Garth Brooks vs. The Super Bowl (Country History X)
In 1993, Garth Brooks and the Super Bowl would clash. It was like King Kong vs. Godzilla, with these two titans of American culture squaring off for all time. And ultimately, one side had to win. Country History X returns with a deep dive into this historic moment.
Editor’s notes:
• The Country History X Podcast looks to tell the history of country music, one story at a time. It primarily lives here on Saving Country Music, on YouTube (see below and subscribe), and is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Anchor, and most anywhere else podcasts can be found.
• A full transcript of the episode, as well as sources for the story can be found below.
• Correction: In the audio, it incorrectly states that the flyover during the National Anthem was performed by F-15, when it was actually performed by F-18’s.
Other Country History X Episodes:
Episode #12: Did Vern Gosdin Really Try to Murder His Producer?
Episode #11: The Lost Bloodline of Hank Williams, and the Search for Hank IV
Episode #10: Marty Robbins Saves Life of NASCAR’s Richard Childress
Episode #9: Country Music’s Most Important Artifact
Episode #8: Randy Travis Versus Lib Hatcher
Transcript:
You probably don’t need me to tell you that there’s just about no bigger sporting or media event in the entire world than the National Football League’s annual Super Bowl, or how there has never been a bigger or more commercially successful artist in the history of country music than Garth Brooks. In fact, aside from Elvis and The Beatles, nobody has been bigger in American music than Garth Brooks, period. And as time goes on and Garth remains active, he continues to eclipse the records of all previous musical legends and ensconce himself on the top of the heap.
In 1993, at both the height of Garth Brooks’s powers, and the national popularity of the Super Bowl, these two titans of American culture would clash, and in a way that would have reverberative repercussions on the entirety of popular culture and live music performance in the coming years. It was like King Kong vs. Godzilla, like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning squaring off for all time. And ultimately, one side had to win.
This is the story of Garth Brooks versus The Super Bowl.
– – – – – – – –
I’ll spare you the long-winded version of the Garth Brooks origin story for another time, since it’s not particularly relevant to this topic. But rest assured, in 1993, Garth Brooks was as big as anybody in entertainment, and he knew it.
Originally part of country music’s “Class of ’89” with Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, and Clint Black, this foursome would rocket country music from a depreciating American music genre in the popular music sphere that was synonymous with old-timey “truck broke down and dog died” hillbilly music into a commercial sensation the likes country music had never seen before, with even suburban housewives running around in Stetson hats and printed Western shirts, learning how to line dance in their local honky tonks. Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, and Clint Black were all massive superstars, but nobody was in the stratosphere of Garth Brooks.
And of course, with that amount of widespread popularity also came ample condemnation. To grandma and grandpa back home, Garth Brooks wasn’t country. He was some sort of version of Southern pop, and all the attention and interlopers he was bringing to country was a problem, not a solution to the genre’s popularity woes. Garth’s ostentatious attitude was especially distasteful to many established country fans.
A few months after Garth’s Super Bowl stunt in 1993, he would upset both the country music and football Gods again by flying over the crowd at the old Texas Stadium where the Dallas Cowboys used to play suspended on wires like he was Sandy Duncan playing Peter Pan. It was part of a televised concert special that would later air on NBC. And of course seven years later, a bored Garth Brooks would give birth to the regrettable Chris Gaines—a sort of emo pop star alter ego of Garth that got mothballed along with a proposed motion picture when public sentiment on the side project went south.
But before all of these shenanigans, there was the 1993 Super Bowl, where Garth Brooks was tasked with singing the National Anthem before the start of the game. At that time, the Super Bowl halftime show wasn’t as big of a sensational event as it is today. But the National Anthem most certainly was. It was one of the most important singing performances all year in the United States, and was reserved for the absolute biggest superstars of the era, which in 1993, Garth Brooks most certainly was.
The other backdrop of the Garth Brooks versus the Super Bowl showdown was the racial tension that existed in the United States at the time. After a jury had acquitted four Los Angeles police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King on April 29th, 1992, riots broke out across parts of L.A. as the rest of the country looked on in horror. Fires, looting, 63 deaths, and over 2,300 injuries were attributed to the riots, while further images like the malicious beating of truck driver Reginald Denny frayed the edges of society even more.
Incidentally, the 1992 LA Riots transpired right as Garth Brooks and many others in the country music industry were in Los Angeles for the 1992 Academy of Country Music Awards, or ACMs. Garth recalls quote, “The night the riots hit we watched it all on TV on the bus leaving LA. And as you drove out of LA you could see the buildings on fire. It was pretty scary for all of us, especially as a bunch of guys from Oklahoma.” Unquote.
Motivated to do something about the racial tension and intolerance Garth Brooks was witnessing, he paired up with songwriter Stephanie Davis and composed a song called “We Shall Be Free,” which would ultimately be selected as the first single from Garth’s fourth album released in 1992 called The Chase.
Up until that point, every single one of the 13 singles Garth had released in his career had gone Top 10, with all but one going Top 3, including nine #1 singles. It was a streak for the ages. After “We Shall Be Free,” Garth Brooks landed another nine singles in the Top 10, including another five #1’s. But as for “We Shall Be Free?” Despite Garth’s best efforts, in never got farther than #12 in the charts, which was still not bad for most artists. But for Garth Brooks in 1992, it was tantamount to a flop.
