The Garth Factor

by Patsi Bale Cox

  Garth built a second house on his Oklahoma property, across the road from Sandy. He and his former wife easily shared custody of Taylor, August, and Allie. Both parents remained dedicated to making the new arrangement work, and it did. One of the decisions both Garth and Sandy had made when they returned to Oklahoma in the first place was to hire no nannies. Garth was especially concerned about other people basically raising his family, and took the “daddy duties” seriously.

  He continued to cook for the girls, to take them to school and pick them up, and, as many fathers do, to monitor where they were, whom they were with, and what they were doing. He was every bit as hands-on as his own parents had been. And he wanted desperately to fit back into a lifestyle he remembered and cherished. The first time he attended a game where he was just another soccer dad, it brought tears to his eyes.

  One thing Garth wasn’t doing was writing songs. “I’d give anything to hear Garth say he was consumed with songwriting again,” Allen Reynolds reflected. “For one thing, I can’t think of many people who have a better grasp of a story song.”

  Garth’s storytelling instincts were not going to waste, though. In his new life, he had time to think about scriptwriting, films, and the events that make compelling tales. Songwriters often grab lines from each other: “Man, that’s a great hook! I’m gonna write it if you don’t!” In Garth’s case he started saying things like, “That’s a funny line! I bet I could use that in a script!”

  His inspiration in great part came from being in Oklahoma, in watching real life unfold every day. He said it was there that he saw the complex character of the country, the struggles and successes people have each day. It’s just that instead of hearing the stories in audio, he saw them in video.

  Trisha and Garth spent as much time as possible together in both Tennessee and Oklahoma. Trisha was determined that her new role within the group not be considered threatening to the children. She had been a good friend of Sandy’s and Garth’s for many years, and that did not change. But before she and Garth made any permanent plans, she wanted the three girls to view her as a friend—one that in no way wanted to replace their mother.

  Trisha was still evaluating her recording process and career direction, having had concerns for several years. In 2000, the same year she was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, she released a new album. Real Live Woman was one of her most critically acclaimed: it was nominated for two Grammy awards, Best Album and Best Female Country Performance, and named in the top-ten lists of many publications, including the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. But it had only had one top-twenty single. She changed producers for 2001’s Inside Out, but that album didn’t make waves at radio either. For some months, Trisha considered taking time off from her career. But she eventually reunited with producer Garth Fundis and went back in the studio. Finally, dissatisfied with the results, Trisha shelved the material she’d cut and began to move toward her next project at a slower pace.

  For this decision, she could have had no greater ally than Garth Brooks. It was not because of his very real desire to spend more time with her, though. He believed that Trisha could and would find the right songs if she put aside any immediate pressure to record. Her decision proved the right one, because although her next album would not be ready for three more years, 2005’s Jasper County (which included a new duet with Garth, “Love Will Always Win”) would reflect the time and focus it had received. Unfortunately, the MCA promotion team she’d worked with was gone. When Scott Borchetta moved to DreamWorks, MCA lost a promotion powerhouse, and Trisha’s chart showings were not what they should have been.

  In fact, between 2002 and 2005, country music was in a state of flux. Despite lackluster overall industry performance, Nashville’s sales continued on 2001’s uphill swing through 2002. While music sales overall were down 8.7 percent, 2002 showed country moving up by 12.28 percent, garnering 11.84 percent of the market. The CMA reported that for the first time in history, country had seven albums go to number 1 on the Top 200 chart, including releases by Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, the Dixie Chicks, and Faith Hill. Shania Twain’s Up! held the top spot for five straight weeks.

  Sales of catalog albums spiked in numbers that took them to gold, platinum, and multiplatinum status. Included in this group were recordings by artists such as Merle Haggard, Roy Orbison, Marty Robbins, David Allan Coe, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr., Mary Chapin Carpenter, George Jones, Charlie Rich, and Willie Nelson. There was no doubt that country’s continued visibility was affecting sales of new and established artists alike.

