speaking for the songs that actually strike me as Country). Even music coming from the “Country music anti-Christ” has the POTENTIAL to be good, it just rarely is. Essentially, I agree with Trigger’s statement: music must be judged on its own merits. I guess I’m just softer on this newer music than a lot of readers, and it also really comes down to personality. My grandpa is 95 years old and still ticking. When I turn on modern Country radio, he sometimes notes the difference in sound and his preference for the older material. Even then, I find him frequently enjoying the songs (two I can think of are “Honkytonk Badonkadonk” and “Indian Outlaw,” if you can believe it).
My point is simply that the sharp divide between the fanbases of traditional and modern Country tends to frustrate me. I don’t like feeling like I’m listening to “fake” or otherwise soulless music when I enjoy a modern Country song. By the same token, I don’t like feeling like I’m committing a sin when I dislike a traditional Country song (“The Outlaw Ways” comes to mind). But, like I said in my original comment, it REALLY comes down to atmosphere for me (and I assume many others). Steel guitar, banjo and moaning do not necessarily constitute that atmosphere in and of themselves, they’re just hallmarks of the genre that I was citing to make a point. Obviously I don’t just use those elements to determine whether a song is Country, but people shouldn’t use them to determine what ISN’T Country, either, and many do. I was simply taking a stance based on what I believe the parameters of Country music to be (instrumentally, anyway). Do I like Lady Antebellum? HECK, no, but I have a hard time choosing between their souped up Pop sound and laundry list Country. At least Lady Antebellum sings about things other than cliches.
May 23, 2013 @ 9:11 pm
Just chiming in for a quick sentence… Country is a normative term.
May 24, 2013 @ 7:36 am
And, then there is this…Proof that the underground movement has also lost its way.
https://www.facebook.com/Ditchrunners?v=info#!/Ditchrunners
June 10, 2013 @ 1:09 pm
I stewed over replying to your message, given that I’m about to show my ignorance, but I was nonetheless curious. I maintained a 4.0 for the majority of my academic career and I have no idea what a “normative term” is (by name, anyway). If you’re referring to the fact that I capitalized Country as a genre, I’m aware that it’s incorrect. I just felt that there should be a delineation between music and the other uses of genre terms. However, it occurred to me that I make myself look ignorant when I willingly use incorrect grammar, therefore I’ve stopped since your message. All that said, I’m STILL not completely sure what a normative term is (and Google searches did not help).
June 10, 2013 @ 4:31 pm
Normative can basically be replaced with subjective. No empirical value can be assigned to the word country, so we all have an opinion on what it actually is. I think we can agree on what it is not (Taylor Swift)
May 23, 2013 @ 1:03 pm
Garth was my gateway to country music as well. The first cd I ever purchased was Ropin’ The Wind.
May 23, 2013 @ 8:41 pm
Just Garth being Garth.
Most people point to a few of his hits and his stadium shows and yell “ROCK MUSIC! BURN HIM AT THE STAKE!”.
Dig deeper. Listen to his whole albums, and you’ll realize that the VAST majority of his music was country. Hell “The Hits”, the album that has his 16 biggest on it, has a whopping two songs that would have to be considered rock. (“Ain’t Goin’ Down” and “Standing Outside The Fire”) He also dabbled in folk (“Ireland”), Gospel/Faith (“We Shall Be Free”), and R&B/jazz (“One Night A Day”, which he learned to play saxophone for, no easy feat, I played saxophone for six years).
Dig deeper than that though. No matter WHAT genre any given Garth song was or borrowed elements from, EVERY DAMNED ONE of them was genuine and real. THAT is why he belongs in the hall, and I applaud his honesty for admitting there were those in line before him that should’ve gotten the express-lane treatment he got.
May 23, 2013 @ 11:46 pm
Hold the hell up. Ain’t Going Down is considered rock? By what metric are you using? It’s a kickass country song, crazy guitar solo and breakneck speed included.
May 24, 2013 @ 9:00 pm
“Ain’t Goin’ Down” is a rock song from the perspective of it’s instrumentals.
The speed and heaviness of the guitar play alone, combined with the guitar solo, the hard-driving drum beat, and the fact that the guitar parts of the track borrow heavily from a LOT of 50s-70s rock (hints of Chuck Berry, among others are very evident) point to this being a rock-n-roll song. Having a harmonica doesn’t rule it out from being rock, in fact, even heavy metal bands like Godsmack use harmonica from time-to-time, just as Warrant used a mandolin on “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, Motley Crue and Cinderella both used steel guitar. It’s not the instruments themselves, necessarily, it’s how they’re used, and here, they’re used to make rock music.