The Gospel-esque song about a man who imagines a world without any Earthly oppression wasn’t necessarily bad. It was just considered too sappy by most of the audience with no subtlety, and was not especially well-suited for country or pop radio.
It would be the first of many songs Garth Brooks would release during his career in hopes of soothing social upheaval, including the song “People Loving People,” which was the first song he released after his quote/unquote retirement from performing from 2000 to 2014. “People Loving People” was meant to answer the rise of the Islamic terrorist group ISIS, which was disseminating videos of beheadings of captors at the time. Garth also released a song called “We Belong To Each Other” in the wake of the death of George Floyd in 2020, and the ensuing protests and riots that followed.
These songs weren’t Garth Brooks trying to commercially exploit current events, mostly because none of them were ever that commercially successful. It was more about Garth’s childlike belief that if he just wrote the right song, it could change the world. Instead, they just sort of fizzled, and have become the B-sides of his recording legacy.
But Garth Brooks really believed in the song “We Shall Be Free,” thinking that if it just was presented to the right audience, it really could make a difference in society, and soothe racial tensions. It wasn’t the song’s fault, he surmised. It was radio’s reluctance to serve it to the wide public that had resulted in its muted success. And so what better way to serve “We Shall Be Free” to the masses than to use the biggest media event in the entire world as your platform, that being The Super Bowl.
Now Garth Brooks had no contract or agreement to either perform “We Shall Be Free” as part of the 1993 Super Bowl presentation, nor were their any plans to broadcast the song’s video, which is a story all unto itself. When the video premiered on CMT in September of 1992, it stirred not just a little controversy.
Along with cameos from scores of topical celebrities at the time, including Jay Leno, Whoopi Goldberg, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Rivers, Patrick Swayze, and football personalities such as Troy Aikman and John Elway, the video also included clips of flag burnings, cross burnings, the Ku Klux Klan, intravenous drug use, riots, bombings, war scenes, natural disasters, and other content certain people found questionable. Obviously, Garth wasn’t condoning these activities, they were there as illustrations. But many found the video triggering, and in poor taste.
That is why there was never any consideration by the the NFL, or the network airing the Super Bowl in 1993, NBC, to broadcast the “We Shall Be Free” video as part of the Super Bowl presentation. This was the biggest television audience in the world. The last thing they wanted to do was air something controversial. But Garth Brooks had other plans, and hatched a scheme of how he could use his celebrity, and his slot as the National Anthem performer, to force the hand of NBC and the NFL to air the controversial “We Shall Be Free” video during the Super Bowl presentation.
Out of nowhere, and a mere 45 minutes before Garth Brooks was supposed to stand at the 50 yard line and deliver the National Anthem, he pulled one of the most bold stunts in Super Bowl history. Holding his appearance over the head of NBC and the NFL like an anvil, Garth Brooks, making the demand that his “We Shall Be Free” video be played, walked out of the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California entirely, refusing to sing unless they aired his video.
Now as can be imagined, everything leading up to and during the Super Bowl is planned down to the very second, and every second with all the advertising revenue and sponsorships is worth tons of money. There was also supposed to be a choreographed flyover by five F-18 fighter jets from the USS Nimitz sitting off the coast of Los Angeles who needed to know the precise second the National Anthem performance would finish, so they wouldn’t fly over too soon or too late, and ruin the presentation. The Garth Brooks ultimatum sent NBC and the NFL scrambling.
Almost as if it was a hostage negotiation, producers tried to negotiate and rationalize with Garth as he remained offsite, explaining that there was no time budgeted for the video, and it would be impossible to make time for it at that late stage. But Garth held his ground, and the standoff continued. With 91 million people tuning in from all around the world for the Super Bowl presentation, they had no National Anthem performer as it stood, while many who were tuning in were expecting to see superstar Garth Brooks.
Even more alarming for the NFL and NBC, in previous years they had always required whomever sang the National Anthem to also pre-record a performance so that just in case there was some technical issue, the song could still play, or in some cases, the performer could lip-sync to it. But Garth Brooks—knowing that he was planning to ambush the Super Bowl producers to air his video—refused to give them such a pre-taped recording.
This was the worst case scenario for Super Bowl organizers. An NBC producer spotted John Bon Jovi in the Super Bowl crowd, and began to prep him as a plan ‘B’ if they could not get Garth Brooks to return to the stadium to perform. Garth Brooks had NBC right where he wanted them, and the NFL could see that. So ultimately, the NFL did something completely unprecedented in Super Bowl history: They delayed the kickoff of the game to accommodate the airing of the Garth Brooks “We Shall Be Free” video.
Garth Brooks had won, and returned to the Rose Bowl stadium wearing a paint splashed printed shirt, and sung the Nation Anthem, with the F-15 flyover syncing up perfectly. And for many viewers at home, they were none the wiser of the controversy that had ensued behind-the-scenes.
But it wasn’t just NBC and the NFL that Garth Brooks defeated. Authenticity in nationally-televised live performances lost something as well. According to former NFL executive director Don Weiss in his book The Making of the Super Bowl: The Inside Story of the World’s Greatest Sporting Event, after the Garth Brooks incident in 1993, the NFL made it a requirement that all National Anthem singers make a pre-recorded version of their performances, and made the preferred method of delivering the performance be via lip sync.