  The roller coaster ride continued. Country experienced a downward slide in 2003 before picking back up in 2004. Industry watchers were encouraged by the upswing, the strongest in the past five years. Artists whose new albums helped drive the success were Kenny Chesney, Gretchen Wilson, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Big & Rich, and Brad Paisley. But despite Gretchen’s success, and Shania Twain’s Up! reaching 10 million in 2004, it was not an impressive year for female artists. Sales continued to trend up into 2005, but chart statistics still showed male artists dominating, while many established female artists faced the same struggle Trisha Yearwood had with Jasper County.

  Garth could have made a career during that time frame just showing up at awards shows and industry galas. On January 9, 2002, he was presented with the Award of Merit at the twenty-ninth Annual American Music Awards in Los Angeles. Previous award winners include Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Irving Berlin, and Willie Nelson. That March he traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive ASCAP’s Golden Note Award for outstanding contributions to American music as a performer and songwriter. In June 2002 he received a Hitmaker Award in New York from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Garth and Trisha both participated in Loretta Lynn’s ceremony at the twenty-sixth annual Kennedy Center Honors in January 2003, performing the classic Loretta Lynn/Conway Twitty duet “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man.”

  Without the pressures of big tours, Garth could spend more time on the foundation he’d founded in 1999, Teammates for Kids. He had long been reluctant to participate in charitable occasions that involved a flurry of publicity, often agreeing to meet sick children with the strict agreement that there be no publicists or flashbulbs involved. But Garth made an exception when it came to Teammates for Kids. His dedication to this organization was so well known that in February 2002 the major web-site devoted to the artist’s news and history, PlanetGarth.com (founded by Brandon Wiesner in 1995), opted to raise money to donate on the occasion of Garth’s fortieth birthday. It sent a message to Garth’s fans about how to pay tribute to their artist.

  Teammates for Kids also gave Garth the opportunity to continue playing baseball. After staying relatively low key through 2003, Garth came back to play with the Kansas City Royals in 2004, the result of a chance meeting with right-hander Jason Grimsley, who suggested that the team could raise money for Teammates for Kids. “He blends right in, moving from field to field,” the Royals’ David Witty told the Kansas City Star. “You wouldn’t even know there’s anything special about him.”

  Even though his teammates razzed him about being a part-timer because he left every weekend to be with his daughters, the players respected Garth’s commitment. He was lauded for hard work, his positive energy, and for taking every drill, every batting practice seriously. There was never a time when it seemed that he was a dilettante interested in a diversion.

  One of his biggest thrills occurred in March 2004 when Charley Pride showed up at Surprise Stadium in Arizona, shared by the Royals and the Rangers. A former ballplayer himself, he was there for the Rangers’ spring training. Charley, who has a photo of Garth on his wall at home, remembered predicting that Garth would be a big star from the first time he heard him sing. Garth shook his head and reminded the crowd that it was Charley Pride who was the country legend, an icon and inspiration to generations of singers.

  While interviewing Brooks and Pride, the Fort Worth Star Telegram’s Jim Reeves asked
Garth to describe the difference he saw between making music and playing baseball. Garth laughed.

  “Music is like breathing in and out. It’s fun, and easy, easy, easy. This? I’m sweatin’ my butt off just to look like the least worst guy on the field.”

  He thought about it for a moment, then added, “If it wasn’t for the hitting and the fielding part, and the running, I’d be good at this game.”

  That same month, however, baseball fans gave him a standing ovation when he singled for the Royals against the Seattle Mariners. “I was more surprised than the pitcher,” Garth laughed.

  Garth continued to participate in Teammates for Kids with a hands-on approach. From the beginning, he has been determined that the charity be his in more than name. It has his attention, his time, and his resources. But that same year life stepped in and slowed him down when it came to fund-raising efforts.

