Garth Brooks Talks Stage Falls, Touring & Finally Joining Social Media

November 13, 2014 9:55 AM

Garth Brooks (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

By Annie Reuter

Garth Brooks is in the midst of a media tour with the release of Man Against Machine, his first album in 13 years. He called in to Riverside, Calif., radio station K-FROG 95.1 (a CBS Radio station) to talk about the album, the emotions he felt during his very first tour stop in Chicago and why he decided to join the social media world.

“The response has been humbling at the very least,” he said of the turnout for his current tour. “It’s been staggering. I can’t tell you how impressed I am to see the people I hoped I would see again and then the other half of the arena are kids who haven’t even been born yet [before his retirement] and they know every word and are singing at the top of their lungs. It’s pretty neat.”

Check out some of the choice conversation between Brooks and K-FROG, and to listen to the complete interview, stream it on K-FROG.

How do you keep falling onstage?

I don’t want to give the show away, but the whole floor moves at one point in the show. When that starts to happen you start to get used to it so the speed isn’t fast enough for you. Each time I’ve ask for the speed to be picked up, I did it once in Chicago and I bit it. And then I did it once in Lexington and I bit it. I gotta tell you, it’s one of those things where I’m lucky if I don’t bite it five times a night.

What was going through your mind right before your first show in Chicago?

I kept looking at Trisha [Yearwood]. We’re looking at each other and I said, ‘Why am I scared to death right now? She goes, ‘I am so nervous.’ It was a good thing. You were scared to death but I swear to you 90 seconds into it you go, ‘Oh, I remember this!’ It just started being like a hot bath. It was just fantastic.

Did your wife, Trisha Yearwood, convince you to join Twitter?

She told me not to be scared of it. She said it’s great. She tweets during her show and I watch it and she loves it. What I love about it is [Twitter] takes away the barriers between you and the people who allow you to be an artist. I’m always for that. Facebook and Twitter, it’s more like a conversation. It’s important to keep that conversation going so I look forward to that. It feels dangerous having a team doing it for you. What if one of those guys has one too many or gets mad at you? They have your world in their hands. I’d like to take it back to where it’s just me.

Why do you roll out the tour dates by city, instead of all the dates at once?

We try to make each city on this tour its own destination and make it really special. Each city feels very special and it doesn’t feel like a telephone book and you’re ripping off the days after it. The electricity and the excitement in the city is more than I can remember it in the greatest time in the ’90s. I enjoy this approach because every week you can make announcements. Now with Twitter and Facebook there’s going to be cool little clues and hints that we can get everybody announcing the cities.

Hear the full interview on K-FROG.