Ricky Minor, the Super Bowl’s music director for many years said some years later about pre-recording tracks and lip syncing performances quote, “That’s the right way to do it. There’s too many variables to go live. I would never recommend any artist go live, because the slightest glitch would devastate the performance.” Unquote.
Lip syncing the National Anthem at The Super Bowl had already resulted in some high profile controversies prior to the Garth Brooks incident. In 1991, Whitney Houston sang the Super Bowl National Anthem, and it was considered by some at the time to be one of the best Anthem performances ever. Then it was revealed the performance had been pre-recorded. In 2009, Jennifer Hudson sang the National Anthem months after members of her family had been killed. It was called one of the most inspiring performances of all time, until it was revealed later that she had lip synced as well, in part due to the requirement the NFL imposed after the Garth Brooks incident.
Lip syncing and backing track controversies also tainted other events of national importance in the coming years. Cello player Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman fake played to a pre-recorded track at President Obama’s first Inauguration in 2009. At Obama’s second inauguration in 2013, Beyonce lip-synced her performance of the National Anthem, and later admitted as much at an NFL press conference before she was set to deliver the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. But it is believed that she did sing the 2013 Super Bowl National Anthem live. After many years of the NFL’s policy to pre-record all National Anthem performances, they have returned to live renditions more recently, at least for the most part.
As for Garth Brooks, he says of the song “We Shall Be Free” quote, “‘We Shall Be Free’ is definitely and easily the most controversial song I have ever done. A song of love, a song of tolerance from someone who claims not to be a prophet but just an ordinary man. I never thought there would be any problems with this song. Sometimes the roads we take do not turn out to be the roads we envisioned them to be. All I can say about ‘We Shall Be Free’ is that I will stand by every line of this song as long as I live. I am very proud of it. And I am very proud of Stephanie Davis, the writer. I hope you enjoy it and see it for what it was meant to be.” Unquote.
Garth Brooks taking on the Super Bowl in 1993 is one of these moments in country music history that is often overlooked. Where some love to harp on the genre for being racially insensitive, this moment really is important to underscore. Country music’s biggest superstar in the prime of his career released a song about tolerance inspired by racial unrest, and then later held the NFL captive in a moment of defiance so it could be delivered to a massive audience.
The Garth Brooks Super Bowl moment also underscores the complicated persona of Garth. In one respect, the guy always needs to be the center of attention, and wants the world revolve around him, illustrated by thinking the Super Bowl could stop down to honor his request. But on the other hand, he really does have a sentimentality about certain things that truly seems sincere. Yes, Garth Brooks wants all the records, all the awards, all the attention, and all the money that he can attain. But he also has a child-like belief that he can change the world through song that he’s exercised on numerous occasions throughout his career.
Ultimately, Garth Brooks did not end racial tension in the United States with his Super Bowl stunt. He just made it less likely for his National Anthem-singing successors to perform the ceremonial duty live in subsequent years.
Meanwhile, the music of Garth Brooks sits in a similar paradox. Even though he was super popular during his heyday, Garth was a very polarizing figure to many traditional country fans during his era too. But as time has gone on, hindsight has reflected more favorably upon Garth’s output. As country music made an even more pronounced turn towards pop, rock, and even rap during Garth’s retirement years, reflecting back on the catalog of Garth Brooks now, he sounds unquestionably country, and perhaps even more neotraditional than many originally assessed. Then again, some of his hijinks still leave people with a sour taste in their mouths.
In 2017, while Garth Brooks was the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year, he performed his song “Ask Me How I Know” to a pre-recorded vocal track on the CMA Awards. He lip synced it. And almost immediately after the performance, Garth rushed over to where the media was set up back stage, and fessed up to the ruse, as if that somehow made it okay, or exonerated him.
In a nutshell, that’s Garth Brooks. He has no problem lip syncing a live performance, and deceiving the public. But he also thinks it’s okay, as long as he explains to the public he deceived them. He cannot tell a lie, but he can perpetrate one if he feels it’s for the greater good. This is the eternal enigma of Garth.
Sources:
Garth Brooks – The Garth Brooks Story – 1995
Garth Brooks – The Hits – transcription from liner notes – December 13th, 1994
Don Weiss – The Making of the Super Bowl : The Inside Story of the World’s Greatest Sporting Event – October 28th, 2002
MTV – Jennifer Hudson Lip Synced the Super Bowl Performance – February 2nd, 2009
February 11, 2022 @ 10:01 am
Garth Brooks is pure garbage.
February 11, 2022 @ 3:02 pm
Try to use the word “trash” in your next drive-by comment. You know, just to spice it up a little.
February 11, 2022 @ 3:54 pm
watch it boy You don’t come down here disrespectin Garth you should be kissin his ass for all he’s done for country music
February 12, 2022 @ 9:08 am
Keep dreaming. That fat slob is a joke. It was Randy Travis that pulled country music out of the ditch. Not that pop country fat slob Brooks.
February 12, 2022 @ 6:48 pm
When he sings it sounds like he is having things done to him that belong “behind closed doors”. Or in a bathhouse.
February 13, 2022 @ 6:21 pm
Well the only real singer has been dead for 50years. RIP Elvis.
February 11, 2022 @ 10:06 am
I was going to mention that performance or lack thereof at the awards but you put it in there. While I have liked some songs, I’ve never been a big fan of his. I could never really see why all the fuss. I wouldn’t go to his show if they offered free tickets. I did like his performance of friends in low places at the awards show when it came out. Far as Superbowl, they should have just let Jon bon Jovi sing it or anybody for that matter.