The subject matter of the song, the lyrics themselves? 100% country. I’ll grant you that. The vocals could be put up for debate, as, they’re real southern and twang-y, but they’re also rapid-fire, damn-near staccato at times. The vocals are the glue that holds the country lyrics and the rock instrumentals together here.
There have only been a few that could really get away with this, and Garth was one of two I’d consider the master. The other was Chris LeDoux, with songs like “Little Long-Haired Outlaw”, “Fever” (which was actually a cover of an Aerosmith song that Garth had previously “countryfied”, Chris just took it even further), and “Hooked on an 8-second Ride” which was a death-metal band member friend of mine’s gateway song into country music, as it took it a step further and blended metal and country before Hank3 even thought of it.
May 28, 2013 @ 8:27 am
I think you’re backwards. that aint rock, nor does the musical stylings make it rock. calling it rock, when those early rock singers were influenced by country and bluegrass and simply added the faster rythms of swing, is putting hte cart before the horse.
May 24, 2013 @ 10:04 am
It will be very interesting if he puts something out in the same vein of (“Garth Brooks”, “No Fences”, “Ropin’ The Wind”) How it would be taken by both mainstream and underground. I wonder how you would review one of the above if it was released today?
May 24, 2013 @ 10:34 am
The 9513 sort of looked at this question back in 2010, when Stephen Deusner – who wasn’t a fan of Garth back when he was putting out new music – revisited Garth’s catalog and wrote reviews.
http://www.the9513.com/tag/rediscovering-garth-brooks/
May 24, 2013 @ 11:10 am
Thanks for this, good read. Now I will cross my fingers for good music to come.
May 24, 2013 @ 5:29 pm
The Lost Sessions was, to me, one of the best cds Garth put out. I think its a shame that all the detractors screaming about him ‘flying in the rafters’ and not singing ‘real’ country didn’t bother to (a) listen to an entire cd or (b) actually see him in concert. He did the stunts for the telly shows, but the tour shows were strictly about the music.
The bigger shame is that a song that starts ‘The bartender just told me I had too much to drink/why the hell is he believing I give a damn what he thinks?’ isn’t on my radio!
May 25, 2013 @ 7:03 am
To me, the difference between Garth and the current crop of popular artists was that he, like it or not, seemed to come to his sound organically. He was a country musician who grew up in Oklahoma listening to a lot of rock music in the ’70’s. He liked bands like Kiss as a kid and this naturally made it into his music. Perhaps it was a step towards the mono-culture, but at least it came from a place of boyish enthusiasm rather than crass commercialism. And you can hear it in how his music was better than the current crop of pop country.
May 27, 2013 @ 9:37 am
Am I the only one that feels that country became pop country when Kenny Rogers had the Gambler on primetime tv?
May 28, 2013 @ 6:28 pm
Could Garth Brooks be the savior we’ve been waiting on for mainstream, neo-traditional sounding country? If any one wields a big enough sword do what they want and record what they want it’s Garth. Criticize him all you like but he produced some quality, country sounding records in his day, beyond his debut album and “Much Too Young”. “Wild Horses”, “Don’t Cross the River”, “Rodeo”, “Beaches of Cheyenne” and on. You’ve also got to imagine he is still popular as hell amongst a significant, mainstream, money spending audience.
Garth would be a welcome sound to my ears in any case. I’d welcome in anything Garth has to offer musically given what country music has turned into. Could he be the “Country Jesus” that Randy Travis was back in the 1980’s. My wishful thinking would like to think so, country needs somebody.
May 28, 2013 @ 6:56 pm
You must be reading my mind Mike. This article was the precursor to asking this very question.
May 28, 2013 @ 9:12 pm
Great minds cross their fingers alike!
October 28, 2013 @ 9:18 am
Chris Gaines, Garth’s cringe-worthy….can you say nauseating… alter ego was a bust.
Garth has goofball charm and I like singalong dittties. The voice is a fragile instrument. Garth was amazing at wringing different colors from his voice in every song. He can croon like a cabaret chanteuse and howl like a bluesman.
When someone sits it out for too long on the bench…the voice rides away.
October 7, 2014 @ 4:38 pm
The country music industry started as a way to sell insurance, and now it is part and parcel of the military industrial complex. Gotta keep the rednecks in their place, not revolting, happily setting off to die in wars for the Bilderberg elites.