Garth Brooks

Induction Year: 2011

Birth Name: Troyal Garth Brooks

Birth Date: 02-07-1962

Place of Birth: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Garth Brooks has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as the #1 selling solo artist in U.S. recording history. Six of his albums have sold more than 10 million copies apiece, and his lifetime sales total more than 128 million records.

Raised in Yukon, Oklahoma, he is the son of singer Colleen Carroll. She was a country artist on Capitol Records and on the Ozark Jubilee national TV show in the 1950s.

While in college at Oklahoma State University, Garth worked as a nightclub bouncer, pizza delivery boy and shoe salesman, as well as performing in local clubs. He successfully auditioned to become an entertainer in Nashville's Opryland theme park in 1984, but his father insisted he stay in school. After graduation, he traveled to Nashville in 1985, but was intimidated by Music Row and returned to Oklahoma.

He formed a band called Santa Fe and staged a second assault on Music City in 1986. He was discovered by Bob Doyle, who signed Brooks as a songwriter to his Major Bob publishing company. From 1987 to 1988, Brooks worked as a manager at a Western boot store, recorded song demonstration tapes for other writers and was hired to sing advertising jingles.

He auditioned for Capitol Records, both at the label's office and at the Bluebird Café. The company signed him in 1988 and released his first album in 1989. Teamed with producer Allen Reynolds, Brooks recorded a string of top-selling albums and singles throughout the 1990s. A perceptive chooser of material from other writers, Brooks proved to be an enormously successful songwriter himself, co-writing with a stable of writers that included Pat Alger, Tony Arata, Kent Blazy, Kim Williams and Jenny Yates.

Garth Brooks retired from the road and a regular recording schedule in 2001. In 2008, he performed at President Obama's inauguration. The following year, he signed a five-year concert contract with Las Vegas resort magnate Steve Wynn. Following the Nashville flood of 2010, he did nine benefit concerts for flood relief, raising $5 million.

He is married to award-winning singer Trisha Yearwood, who is also his sometime vocal duet partner. Garth Brooks was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2012.
 

"Ain't Goin' Down (Til the Sun Comes Up)"

(written with Kent Blazy, Kim Williams)

Garth Brooks1993 #1 country
 

"Belleau Wood"

(written with Joe Henry)

Garth Brooks1997 #41 country
 

"Call Me Claus"

(written with Lisa Sanderson, Jenny Yates)

Garth Brooks2002 #55 country

"If Tomorrow Never Comes"

(written with Kent Blazy)

Garth Brooks1989 #1 country
Joose1997 #51 pop
 

"In Another's Eyes"

(written with Bobby Wood, John Peppard)

Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood1997 #2 country
 

"It's Midnight Cinderella"

(written with Kim Williams, Kent Blazy)

Garth Brooks1996 #1 country
 

"Like We Never Had a Broken Heart"

(written with Pat Alger)

Trisha Yearwood1991 #4 country
 

"Midnight Sun"

(written with Richard Brown, Jerrod Niemann)

Garth Brooks2008 #36 country
 

"Much Too Young to Feel This Damn Old"

(written with Randal Taylor)

Garth Brooks1989 #8 country
 

"Not Counting You"

Garth Brooks1990 #2 country
 

"Papa Loved Mama"

(written with Kim Williams)

Garth Brooks1992 #3 country
David Allan Coe2002 
 

"She's Every Woman"

(written with Victoria Shaw)

Garth Brooks1995 #1 country
 

"She's Gonna Make It"

(written with Kent Blazy, Kim Williams)

Garth Brooks1998 #2 country
 

"Somewhere Other Than the Night"

(written with Kent Blazy)

Garth Brooks1992 #1 country
 

"Standing Outside the Fire"

(written with Jenny Yates)

Garth Brooks1993 #3 country
 

"That Girl Is a Cowboy"

(written with Richard Brown, Jerrod Niemann)

Garth Brooks2006 #34 country
 

"That Ol' Wind"

(written with Leigh Reynolds)

Garth Brooks1996 #4 country
 

"That Summer"

(written with Sandy Brooks, Pat Alger)

Garth Brooks1993 #1 country
 

"The Beaches of Cheyenne"

(written with Dan Roberts, Bryan Kennedy)

Garth Brooks1996 #1 country
 

"The Old Man's Back in Town"

(written with Larry Bastian, Randal Taylor)

Garth Brooks1992 #48 country
 

"The Red Strokes"

(written with James Garver, Lisa Sanderson, Jenny Yates)

Garth Brooks1994 #49 country
 

"The River"

(written with Victoria Shaw)

Garth Brooks1992 #1 country
Scotty McCreery2011 

"The Thunder Rolls"

(written with Pat Alger)

Garth Brooks1991 #1 country
Tanya Tucker1995 
 

"Thicker Than Blood"

(written with Jenny Yates)

Garth Brooks2002 #18 country

"Unanswered Prayers"

(written with Pat Alger, Larry Bastian)

Garth Brooks1990 #1 country
 

"We Shall Be Free"

(written with Stephanie Davis)

Garth Brooks1992 #12 country

"What She's Doing Now"

(written with Pat Alger)

Garth Brooks1992 #1 country

"What'cha Gonna Do with a Cowboy"

(written with Mark D. Sanders)

Chris LeDoux1992 #7 country
 

"When You Come Back to Me Again"

(written with Jenny Yates)

Garth Brooks2000 #20 country, #29 adult contemporary
 

"Why Ain't I Running"

(written with Tony Arata, Kent Blazy)

Garth Brooks2003 #24 country

Garth Brooks

Induction Year: 2011