February 11, 2022 @ 10:08 am
Maybe I misheard the story over the years.
But the way I thought Garth explained it is that NBC and the NFL originally told him they would air the video. Then they said they wouldn’t air the video and he said, ‘I’ll walk if you don’t air it.’
Obviously, Garth could be lying about how it went down, but if it’s true that’s a very different thing than what is presented in this article.
February 11, 2022 @ 10:21 am
I’m sure there’s conflicting reports out there, which is the nature of a story like this. Perhaps at some point Garth maybe had even a verbal or handshake understanding with someone at NBC or The NFL to air the video. But there was nothing written in a contract, or anything else that would obligate NBC to air the video, because if there was, there would have never been a conflict. Airing the video would have been compulsory, or they would have been in violation of a contract. And everything that I read about this from numerous sources is that from the beginning, NBC wanted nothing to do with the video, not because of time constraints (which became the eventual issue), but because of the imagery in it.
February 11, 2022 @ 10:09 am
Mary Martin is the only legitimate Peter Pan. Sandy Duncan is a poseur wannabe.
As to the rest of the article, Garth is a douche. They should have had Bon Jovi do it.
February 11, 2022 @ 10:21 am
the irony is that “We Shall Be Free” is one of the few Garth songs that doesn’t sound overly trite these days.
February 11, 2022 @ 11:48 am
No. That song was corny now and it is corny now. Catchy tune, though.
Garth’s worst songs come when he is trying to save the world. Just sing songs like “Much Too Young” and “Beer Run,” Garth.
February 12, 2022 @ 6:51 am
Then*
Bring back the edit feature!
February 11, 2022 @ 10:28 am
Even though I like Garth, I never really pay much attention to the half time shows, I use the bathroom, get more snacks, check the news and then continue watching the game. GO BENGALS!!!
February 11, 2022 @ 11:12 am
The Half Time show hasnt been worth watching since the greatest performance of all time in 2007.
February 11, 2022 @ 2:03 pm
That was a great show. In fact pretty much all the shows from 2000 to 2010 were solid.
After that well…
February 12, 2022 @ 4:39 pm
Bruno Mars’s halftime show at SB 48 was kick ass, in my humble opinion.
February 11, 2022 @ 2:13 pm
I looked up the 2007 halftime—Prince is clearly lip-syncing. Of course, most halftimes are. But my vote for the best ever– U2 in 2002, with their 9/11 tribute– was not lip synced.
February 11, 2022 @ 2:36 pm
Prince doesn’t/didn’t lip sync. Ever. This is just a fact. Real music for real music lovers.
“The energy was frenetic — and, yes, we got the requisite shots of grinning fans jumping around on the field — but the whole choreographed thing felt spontaneous while serving as an apt refutation of the lip-sync age.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/bears/ct-prince-super-bowl-halftime-review-20160421-story.html
February 11, 2022 @ 3:08 pm
Tom Petty (my favorite halftime performance) stated in an article all the halftime artists are required to sing over a prerecorded track. That way there are no audible surprises (f-bombs) and feedback or cutout with the mics. Think about it. They set those stages up in 15 minutes and never one mic cuts out or there was no feedback in Prince’s mic in a rainstorm.
February 11, 2022 @ 7:13 pm
No offense to Tom Petty, but he was not the performer Prince was. So I’m saying as a fact, because I’ve been a Prince fan more than half my life now, that Prince never lip synced, and refused to do so. Because he knew it would cheapen his performance and the experience of the people who paid to be there. He was a consummate professional and the greatest popular musician of all time. A legit modern day Mozart.
February 12, 2022 @ 8:37 am
“No offense” but Prince’s music is overrated. Far from the best halftime show. He’s no Mozart, and not the best artist of all time. Far far from it. But keep telling yourself he his.
February 12, 2022 @ 10:43 am
When you say his music is overrated, you’d have to be more specific because he has so many different styles, your generalization just seems like you’re throwing punches in the dark. How is being able to go into a studio ALONE, write, produce, compose, and record ALL ALONE (playing every single instrument that would appear on an album) and coming out with significantly different albums every year for 40 years, with countless platinum singles and albums in the process, considered OVERRATED? Whether or not it’s your kind of music, people like you who are ignorant of all of this, or pretend it doesn’t matter, just proves that he’s actually UNDERRATED. Forget the fact that he basically invented pre-ordering albums on the internet before anybody else, and that he stood up to the record companies that enslaved him so he could make the music he wanted to whenever he wanted to (pretty outlaw shit if you ask me). Forget that he brought men and women of all colors and backgrounds together through his music. Just admit you don’t like Prince because you have never listened to anything other than Purple Rain or 1999, and be done with it.
February 11, 2022 @ 11:11 am
The man has to have the biggest EGO in country and whoever is 2nd is a very distant 2nd.
February 11, 2022 @ 11:17 am
Garth also publicly outed his sister around this time much to her dismay. He let everyone know she was a lesbian in the interviews leading up to this. He’s a complicated figure even though he may be my favorite artist and the reason I listen to country music.
February 11, 2022 @ 11:27 am
And credibility shot in your last sentence ????????
February 11, 2022 @ 11:27 am
The ultimate hypocrite.
