During his last tour stop in Colorado, took the stage with a beeper clipped to his belt.
It was the year 1996 and Brooks and his then-wife Sandy Mahl were expecting their third child. Mahl was due any moment, her contractions were four minutes apart that day and the beeper was there to notify Brooks if his third child was coming.
“If this beeper goes off, I’m out of here,” Brooks said before the show at McNichols Arena — his first of three-night sold out run. “I’ve got a plane here ready to go.”
Lucky for Denver fans, Brooks’ daughter (Allie Colleen Brooks) was born a week later and the country star made it through his string of McNichols shows.
When Brooks returns on March 18 for his first Colorado concert since the McNichols run, Allie Brooks will be nearing her 18th birthday.
Babies have become adults, the McNichols building has been demolished, Brooks has retired, returned from retirement and has released three more albums in the time it took him to make his way back to play a proper show in Colorado.
That Colorado fans have waited nearly two decades to see the country superstar was only half the excitement when he announced his return in January.
Brooks will be playing nine shows at Denver’s Pepsi Center from March 18-24. Itap a record breaking tour stop in the region: with 120,000 tickets up for grabs, Brooks has sold more tickets than any artist with consecutive shows at one venue in Colorado.
While he hasn’t played a proper show since 1996, Brooks has made two appearances in the state for charity events in the past few years.
April 24, 2010 — Brooks attends the opening of Child Life Zone
The Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids Foundation and the Troy Aikman Foundation built the $2 million therapeutic and education play area at Denver Health Medical Center. Brooks himself appeared for the grand opening.
“Trust me, you’re gonna be very happy what it does for our kids,” country singer Brooks told a large and cheering audience made up of hospital administrators, doctors, nurses, support staff, children, parents, politicians and members of both Broncos and Avalanche teams.
June 8, 2000 — Baseball in field boots:
Brooks was one of the celebrities on the roster for the Evening of Stars and Fireworks, a celebrity softball game featuring members of the Rockies, the Rapids, the Broncos, the Avalanche and the Nuggets.
As the Denver Postap Joseph Sanchez wrote of the evening:
“It was country music star Garth Brooks, in farmhand field boots, trying to tackle Larry Walker of the Colorado Rockies in the pregame introductions at home plate … For the record, Walker’s Blue Stars defeated Brooks’ Gray Stars 27-26 when Jon Klemm of the Avs slapped a Griese pitch over the centerfield fence in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring Avs teammate Chris Drury ahead of him.”
And what about previous shows before his lengthy absence in Colorado?
June 2, 1992 — McNichols Arena:
As the Denver Post described the scene of Brooks’ Colorado tour just before the release of his fourth studio album, “The Chase”:
“With his now familiar headset microphone, Brooks paced the length of the stage like a caged panther, using the ramps to work the audience along the sides and back of the arena. He played little guitar, opting to shake hands and hug members of the audience like a politician. Three songs into the set Brooks told the screaming throng: ‘Six and a half months off and it took me one second tonight to figure out that this is where I belong.’
Sept. 6, 1993 — Pueblo State Fair:
Brooks headlined the Pueblo State Fair in 1993, where he accepted a rain of flowers from the fans. He even made a special request for crews to work non-stop to build a stage lower to the ground and closer to the crowd. “It paid off,” The Denver Post wrote.
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