NASHVILLE, Tenn. -
Country superstar Garth Brooks announced Thursday that he's coming out of retirement.
Brooks, 47, said at a news conference in Nashville that he will end his retirement.
The move has been rumored in the music industry for weeks.
"We're going to take the retirement roof off over our head, and I already feel taller," Brooks said today.
Brooks said he has no immediate plans and will see how things go in the coming years.
"As for touring, if I can't eat it, sleep it, breathe it, then it ain't me," Brooks said.
Brooks retired in 2000 to spend more time with his three children. He's occasionally popped up in special appearances at awards shows and charity events, but has mostly stayed out of the limelight.
In an interview with The Associated Press last year, Brooks said he would like to return to the road once he raises his children. They're now 17, 15, and 13 years of age.
There has been widespread speculation that he will perform in Las Vegas, and there is a news conference scheduled at Wynn Las Vegas Thursday afternoon.
Brooks has sold more than 128 million albums in the U.S., according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, second only to the Beatles' 170 million albums. Brooks has outsold the Fab Four -- more than 68 million, to the Beatles' 58 million -- in the 18 years since Nielsen SoundScan began monitoring retail sales in 1991, two years after Brooks released his first single. The RIAA lists six of Brooks' albums with sales of 10 million or more copies each.
During the 1990s he also was one of the most popular concert attractions in the world. Amusement Business magazine ranked his 1996 tour the biggest country music tour in history after he sold 1.8 million tickets that year.
"I think Garth is a huge attraction," says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert tracking magazine Pollstar. "He could go headline arenas right now if he wanted to."
Any lingering questions about Brooks' ongoing drawing power were obliterated in 2007 when he played nine concerts in Kansas City, Mo., in conjunction with the release that fall of his compilation album "Ultimate Hits." He initially planned one show at the 19,000-capacity Spring Center Arena as a thank-you to employees of Wal-Mart, where the album was sold exclusively, but demand quickly led to the addition of eight more shows that were opened to the general public. All nine sold out in a matter of minutes.
Two months later he quickly sold out five shows at Staples Center in Los Angeles that were benefits for firefighters and victims of wildfires that had recently scorched broad swaths of Southern California. As he had done previously, Brooks insisted the tickets be affordable to rank-and-file music fans. Tickets for the Kansas City shows were $25, and for the Staples Center dates the face-value seats topped out at $45.
The Recording Industry Association of America honored Brooks in 2007 with a career award after he passed Elvis Presley to become the top-selling solo artist in U.S. history. At the time, he had sold more than 123 million albums.
Brooks' last studio album, "Scarecrow," was released in 2001. His three-disc compilation "The Ultimate Hits" finished 10th on Billboard's 2008 list of albums and showed Brooks still has the muscle he displayed in the 1990s.
Brooks divorced his wife, Sandy Mahl, in 2001 and married fellow country star Trisha Yearwood in 2005. The couple lives in Oklahoma.
Brooks, 47, said at a news conference in Nashville that he will end his retirement.
The move has been rumored in the music industry for weeks.
"We're going to take the retirement roof off over our head, and I already feel taller," Brooks said today.
Brooks said he has no immediate plans and will see how things go in the coming years.
"As for touring, if I can't eat it, sleep it, breathe it, then it ain't me," Brooks said.
Brooks retired in 2000 to spend more time with his three children. He's occasionally popped up in special appearances at awards shows and charity events, but has mostly stayed out of the limelight.
In an interview with The Associated Press last year, Brooks said he would like to return to the road once he raises his children. They're now 17, 15, and 13 years of age.
There has been widespread speculation that he will perform in Las Vegas, and there is a news conference scheduled at Wynn Las Vegas Thursday afternoon.
Brooks has sold more than 128 million albums in the U.S., according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, second only to the Beatles' 170 million albums. Brooks has outsold the Fab Four -- more than 68 million, to the Beatles' 58 million -- in the 18 years since Nielsen SoundScan began monitoring retail sales in 1991, two years after Brooks released his first single. The RIAA lists six of Brooks' albums with sales of 10 million or more copies each.
During the 1990s he also was one of the most popular concert attractions in the world. Amusement Business magazine ranked his 1996 tour the biggest country music tour in history after he sold 1.8 million tickets that year.
"I think Garth is a huge attraction," says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert tracking magazine Pollstar. "He could go headline arenas right now if he wanted to."
Any lingering questions about Brooks' ongoing drawing power were obliterated in 2007 when he played nine concerts in Kansas City, Mo., in conjunction with the release that fall of his compilation album "Ultimate Hits." He initially planned one show at the 19,000-capacity Spring Center Arena as a thank-you to employees of Wal-Mart, where the album was sold exclusively, but demand quickly led to the addition of eight more shows that were opened to the general public. All nine sold out in a matter of minutes.
Two months later he quickly sold out five shows at Staples Center in Los Angeles that were benefits for firefighters and victims of wildfires that had recently scorched broad swaths of Southern California. As he had done previously, Brooks insisted the tickets be affordable to rank-and-file music fans. Tickets for the Kansas City shows were $25, and for the Staples Center dates the face-value seats topped out at $45.
The Recording Industry Association of America honored Brooks in 2007 with a career award after he passed Elvis Presley to become the top-selling solo artist in U.S. history. At the time, he had sold more than 123 million albums.
Brooks' last studio album, "Scarecrow," was released in 2001. His three-disc compilation "The Ultimate Hits" finished 10th on Billboard's 2008 list of albums and showed Brooks still has the muscle he displayed in the 1990s.
Brooks divorced his wife, Sandy Mahl, in 2001 and married fellow country star Trisha Yearwood in 2005. The couple lives in Oklahoma.
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