February 11, 2022 @ 11:57 am
Well, at least, from what I have read, this year those idiots (yes, IDIOTS) who have nothing better to do with their time than to watch two herds of extremely-low-IQ oafs chase a ball up and down a fake field will not have to listen to ANY music during the halftime show. Instead, thanks to the “political correctness” of the fools in charge of the NFL, they shall be treated to primitive, crude, hysterical screaming and wailing, the likes of which are never heard in any environs where decent, enlightened people gather.
February 11, 2022 @ 2:26 pm
Do rappers scream? I’ve never heard Eminem or Dr. Dre scream hysterically or wail? Or are you just lumping in all predominantly African American music (Rap, Gospel, R&B) in your racist hissy? There’s nothing politically correct about this halftime show. POC have been regular halftime performers for the past 30 years (look it up). Country music has been the one left out of the shows. I don’t get that part of your bigoted rant either.
February 11, 2022 @ 3:56 pm
hotowntiger:
1. Yes, rappers scream; and, furthermore, “rap” does not meet the definition of “music.” “Rap” is an absolute insult to all who are learned with respect to music.
2. The halftime show that is planned for Sunday’s Superbowl is the VERY DEFINITION of “political correctness,” and “musical incorrectness.”
3. Facts are neither “racist” nor “bigoted.”
February 12, 2022 @ 8:22 am
Gate keep much?
February 12, 2022 @ 9:12 am
No.
I have cattle guards instead of gates.
February 11, 2022 @ 6:40 pm
While I don’t agree with hoptowntiger’s assessment of your comment about you being racist or bigoted, I don’t agree with your view of rap music or football either. It’s understandable if you don’t like either one, but to call those who will be watching idiots and to say that those playing are all low iq oafs is absurd. Your comment ads nothing
February 11, 2022 @ 8:21 pm
It is not my “view” that “rap” is not music. That is an irrefutable fact. Anyone who states otherwise has no knowledge of music theory.
With respect to your criticism of my revelations of “low-IQ oafs,” if you are one of “those people” who are going to waste precious time watching the Super Bowl, pay close attention to some of the sideline interviews with the players, then get back to us.
February 11, 2022 @ 10:22 pm
Big Tex,
The bigger question is, why even leave comments like these? Of what value are they to anyone? You don’t like the NFL or hip-hop, I understand. This is supposed to be an in-depth exploration into the complexities of the Garth Brooks persona. Instead, we just devolve into hatred. I wish a country artist was featured on the halftime show because I’m a country fan. Generally speaking, I’m not a hip-hop fan. But I have no doubt there are people in the hip-hop making good MUSIC. What if everyone judged country by what was on mainstream radio? You wouldn’t think it was music either.
February 12, 2022 @ 8:33 am
They’re allowed to express their opinion just like you. That’s why they can leave comments like that.
February 12, 2022 @ 8:58 am
Comments such as mine are intended for the edification of the public with respect to the gross contamination of our precious American culture, regardless of the forum topic, and I appreciate you for allowing the enlightenment I provide to be disseminated via your site.
A huge portion of your OP was dedicated to the Super Bowl and the behind-the-scenes machinations relative to the half-time shows. In that respect, my factual observation of just how far those half-time shows have descended seems more than appropriate.
Cultural contamination is a serious problem, and I spare no effort to publicize that gross and repulsive malady that afflicts our nation. It doesn’t have to be that way. We are a better people than the sub-cultures from which “rap” and “hip-hop” emerged, and it is my mission to constantly remind the unenlightened of that fact.
February 12, 2022 @ 9:14 am
For the record, this was all about the National Anthem performance, not the halftime show.
February 12, 2022 @ 9:28 am
Oh, say, I can see, by the dawn’s early light, that you are correct; cultural contamination notwithstanding.
February 14, 2022 @ 4:54 pm
Rusty,
I hope Big Tex’s follow up comments reinforced my belief he is a racist …
“gross contamination of our precious American culture”
“Cultural contamination is a serious problem, and I spare no effort to publicize that gross and repulsive malady that afflicts our nation”
“We are a better people than the sub-cultures from which “rap” and “hip-hop” emerged, and it is my mission to constantly remind the unenlightened of that fact.”
C’mon? These are racist comments.
February 11, 2022 @ 12:01 pm
“Ultimately, Garth Brooks did not end racial tension in the United States with his Super Bowl stunt.”
Of course it didn’t.
“He just made it less likely for his National Anthem-singing successors to perform the ceremonial duty live in subsequent years.”
Spot on, interesting point. But I’d go further Trig to suggest that Garth also made it more likely that other artists would give lip service to the same issues. Plus, being successful and piling on the agit-prop turns people against music itself. People in general don’t like to be manipulated and preached down to. They have a finely tuned ear for hypocrisy and cheap grace. Garth is probably sincere in a lot of ways, but he sure laid down a thick layer of pavement that has made it easier for less sincere people to parade around and congratulate themselves. The Chris Gaines thing just cemented what everyone knows: nobody combines sentimentality and pretentiousness better than Garth Brooks.
February 12, 2022 @ 6:09 am
“People in general don’t like to be manipulated and preached down to.”
Do tell. There is plenty of evidence that ain’t true. Look at where we are right now. COVID- mask, don’t mask, shot ain’t gettin a shot…
The informed are vastly outnumbered in this country. The uninformed love being talked down to by empty suits and devils without souls. “Official” is lapped up like pablum…
February 12, 2022 @ 7:47 pm
Ok, I’ll qualify the point.
