Garth Brooks consists of Troyal Garth.
Garth redirects here. For the Dana Carvey fictional character, see Wayne's World.
Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American country music singer-songwriter, actor, and charity director.
Brooks was a phenomenal musical force in the 1990s. He appeared in 1989 and was an immediate commercial success, apparently from nowhere, without the tall and lanky physical appearance typical of some male country stars, integrating pop and rock elements into his recordings and live performances. He soon began to dominate the country singles and the country albums charts and quickly crossed over into the mainstream pop arena, selling records like no one else in country music ever had and exposing country music to a larger audience than previously thought possible.
Brooks enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, with over 70 hit singles and 15 charted albums to his credit and over 100 million albums sold in the US alone. Brooks broke records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the 1990s. Possibly dissatisfied and looking to expand his career boundaries, he then attempted an artistically ambitious (but uncompleted) multimedia project involving a fictitious alter ego.
Troubled by the conflicts between career and family, the year after the decade ended Garth Brooks announced his retirement from recording and performing, thereby disappearing from the music world as suddenly as he had come.
Garth Brooks grew in Yukon, Oklahoma. His father Ray Brooks worked as a draughtsman for an oil company, while his mother Colleen Carroll was a country music singer on the Capitol Records label in the 1950s and also a regular on the Red Foley Show.
Garth grew up with an interest in music and sang in casual family settings, but his biggest interest was in athletics. He played football, baseball, and ran track in high school.