The Garth Factor

by Patsi Bale Cox

  “I opened myself completely on The Chase,” he explained at the time. “It’s the closest anybody has ever got to getting inside my head. So much was going on. We were expecting our first baby, trying to get our house remodeled, and I was out on the road all the time. The album was recorded during a time that I felt like maybe I couldn’t have everything—a career and a family—and do it right. That was the time I thought about giving up the music if it was going to take me away from home too much, and the emotion showed. It was an important album for me to do.”

  The final song and Garth’s favorite on The Chase is equal to “We Shall Be Free” when it comes to risky business territory. Tony Arata’s “Face To Face” is about looking your fears straight in the eye. The original version of the song spoke to fears of schoolyard bullies in childhood, and adult fears of death.

  “I wrote ‘Face To Face’ in 1987 or 1988,” Tony recalls. “Garth heard me sing it in a local club, and liked it. But I don’t think it was ever formally pitched to him. Then one night when we were standing in line at the ASCAP awards he started singing it. He said he wanted to cut it, but asked if I could add another verse, one about a male/female relationship.” Tony wrote the verse dealing with date rape, and of the girl facing down her attacker in court.

  “This song petrifies me,” Garth said. “It’s about real life—the bad side of real life.”

  That Garth was drawn to “Face To Face” was no surprise to people who knew him well, and certainly not to Colleen Brooks. The moment she heard the lyrics and message about bullying, she understood. That was Garth the schoolboy making an appearance. From the time he was small he had been on the side of the underdog, the misfit, the last kid to be picked for the team. Garth’s women friends knew the side of him that, because of the way he was raised, could see things from the female’s viewpoint. This is another of those songs that sounds as if it sprung from his own pen.

  Garth often writes from a concept. In “Somewhere Other Than The Night” that idea centered on losing the ability to communicate within a marriage. It deals directly with sexual relations and reviving passions. Co-writer Kent Blazy didn’t think it stood a chance in hell of getting airplay.

  “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)” had stopped short of number 1 because of the use of the word damn. In “Somewhere Other Than The Night,” to describe the hardworking husband’s seeming lack of passion for his wife, Garth and Kent wrote the line, “Damn this rain and damn this wasted day.” Of course, when the rained-out farmer arrives home to find his wife waiting in nothing but an apron, the day turned out less of a loss than he’d thought. The few offended radio stations didn’t balk this time, and “Somewhere Other Than The Night” hit the top of the chart.

  Sex was the theme of another chart-topping song on The Chase. Pat Alger, Garth, and wife Sandy wrote “That Summer,” which started out to be about an ignored wife who begins an affair. As the song developed through writing process, a more complex story evolved, with the wife replaced by a lonely middle-aged farm widow who seduces her much younger hired hand. It’s possible that in country only Kris Kristofferson has written more sex songs than Garth Brooks.

  The Chase certainly wasn’t an across-the-board societal critique. There’s a comical take on pick-up lines with “Mr. Right,” backed with Rob Hajaco’s hot fiddle, and the breezy “Something With A Ring To It,” originally cut by Mark Collie, who wrote the song with Aaron Tippin.

  Thematically, the album also touches on two of Garth’s tried and true topics: reflecting on old loves and getting past them. “Every Now And Then” speaks to understanding that while people move past relationships, they continue to be affected by them. “Learning To Live Again” describes the difficulty of getting on with one’s life. Don Schlitz and Stephanie Davis originally wrote it as a female song, and Garth pitched it to every female artist he knew, to no avail. Finally he asked Stephanie if she and Don would consider rewriting it for a man.

  Stephanie wasn’t so sure. “It had been written as a woman’s song, and I personally related strongly to it. Don first had the idea for it because a woman who worked at his dentist’s office was widowed and had to start over. Garth is the one who rewrote the song, although he wouldn’t take any of the writer credits. I think he made it a better song. The twist at the end is that both people are feeling the same way.”