February 12, 2022 @ 6:50 am
Of course, Garth didn’t end racial tension. It will never end in America because powerful people make money off it and it is useful to keep the masses outraged as their freedoms are stripped away.
February 11, 2022 @ 12:03 pm
huh, I didn’t know that about the national anthem being a lip sync at the super bowl. Did they even do it with Luther Vandross? He was a top notch singer think they could trust him.
Didn’t Tracy Lawrence also sing the anthem at a Super Bowl?
Anyhow Garth Brooks is a huge reason why country music sucks today
February 11, 2022 @ 12:24 pm
I divorce the music from the performer with Brooks as I do Michael Jackson. Egomaniacs all the way. MJ was just messed up. Brooks is a calculated MF.
There isn’t a thing Brooks does that he hasn’t got another motive going on behind the scenes.
February 11, 2022 @ 2:03 pm
This story is a complete false fabrication. That is not how it happened. The producers of the super bowl came to Garth and asked him to perform the national anthem. He said he would do it only if they premiered his music video we shall be free. So that’s what was agreed up on. So when it came to the day of the super bowl the producers of the super bowl started stalling about doing the video. They at one time told Garth that they didn’t have time to show the video. So Garth told them that that wasn’t the deal that’s not what they agreed up on. So he said that if you can’t show the video then I am not singing. So the producer was telling his bosses what was going on and they started freaking out. So they started trying to find another artist at the game to sing it but no one wanted to do it. It was then they realized they had no choice. So they told Garth that they would play it and he said ok then I will sing. It was a pure example of keeping your word. The producers said they would do it at first by showing the video and when it came down to it they tried stalling and making excuses. So this story is a complete lie. Garth may not be perfect because no one is but he a truly down to earth guy that has a heart of gold. He has done more for music especially country music than anyone ever has. He is the greatest entertainer of all time. I mean he was in the 90’s and still is. So all you haters including the writer of this story need to just stop it. Have a great and blessed day.
February 11, 2022 @ 2:28 pm
First, I can’t speak for the other commenters, but I can assure this was not written to attack Garth Brooks, and it shouldn’t be read or listened to in that context.
Second, multiple things you assert in this comment are false. First, the “We Shall Be Free” video was not “premiered” at the Super Bowl. I have seen that version of this story in numerous places, and that’s how you know the facts are not straight with it. “We Shall Be Free” was released in August of 1992, and the video premiered on CMT in September of 1992. The video was released way before the Super Bowl in 1993.
Second, they were able to find a replacement for Garth Brooks in John Bon Jovi. They didn’t want to use him because everyone was expecting Garth, but they did have a backup.
This is the key paragraph from the article/podcast:
“Now Garth Brooks had no contract or agreement to either perform “We Shall Be Free” as part of the 1993 Super Bowl presentation, nor were their any plans to broadcast the song’s video, which is a story all unto itself. When the video premiered on CMT in September of 1992, it stirred not just a little controversy.
Now, I’m not saying that perhaps Garth had spoken to someone about airing the video, had some sort of verbal or handshake deal with someone. All I can tell you is that according to Don Weiss in his book about the Super Bowl, there was no contract or written agreement to air the video. If there had been, there would have been no dispute, because NBC would have been contractually obligated to air the video.
You can get into he said/he said arguments here, but what we know is that they were not planning to air the video, Garth did walk out, and Garth eventually did get his way. As expressed in the article, Garth was just trying to do what he thought was important. He stood up to a huge cultural institution, and won. How the public chooses to judge that moment is up to them. I simply presented the evidence, and made the case on both sides.
February 11, 2022 @ 2:32 pm
Austin is a weird way of spelling Trisha Yearwood
February 11, 2022 @ 2:04 pm
Wow.. a lot of hate on here for Garth. No one is required to like his music (or person), but no one can say (most of) his music isn’t country. And no one interested in actually saving country music can deny what he has contributed to the genre.
February 11, 2022 @ 2:31 pm
I tend to agree. I completely understand how some people view Garth Brooks as an egomaniac, and he’s given them plenty of ammunition over the years to do that. But what I tried to do with this article was illustrate the complexity of the Garth Brooks character and legacy—the altruism vs. egoism—which also extends to his music, which purists hated at the time, but I don’t think anyone can listen to objectively and declare as “not country.” Garth was country. Garth is country.
February 11, 2022 @ 5:33 pm
I don’t have all that much of a problem with the Garthmeister myself (though some of those who do have taken to calling him “Garth Vader”), or his music. What he has done in his career is straddle the line between the music’s traditional spirit and its more “commercial” side, which isn’t a whole lot different from what others have done since rock and roll upended things in 1955. It’s what he has encouraged in his successors, the upping the ante in terms of stage spectacle and showmanship, that I take issue with. If he can be criticized legitimately for anything, it is that he arguably bought arena rock spectacle to country music, which has tended to swamp the authenticity and honesty of the genre, especially when it comes to awards shows like CMA’s and the ACM’s (IMHO).
February 11, 2022 @ 2:15 pm
I would have bet the farm “We Shall Be Free” was the last single released on The Chase (that was a terrible and forgetful lead single). This was the point where my teenage Garth fandom started to fade, but I still can recall every word to every song on Garth Brooks to Ropin’ the Wind.
