FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Country music star Garth Brooks is getting ready to kick off his Stadium Tour, which includes a stop in New England.
Sadly, he won't be coming to Maine, but he'll perform in May at Gillette Stadium. It's the first time he will perform there.
"The Krafts were sweet enough to find a weekend and said, 'Can you play on that weekend?' And we said, 'You bet your butts we can, no matter what.' And we figured it out." Brooks said.
Brooks said it will be his last set of stadium shows.
"It's just too hard on the band and crew," Brooks said. "Hell, I'm the last one there and the first one out, so it's pure joy for me. But these people are working their butts off."
Viewers sent NEWS CENTER Maine some questions for the country music legend, and here are some of the responses he gave:
Q: What's your favorite part about being on tour?
Garth: Oh, it's with the family. So if you asked firemen, what's the best part of being a fireman, or baseball players, it's the locker room. It's that time together.
So, try to remember the seven guys that started this in the late 80s. There's five of us that are still out there on the road, on stage together, and then all the original crew guys are there. So this is a family.
In this pandemic, try to realize also I haven't got to see them. So when you roll into the stadium and get to see these guys, see how their kids are doing, you hug them. It just kicks everything off, and it's only going to get sweeter as showtime approaches.
When showtime comes, here comes all these friends that fed you when you couldn't afford to feed yourself and house you when you couldn't afford to house yourself. And you see them in the crowd, and you, you love them. And it just keeps getting better with every second.
Q: What was your favorite collaboration?
Garth: Well, anything with Trisha Yearwood is pretty amazing because she's such a vocalist. I'm not saying this because, like, I'm sleeping with her. I'm saying it because she is the greatest female singer there is.
So, she pushes you to be the best that you could be, and she'll take you to places that you didn't know you could go, and then you think, oh, I can't go there by myself without her. Then when you start to do your own solo gig, you see what you learned with her coming back. So she's my favorite.
You've got to try to remember I was lucky enough to get to do things with Chris Ledoux, George Jones, who is my hero, George Strait. Those are big-time folks.
Q: Will Trisha be joining you on stage?
Garth: We were married before we got married to each other, and so we ask each other, why are we being married to be apart? So we go everywhere together. We do everything together. Her gigs, I'll go with her. Trisha tells me whether she shows up on stage or not is just like a last-minute call from her or whatever. It's how she's feeling, how the crowds go, and all that stuff.
I will tell you this, and if this sounds egotistical, please forgive me: If you and I are graced with her coming out on stage, it'll be a night you'll never forget because you'll be going, holy cow, this is live? I think it's even better than her records when she comes out and sings live. We're all lucky if we get to hear that.
Q: When will you be making a stop in Maine again?
Garth: I couldn't tell you. Not soon enough. We played Portland. We played Bangor. What I love about it is, I don't know how Oklahoma got that far northeast, but it's all the people that I was raised with. Just hardworking people that pay their taxes and take their kids to soccer practice. When you talk about the heart and soul of what I think this country stands for, there it is, and I'm very much at home among that kind of people.
Next month, the tour kicks off in Las Vegas and wraps up this fall in Dublin, Ireland. Brooks calls it his "trip to the Emerald City." Tickets go on sale Friday.