  Garth’s friend Randy Taylor had played him Jerry Jeff Walker’s cut of “Night Rider’s Lament,” a perfect addition for The Chase. Garth recalled, “I wanted to include a waltz and a cowboy song. ‘Night Rider’s Lament’ was both.” As with “The River,” the message in “Night Rider’s Lament” is one Garth has returned to time and again through his recording career: follow the dream against all odds.

  Two more cover songs rounded out the album. When Garth was in college he lived down the hall from a Little Feat fanatic, and years later he could still hear the strains of “Dixie Chicken” playing in his head. Garth slowed it down a bit and added an all-female choir led by Trisha Yearwood. Every time Trisha came to Jack’s Tracks to record with Garth, Allen Reynolds was reminded of something that he’d said to her when he first heard her sing. “I hope that when you get to be a big star you’ll still make time to sing on Garth’s records, because no one else could add what you do.”

  With perennial country favorite “Walking After Midnight,” Garth faced a quandary: how not to offend Patsy Cline fans. “I knew no one could really cover that song,” he said. “But I had always loved it and hoped a guy would sing it. I originally cut it for Ropin’ the Wind, but somehow it didn’t fit until we were working on The Chase.” He cut the song with a jaunty swing touch, and while a few critics questioned its inclusion, most applauded the outcome.

  In August, just a month before launching The Chase, Garth’s first Christmas album was released, Beyond the Season. It contained traditional and original Christmas songs, including “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “White Christmas, “Silent Night,” and “What Child Is This.” At the time Garth said that recording the collection was one of his most fulfilling studio experiences: “I’d make this album every day of the week!” Beyond the Season peaked at number 2 on the country charts, sold 3 million copies, and raised $2 million for Feed the Children.

  When the question of a first single from The Chase came up, Garth felt passionately about “We Shall Be Free” and fought for it. His audiences loved it, and advance press reaction seemed to back up the choice. The Washington Post called the song Garth’s “Imagine,” and Newsday touted him as “country’s great populist.”

  Garth was so successful by this time, and radio had expanded so drastically, that it would have seemed that the song could take hold. Country radio now replaced adult contemporary as the biggest format, with 20 million more people listening to country than adult contemporary. The numbers of country stations had climbed to over 2,600, and it was no longer a rural-based industry. In fact, country was the top format in over half of America’s urban centers. The listeners were better educated and made more money than any in country radio’s history. They were far more sophisticated than, arguably, even radio programmers themselves quite understood.

  Bowen was against releasing “We Shall Be Free” as the first single. Singing about poor people in country music was one thing, confronting poverty in America was quite another. And defending gays? Bowen didn’t think it was going to happen anytime soon on country airwaves.

  Turns out Bowen was right. Radio didn’t welcome “We Shall Be Free.” Although it made number 12 on the charts, it was the lowest-peaking single Garth had ever had. Part of the problem, it seemed, was the song’s categorization. Some programmers thought it was a pop anthem, others considered it gospel, and in fact, it did enter the gospel radio charts.

  Garth believed the message was too important to lose. And so, despite the fact that “The Thunder Rolls” had left him wary of videos, he decided to make one. The powerful piece was directed by NBC’s Tim
Miller, and featured numerous cameos. In addition to celebrity appearances by Whoopi Goldberg, General Colin Powell, Reba McEntire, Elizabeth Taylor, and many others, the video contained news footage depicting society’s problems, counteracted by scenes expressing hope. Colin Powell perhaps summed it up when he said, “We’re all a family. Let’s take care of each other.”

  “We Shall Be Free” first aired January 31 during the 1993 Super Bowl. It almost caused a controversy. When, at the last minute, Super Bowl officials told Garth they might not be able to air the piece after all, Garth stopped them in their tracks. The video must play, he said. It was part of the package. “We Shall Be Free” did air, and subsequently received an Outstanding Recording Award from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation/Los Angeles (GLAAD-LA), and won the Academy of Country Music’s 1993 Video of the Year.