  Chris LeDoux, who had hit the concert trail just six months after his life-saving transplant in 2000, was diagnosed with bile duct cancer in 2004. He immediately began radiation treatment, but in the end, it was not enough. Chris died in March 2005. Mike Dungan, who had loved getting to know Chris since coming to Capitol, said, “In a world of egos and soundalikes, he was a unique artist and a wonderful man.” And Chuck Yarborough, writing in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, said that because of Chris’s being such an inspiration to Garth, he should be remembered as being “directly responsible for the current popularity of country music.” Yarborough went on to cite Chris’s influence on Garth’s fever-pitched road show, and concluded with this poignant reminiscence:

  “In the course of my career, I’ve done three or four interviews with LeDoux. Every conversation felt like two old friends sitting at my grandma’s kitchen table at our family ranch in East Texas, swapping lies, sipping sweet tea and listening to an impatient bull call for his supper. It’s memories like these that make me want to echo Brooks in his live version of ‘Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old).’ The worn out tape of Chris LeDoux, lonely women and bad booze, seem to be the only friends I’ve left at all. And at the close of this stanza, Brooks yells out, ‘God Bless Chris LeDoux.’ Say it again for me, Garth. Say it again.”

  Garth later reflected: “You get up in the morning and in your mind you hoist up your flag—whether it’s the flag of your dreams or the flag of a hero. Let me tell you, I’m always proud to hoist up a flag with Chris LeDoux’s name on it.”

  Garth had the opportunity to run that flag up a tall mast sooner than he thought. A tribute song to Chris was already in the works, and there was no doubt that Garth would want to record it. But since he was unwilling to make an entire new album, it was uncertain how that might happen.

  Then, in June 2005, Garth ended his association with Capitol Records. Because his label, Pearl, owned his masters and leased them to Capitol, the deal was basically a license termination with no money changing hands. Because he was no longer touring or actively recording, there was no need to remain on the label. It also took him a step closer to his ultimate goal: recording a duet album with Trisha Yearwood. Through the years, although the two wanted to make such a record, Capitol and MCA stood in the way. Both wanted to be in the driver’s seat on a project of that magnitude. It has worked in the past, but as Waylon Jennings once quipped, “Every time Willie and I recorded a duet album, two or three executives lost their jobs.”

  After news of Garth’s leaving Capitol was made public, Wal-Mart approached him with a novel idea: putting together an album of songs he’d recorded that never made it to any of his earlier albums. This would not be a situation where Garth had to write, to listen to thousands of new songs, and to begin the process from scratch. Rather, it would be a way to bring songs he loved and had already recorded to life. In the forefront of Garth’s mind, however, was one new song, “Good Ride Cowboy,” the Chris LeDoux tribute.

  After he started thinking about it, Garth realized that there was one period of time especially that he’d recorded a wealth of material, between the making of 1997’s Sevens and 2001’s Scarecrow. During this time period, Allen Reynolds had encouraged him to record anything and everything he loved, not thinking about whether it would fit on an album. The more Garth thought about those songs, the more he wanted to go back in and listen to them again.

  The Lost Sessions was filled with gems that otherwise would have languished in the stacks at Jack’s Tracks. But the very first song placed on the album, and the collection’s number 1 debut single, was “Good Ride Cowboy.” Bob Doyle had come up with the idea after reading Chris’s biography, Gold Buckle Dreams by David G. Brown. In Brown’s book, he talks about the time-honored hat tip given to rodeo cowboys after a successful ride: “Good ride, cowboy. Good ride.” Doyle turned the song over to Bryan Kennedy, Jerrod Lee Niemann, and Richie Brown. Bryan Kennedy credits most of the final lyrics of the song to Garth, though he wouldn’t take a writer’s credit.

  To reflect the spirit and energy of Chris’s concerts, Garth assembled a cast of his and Chris’s friends, band members, and family, including the three Brooks girls, Taylor, August, and Allie. They joined in first on a rousing chorus, and then in a kind of wake held in rooms throughout the studio. Friends told Chris LeDoux stories, talked about his love of family, ranching, rodeo, music, touring, and songwriting. It was a celebration of a life well lived.