The following year was the country music halftime show with Clint Black, The Judds, Tanya Tucker and Travis Tritt. Shania Twain was part of a halftime show in 2003. Why so few county artists? No (real) country artists for almost 30 years?! George Strait or Reba would have been perfect in the early 2000s. I’d love an all Bluegrass State Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, Chris Stapleton halftime show.
February 11, 2022 @ 3:44 pm
Oh I think Garth was and is pretty much country, but it is at it’s fringe a lot, not always though. But I still don’t like most of his songs and his lip synching at the awards really turned me off so just not a fan.
February 11, 2022 @ 6:05 pm
Throwing out an obligatory Who Dey for my Cincinnati Bengals!
Chances they would book Dwight Yoakam, who has significant ties to both Ohio and LA, to perform something? Backed by Cincinnatians Arlo McKinney and Dallas Moore? Probably a bit of a pipe dream
February 11, 2022 @ 8:14 pm
Small nerdy detail but I don’t think F-15s have ever been carrier based.
I couldn’t make it to the end, nothing against you Trigger, these are well done…the dudes just too annoying.
February 11, 2022 @ 8:26 pm
You’re right. It was F-18s. Not sure if I fat fingered that, or just misheard. Have added a correction above.
February 12, 2022 @ 6:48 am
Trigger, I’ve watched you grow into, undoubtedly, the most honest and objective journalist of my time…. I don’t know about the veracity of your article, but I will accept it as what you believe to be true, based on your past performance.
However, the line about his “child like belief” in his music is, shall I say, hypocritical.
What is “Saving Country Music”…. if not your belief in your ability?
If an artist doesn’t believe in his craft, he ain’t a very good artist.
Mac Davis’s song, “I Believe In Music” comes to mind… also, “music soothes the savage beast”…. and the latest Joe Rogan controversy is another hypocrite begging for attention that is past his prime reaching for relevancy, that Garth has been able to maintain…wonder why that is? Oh, and I read another artist/writer wrote a song about his beliefs because of that wore out, irrelevant idiots “child like belief” that Spotify should bow to his preferences.
Personally, I like Garths music… a lot of his songs have very good lyrics that call attention to a variety of lifes foibles… he has become polarizing for sure. But anyone in the spotlight a lot will. If in fact the article is true… good for Garth. Empty suits are devils without souls and should be brought to bear for their transgressions, no matter what position in life they hold… if it takes an “egomaniac”… then so be it. There is enough of that in board rooms around the world to absorb their own egomania- which is the same damn thing! But at a corporate level vs an Individual, or his small (in comparison) musical entourage.
Let’s adjourn this meeting with; “I Cast No Stones, I build no walls, but I tell the truth, when the truth comes to call”
discalimer: I’m not saying you’re not telling the truth.
February 12, 2022 @ 8:36 am
The point of me saying that Garth had a “child-like” belief that his songs could change the world, was to contrast, or argue in the defense of Garth against the accusation that he was attempting to exploit current events with these songs. I don’t think that commercial interests were Garth’s motivation. I truly think he believe his songs would foster healing and understanding, and that is why he released them when he did. So, it may be a back-handed compliment. But it shouldn’t be taken as an insult. And yes, the name of this site is “Saving Country Music, but I’m not under any illusion that pop will ever be eradicated from country. I’m just looking for a place for independent, and more traditional-sounding artists.
February 12, 2022 @ 10:12 am
I’m not questioning your motive(s).
I’m pointing out a flaw in your words. Words mean things. Or there is *no* point in having them.
Child like, is an inference of immature. Period.
If a different explanation, for a context, is the desire…. wordsmith comes to mind and make no mistake, you are. I ain’t. But I have a pretty good grasp on simple English, and I know that arguing, in writing, by someone who buys their ink by the barrel, is sometimes pointless…. sometimes being key.
In today’s world, context is not looked for.
It is assigned by- a looker. Thus, lookers looking to find something being Saved will see what the words mean…. this time. Next time, who knows what they will see, but perhaps they’ll reference your words from this time…
This is and has been, just a friendly FYI. from a “looker”…. not everyone has my grasp of simple English though… in fact, twisting, spinning, castigating simple English is what the untrustworthy do for a living… think MSM and lawyers…
February 12, 2022 @ 8:32 am
I personally think that Garth is easy to understand. He idolized KISS. He basically did to country in the 90s what Kiss did to rock in the 70s. He commercialized it. This doesn’t mean he didn’t also love it. He just took the KISS template and applied it to a different genre. On KISS my A$$, a tribute album to KISS, Garth covers Hard Luck Woman. He has never made a secret of it.
February 12, 2022 @ 10:17 am
I see the negative comments about Garth Brooks and I do not agree with them. It seems to me much of the negativity is because he was so successful. Without doubt he gave Country Music a shot in the arm it needed. Others benefited as did the genre. He is a good songwriter and a very good showman who mixed real country with less country sounds. I managed to see him in concert a few times and it was great entertainment. He has been incredibly successful but it is interesting how many speak very highly of him. He seems genuine. He might like Kiss but he also liked Haggard and Jones. Great, as far as I am concerned as I love good music whatever the genre although country music is by far by favourite. This is an interesting story which is a good read.
February 12, 2022 @ 2:36 pm
Half of the Garth hate wouldn’t exist if he didn’t try so damn hard to convince everyone of his sincerity.
