Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks is a country music phenom who took the genre to new levels of popularity. The musician was born in 1962 in Oklahoma and raised by a blue-collar oil worker and a former small-time country singer. Brooks enjoyed singing but devoted most of his earlier life to athletics--he was a track star as well as a baseball and football player. In 1984, after graduating from Oklahoma State University, Garth Brooks decided to enter the country music arena.

Unfortunately, his quest for country stardom hit a roadblock in Nashville in 1985. He returned back home to Oklahoma the following year and met his future wife, Sandy Mahl, while holding down a job at a bar. Brooks re-doubled his efforts at entering the country music scene two years later and slowly but surely earned a stellar reputation for his live performances and control of the country idiom.

Brooks's first album through Capital Records was a runaway hit. It rose all the way up to number two on the country charts and featured songs like If Tomorrow Never Comes and Much Too Young To Feel This Damn Old. Brooks's sophomore album, No Fences, was an even bigger success. It sold 20 million copies and included resonating hits like Friends In Low Places.

The 1990s saw Brooks emerge as the most dominant name in country music. However, after the decade ended, Brooks abruptly announced his retirement from the music business. He proved that country music could sell to audiences beyond the normal reach of Nashville. He relied mainly on country idioms but also borrowed stylistically from his rock idols, such as James Taylor and Bruce Springsteen.