  Garth talked about the recording with Hazel Smith, the woman who, while working with Waylon and Tompall Glaser, coined the term “the Outlaw Movement.” Asked about “Good Ride Cowboy,” Garth answered, “I knew if I ever recorded any kind of tribute to Chris, it would have to be up-tempo, happy. A song like him, not some slow, mournful song. Chris was exactly what our heroes are supposed to be. He was a man’s man. A good friend.”

  Another impact song on the album, the one Garth called “the Big Hoss,” was the Garth and Trisha duet “Love Will Always Win.” Written by Gordon Kennedy and Wayne Kirkpatrick, the song had spent months on hold for the soundtrack of Armageddon, and later for a variety of artists. It became a situation of music imitating life, about a couple coming together against all odds.

  “That Girl Is A Cowboy” was a tribute Garth wrote about a female friend who once phoned to tell him his horse, Cracker Jack, had died. Garth tried to make it home that night to bury his horse, but couldn’t get there until morning. When he drove his pickup into the pasture, there sat his friend holding a 30–30. She’d built a fire and spent the night beside Cracker Jack to keep away the coyotes.

  Mike McClure, an old friend from Oklahoma, wrote “I’d Rather Have Nothing.” Mike had been the lead singer in one of Garth’s favorite Stillwater bands, the Great Divide. The strong rhythm track on this song is a good indication of the importance of the music that was added to these songs by Garth’s old studio team, as well as some favorite guest artists.

  Jerry Douglas was on Dobro and Sam Bush on mandolin for “Allison Miranda.” Dennis Burnside wrote and arranged the prelude on “The American Dream,” and the tracks for “Meet Me In Love” were built around the original piano demo of the song’s co-writer, Bobby Wood. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Fishin’ In The Dark” was a natural for the studio band, who followed the Dirt Band’s lead, just played a little louder and faster. Chris Leuzinger’s guitar on the Steve Wariner/Marcus Hummon–penned “You Can’t Help The One You Love” is almost another vocal. In addition to Trisha Yearwood, two of Garth’s friends also sang on the record: Alison Krauss on “For A Minute There” and Martina McBride on “I’ll Be The Wind.”

  “She Don’t Care About Me” was originally on a 2000 album Garth produced for Ty England, Highways and Dance Halls. Garth had loved the song so much, he cut a version of it at the time. Another song from Ty’s album made Garth’s Lost Sessions, “My Baby No Está Aquí,” penned by David Stephenson and Shane Brooks. Garth teamed with Bryan Kennedy on a song filled with tricky internal rhyme schemes, “Cowgirl’s Saddle,” and with Randy Taylor on the honky-tonker “Under The Table.” Yet another honky-tonk, p
otential jukebox classic included was DeWayne Blackwell’s hard-drinking “Please Operator.”

  The final and favorite cut on Lost Sessions was Ed McCurdy’s “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream,” a plea for peace recorded over the years by Pete Seeger, Simon & Garfunkel, and Arlo Guthrie, among others. Garth had first rolled the song out on his 1993–1994 World Tour, but had held it back because he knew if it was ever included on an album, it would have to be in that final spot.

  The Los Angeles Times called the collection reflective of “the fresh spirit of No Fences and Ropin’ the Wind.”

  In November 2005, Wal-Mart released The Lost Sessions in a box set, Limited Series, which included Sevens, Double Live, and Scarecrow in addition to a ninety-minute DVD with interviews, videos, and live performances. At the time of its release, Garth said, “One of the greatest gifts of the Wal-Mart deal is that it allows me to bring something to the people and still stay at home with my children.”

  The retail giant reported that Garth’s release quickly became the largest-selling music item in its history. “Good Ride Cowboy” was a hit at radio, and Garth was asked to perform the song with Chris’s band for the CMA awards show held that year in New York City. As they had for the Central Park show, Big Apple fans turned out in droves for Garth’s Times Square performance.