February 12, 2022 @ 10:45 am
First 3 Garth albums were IMO decent, and represent his best work. For me though, hes the guy who introduced a huge group to Chris Ledoux, via the song Much Too Young to Feel This Damn Old. And later he did a great western swing style duet with Ledoux, called Watcha’ Gonna Do With A Cowboy.
Thats my summation of whats good about Brooks. After that, i lost interest.
February 12, 2022 @ 7:28 pm
Trig, forgive me if you’ve already done it but I don’t think so: the tragic death of Tammy Wynette.
I know Cocaine and Rhinestones, which I love, addressed it, but I feel it deserves a deeper dive.
Also here’s something I wrote off the cuff a while back about Tammy out of pure love and unironic admiration:
One of a Kind
“For names are for distinction, and are useless where there is but one of a kind.”
Even so, her name is Tammy Wynette, the First Lady of country music.
Was Tammy Wynette a genius? The word genius is often associated, not just with talent, but with being the first, an original, a one of a kind (though imitators and imitations may arrive). I doubt whether Tammy Wynette ever considered herself a genius, but she does, in her hit song “One of a Kind”, suggest that she may be the last, and hence in its way one, of a kind.
Tammy Wynette is of course forever tied to her signature song, “Stand By Your Man”. “Til I Get It Right” is a mid 70’s classic; she will “stand by her man” as many times (and loves and, well, men) as necessary. A few years later though, “Til I Can Make it On My Own”, her personal favorite song she ever wrote and recorded, suggests a certain fatigue. Not long before it had come “Woman to Woman”, a warning to other women. Not long after came “One of a Kind”, a warning to “her man”. Or was it, her last number one, a warning to us.
An easy target for feminists (and Hillary Clinton), she was not a doormat in song form, but an acute chronicler of her times (check out Alice Munro, a Nobel Prize winner for her short stories, for a more high-brow, feminist takedown of the “free love” movement that Tammy was contemporaneously taking on full throttle).
The First Lady, but the last of a dying breed, Tammy Wynette. One of a kind. Can’t say she didn’t warn us.
February 16, 2022 @ 3:59 am
This accounting does run against what Garth himself has said many times, and most recently he addressed it again in the A&E documentary. Now granted yes you may have to take his words with a grain of salt… but hear me out for a minute Trig. From a common sense perspective, which one sounds more plausible (put your Judge Judy hat on)… Garth had some type of agreement with them to play the video and then they changed their mind on him right before as he explained it and the rest occurred. Or yes as you say it was a scheme and he literally out of nowhere 45 minutes prior pulled this stunt… here’s one reason I make this point… if there was no agreeement (any form) with NBC to air the video, how then would they have had possession of the video to even play it like they did so quickly? I would imagine in those days the actual video was in physical form somehow. So what sounds more plausible… an agreement was made prior and the video provided ahead of time… or one of the most famous stars on the planet (or his camp), literally with 45 minutes to showtime, whips out a video and says hey we aren’t playing if you don’t do this. It just doesn’t pass the smell test here with your accounting. As you said these things are meticulously planned… I just don’t see Garth or his team expecting they could pull such a big stunt in such little time on one of the world’s biggest stages. Let’s say it was indeed a scheme, don’t you think they would have pulled it off a little better? Aso, I may be wrong, but I believe in the A&E documentary Garth said he didn’t actually leave the premises, he just started to leave, I think he even said he started changing his boots but didn’t actually leave. And to that point, in those days without cellphones how would have the back and forth communication scenario you detailed happen? Again it just doesn’t completely add up. Overall it just seems Garth’s version makes much more sense. Full disclosure :: yes I am a fan, but I really don’t care which way this goes, I’m just presenting some food for thought.
February 16, 2022 @ 8:57 am
I’m not saying that Garth hadn’t spoken to somebody at NBC about airing the video, or maybe there was some sort of handshake deal down the line. What the guy who was the ultimate producer of the show said was that there was no contract or agreement on their part to air the video. And if they had something like that in contract, they would have been obligated to air it. And look at this from the other side of the perspective from Garth: would they really agree to air a video and then pull out last minute? It would have been an immediate breach of contract. Or if it was planned to be aired, now they would have a 4-minute hole to fill in a presentation timed down to the very second.
What I should have done better here is explaining the situation from both sides. I should have at least included Garth’s full explanation to give people more context, and I may do a revision in the future with that very thing. But I do feel confident in my conclusion that there was no concrete contract or agreement to air the video. That’s the others side of the story that people normally don’t hear, and the point of deep dive histories such as this.
February 16, 2022 @ 8:52 pm
Yes you replied a few times here in the comments saying your opening sentence in your reply to me. So ya if you are indeed accepting that notion… then you also can’t totally say what you said in the article which was it was out of total nowhere this all occurred. The two notions are in conflict with eachother. I’m focusing on this specific point of the entire thing because whether or not it was a planned scheme is at the very heart of the entire matter. That is the deciding factor of the entire thing as it relates to how Garth himself is viewed in this. So it must be very clear because it is this point upon which your impression of Garth is forged. I also understand your point about the producer saying no formal agreement existed, while important, that alone does not rule out the scenario Garth explained… both ideas could be true at the same, they are not mutually exclusive.
Yes I totally agree with your 2nd paragraph, adding context of all the times Garth has spoken on this would have rounded out this article in a great way.
February 17, 2022 @ 6:56 am
Garth is a jabroni. Never been a fan of his music.
Same goes with the Superbowl halftime.
Why do people invest so greatly in fake live performances?