  The Super Bowl performance stopped Garth in his tracks, too. Always facing a food problem (“I never met a chicken fried steak I didn’t like.”), Garth’s weight had crept up to almost 240. He knew he carried the extra poundage, but when he saw footage from the Super Bowl he was horrified. Given that he was heading out on a two-year tour soon, he knew something had to be done. “I embarrassed myself,” he told a friend soon after the appearance. “I’ve got serious work to do before August, when we go back on the road.” He cut back on carbs, watched fat content, and worked out. By the time he opened his show in Dallas he was down to around 170.

  The Chase became the second album in music history to enter both the Billboard Top 200 and Country charts at number 1, but initial sales did not match No Fences and Ropin’ the Wind. More than a few were taken aback by the seriousness of The Chase, and when sales fell off, industry insiders predicted the end of Garthmania.

  After all, Billy Ray Cyrus was out there at number 1 for five straight weeks with “Achy Breaky Heart”—even “Friends In Low Places” had only held the top chart spot for a month. Clint Black’s latest, The Hard Way, was giving him a renewed career boost. Travis Tritt was still on the hot streak he’d started in ’89 with “Country Club,” and stalwarts like George Strait and Randy Travis held steady. Many speculated that the mantle was already being passed to Arista Records’ Alan Jackson, whose two albums had produced nine hits since 1990.

  But the most pressing problem Garth faced was another shakeup at Capitol. Joe Mansfield’s contract was up for renewal at the same time The Chase was being readied for release. Mansfield had suspected that Bowen might be carrying a grudge over the coverage he’d gotten from “The Six Million Pieces Man” and other articles. But when he was let go, Mansfield was in shock and many staffers were outraged. This was the man who had engineered the marketing that had taken Capitol to new heights of respect in the industry. By comparison, his replacement, Bob Freese, the man Bowen called “a nice hardworking kid,” was not considered in Joe’s league.

  When “We Shall Be Free” failed to hit Top 10, the label cut back on CD shipments, pulling 600,000 units from Wal-Mart and KMart alone. Bowen blamed Garth for making a somber record and for being too candid on television shows such as the Barbara Walters special, where he had mentioned that he supported the rights of gays, because, after all, his sister Betsy was a lesbian. Following the show, Garth was crucified for supposedly outing Betsy. But at a Gus Hardin concert in Nashville, Betsy told a table of journalists that the whole furor was a joke, that everyone she knew had long known she was gay. Her real concern had been about the potential for negative public reaction against her little brother.

  Colleen Brooks got off the best comeback. When one reporter asked her if it was true that Betsy was gay, Colleen raised an eyebrow and slyly replied, “Of course. All my children are gay. They’re all very gay and happy people.”

  Garth made another statement on the Barbara Walters show that was in hindsight a mistake. Talking about the creative process, Garth tried to explain that money had no place in his choices, that being successful had freed him from worrying about taking risks. In making his point, he said he made more money than his grandchildren, or their grandchildren could spend. So it wasn’t an issue. It was an unfortunate statement, a completely honest assessment, and one that could have only come from someone with solid working-class roots. The statement of fact was seized on and parsed to death.

  Colleen had this wisdom to share with her son. “I said, ‘Honey, let me give you a little advice. When you are talking to the press don’t offer anybody anything. If you are talking with a reporter you think is going to tell the story in the way you are telling it, let them ask the questions. You have the right to answer or keep it to yourself.’ ”

  “That’s really good advice,” Garth said. “Why didn’t you tell me that when I first started out?”

  By this time Garth’s dealings with Jimmy Bowen were complicated. The label head had developed an intense dislike for some of Garth’s representatives, including a financial adviser, and refused to take meetings with them, so Garth met with Bowen alone.

  Bob Doyle encouraged Garth to do so. “There’s bound to be issues between artists and the people who run the record labels,” Doyle reflects. “But in the end, every label, every company, has to have a place where the buck stops. Somebody has to be accountable. Garth and I both understood how critical it was to keep communications open.”

