The longtime country superstar made a shocking confession that many never expected when he sat down with Billboard and opened up in a new interview about his life.
Garth Brooks has been known worldwide for his endless amount of talent and string of hits that seem to surpass time and remain a staple of country music culture – even more than two decades later.
Both he and wife Trisha Yearwood have been touring together since 2014 and he’s released two new albums in that time. His hard work was very much recognized that evening.
While he has received some of the highest honors in country music, why, then, does he say that he “doesn’t fit in”? The answer came as a surprise to many, while even others understood exactly where he was coming from.
For years, Brooks had been slowly changing the way his career was handled and started doing things his own way. Many believe that this came when he retired early so that he could be home with his two daughters through their childhood, but really, it started when he refused to get into some of the newest methods of music distribution – mainly, streaming.
“Think about what a record label does,” Brooks explained to Billboard. “It streams. We didn’t stream. It does digital, which [with] iTunes, if you don’t play by their rules you don’t play. And then the third thing is YouTube. Well, guess what: the three things that we don’t do.
Brooks had crafted so many hits and top-selling albums so early in his career, that he was able to leverage this success later on and buck the trends that were sharply rising within the music industry and inside record labels.
As labels put more pressure on artists to stream their content, Brooks began focusing on more exclusive ways that folks could get his music – both new and old. This brought forth a great rift between Brook and the record labels. They weren’t able to make as much money off him because he owned all the rights to his content. The whole situation just didn’t fit.
Even though he and the record labels were moving in different directions for years, Brooks’ fans were blown away when they learned that he was going to publish his new album separate from a traditional record label.
“We owned our own masters, and record labels make their money off streaming their masters. So even if we would’ve streamed, they wouldn’t have gotten the money, because we own it. You realize, ‘I don’t fit in the record-label world anymore.'”
But that’s not the end of the road for Brooks. He’s already kicked off his solo label, Pearl Records, with a landmark streaming deal with Amazon Music and is incredibly happy with how the two fit together.
“So we took a breath, stepped back and hired our own radio promotions people … And then, out of the blue, here comes Amazon looking to start a streaming partnership with somebody, and they’re paying great money and their terms of agreement aren’t that long, because they’re just looking to launch and get their feet underneath them. So this is a good time for us to do our own thing.”
Watch Garth Brooks sing an incredible song about giving thanks in the video below. The song, “What I’m Thankful For”, was penned straight from the heart of his beautiful bride, Trisha Yearwood.