  But the divisions grew with each meeting. When confronted about the lack of advertising, Bowen reacted with what would become a pattern. He blamed the music, countering that Garth had spent too much time working on his new contract and not enough time on The Chase.

  Garth was willing to take the blame, if that’s what was called for with an album that eventually sold over 9 million copies. “I had a real hard time with The Chase,” Garth later said. “I got too much into the lyrics, and I got rid of the honky-tonk fun part of the music. If you’re serious all the time, people wonder, ‘What’s he bitching about this time?’ ” But in the end, The Chase is still the album Garth listens to when he feels he needs to get focused.

  Despite questions about his latest album, Garth was not merely selling records in astronomical numbers, he was rapidly becoming one of the most awarded artists of all time. Later, after looking over the list of thirty-plus awards he’d received in 1992 alone, Garth had a talk with the record label about the official biographical material being released. “I’m afraid that all these sales and awards are getting in the way of the music,” he said. “Is there a way we can separate the two things? Put out a bio that has to do with the music, and a different one—just an update—about sales and all that?”

  “It’s really becoming two things, isn’t it?” he was asked. “There’s you and the music, and there’s this Garth thing.”

  “Yeah.” Garth shook his head. “I think of it as a GB thing.”

  He sat staring out the window and finally explained in more detail what he was feeling. “I’ve said this before, but awards are like Christmas trees. They add some sparkle to the holiday but they are not what Christmas is all about. Plus, these awards and sales involve more people than me. This career is about everything from the songwriters, to the people at Doyle/Lewis and Jack’s Tracks to all of Capitol’s employees, the fans—radio. This star business gets very complicated. The worst mistake an artist can make is to start thinking of ‘I’ when talking about a career. I have to make sure I know the difference between me and it.”

  But referring to his career, including his team, success, sales, and awards, in the third person as “Garth Brooks” or “GB” would be scrutinized for the rest of the decade.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing”

  Garth and the band missed the old touring days, even the downside: pulling the van into an empty parking lot and wondering how many would show up, the darkened interior of the bar lit mostly by neon, the stale smell of last night’s beer and cigarettes. So the parking lot at Clovis City Limits brought a smile to their faces that night in 1993. The thirty or so who were hanging around we
re there for the beer, because nobody had ever heard of the bunch of pickers advertised, an outfit called Yukon Jack. That changed when the band stepped onstage and Yukon Jack turned out to be Garth Brooks and Stillwater.

  It had all started when guitarist James Garver sat down with Garth and confessed that while he loved the big tours, he really missed the days when Joe Harris was booking them into club dates and fairs. It turned out that Garver wasn’t the only one who’d been having nostalgic thoughts of the old days.

  The idea of doing some time traveling was just fine with Garth. He was sick of corporate politics, of the feeling that although he’d gotten control of his recording process, there were still career decisions being made whether he agreed or not. One of his regular song collaborators had seen it coming. In 1992 Kim Williams asked Garth what it felt like to be on top of the mountain. “I like what I’ve got, but I miss what I had,” Garth answered.

  “I loved the thought of heading back to one of those honky-tonks,” Garth later said. “We owed so much to those audiences, and sometimes they were real small audiences. Twenty people crowds. Nine people! But we got our sound down out there, tried out new songs, screwed up stuff all the time and had fun doing it.”

  So while they were gearing up for the 1993–1994 World Tour, Garth had Joe Harris book them into the little club in Clovis, New Mexico, under the name Yukon Jack. And what a night it was. Once the band stepped onstage, the word went out. By the time Garth sang “Friends In Low Places,” Clovis City Limits was the jumpin’ist joint in the state.

  JOURNALISTS USUALLY POINT TO Garth’s 100 million album sales as a watershed event in music history. But while those numbers were phenomenal, they have overshadowed his other career landmarks. One of those was the 1993–1994 World Tour. In those two years Garth headlined what was at the time the biggest and fastest-selling concert tour ever fronted by a country act in the world.